April 10 and two on May 1, 1844, dealing with the illegitimate trade with ports North of 32° N. L. (No. 9 of April 10, 1844), with the regulation of summary proceedings before Justices of the Peace (No. 10 of April 10, 1844), with the licensing of public houses and the retail of spirits (No. 11 of May 1, 1844) and with the establishment and regulation of a Police Force (No. 12 of May 1, 1844).
Unfortunately, however, the zeal of the Government in organizing the various departments of the Civil Service, in pushing on the erection of costly public buildings, and in legislating for a Colony which was yet in its swaddling clothes, appeared now to the colonists to outrun, not only the actual growth of the community, but even its prospective future for years to come. There were indeed twelve large English firms established in Hongkong, representing numerous constituencies in the United Kingdom. There were further half a dozen Indian firms, chiefly Parsees, but ever since the Treaty of Nanking and the introduction of steam navigation, the share of the Parsees in the China trade had commenced to dwindle down rapidly, being gradually pushed out by Jewish firms from Bombay, and those Parsees who remained preferred to conduct their business at Canton. There were further some ten or so private English merchants of smaller means. Then one might point to the many brick godowns, commercial offices and private residences scattered along the shore. There were shipwrights (Kent and Babes) and even a patent slip at East Point, where Captain Lamont launched (February 7, 1843) the first Hongkong-built vessel (the Celestial, 80 tons). There were, besides the Friend of China (established March 17, 1842), actually two other newspaper offices, the Eastern Globe and the Canton Register. The former of these papers published (January 1, 1843) a long list of local buildings and a series of lithographs of public edifices was published in London about the same time. In spite of this architectural activity. Sir H. Pottinger reported (January 22, 1844) that the erection of houses could by no means keep pace with the demand for them. Even so late as November 11), 1844, Lord Stanley pointed
