The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-05 00:00:00

THE GOVERNMENT OF HONG-
KONG.

The following important correspondence is published in the
friend of China of Aug. 30 :
g' HIS EXCELLENCY J. F. DAVIS, ESQ., GOVERNOR OF HONC.

KONG, &c.
" Sir,—We have the honour to forward to your Excellency
herewith a memorial addressed to the Right Hon. Lord Stanley,
her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies ; and we beg to
request your Excellency will be pleased to have the same for.
warded by the mail of the Ist of September.
" And we trust that, under the circumstances stated in that
tnemorial, your Excellency will see fit to direct the suspension of
Ordinance No. 2, pending the receipt of a reply from her Majesty's
Government.

" We have the honour to be, Sir,
" Your most obedient humbleMATHESOservants,
and Co.
" JARDINE, N,
" DENT and Co., &c.

" Victoria, Aug. 13, 1845."

" Tug RIGHT HON. LORD STANLEY, HER MAJESTY'S PRINCIPAL
SECRETARY OE STATE FOR THE COLONIES, &C.
"My Lord,—The period has at length arrived when, as owners
of land and property at Hong-Kong, we can no longer refrain from
addressing ourselves direct to her Majesty's Government, in the
confident hope that a plain statement of facts will induce her Ma-
jesty's advisers to sanction a material modification of the system
which has hitherto been in operation, occasioning results alike in.
furious to the interests of the mercantile community, and the real
and essential interests of the settlement.
•' It will scarcely be necessary for us in the first place to submit,
that shortly after the island was first ceded, or taken possession of
by her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China, in the early part of
1841, a public sale of land was held, at which it was stipulated,
that the terms and tenure of all property would hereafter be de-
fined by her Majesty's Government.'
" But in a letter of her Majesty's Plenipotentiary, dated 17th
June, 1841, a copy of which is hereunto annexed. an expectation
is held out that the lands would bz granted in fee.simple, for one
or two years' purchase, at the rates paid at the public sale; or that
they should be charged only with a nominal quit-rent if that form
of tenure continued to obtain.
" The suggtstion on the part of her Majesty's Plenipotentiary
originated in the well.known fact, that the very limited quantity
of ground available for building purposes on the proposed site of
the present town of Victoria, was the occasion of great competi-
tion, and the eventual payment of a scale of rent which that officer
naturally and truly apprehended would, if enforced, be detrimental
to the progress and prosperity of the settlement.
" During the time which intervened between the occupation of
the island by her Majesty's Government in March, 1841, and the
treaty of Nankin, in June, 1843, a period of upwards of two years,
the local Government of Hong-Kong used every endeavour, both
by facilities temporarily offered to early occupants of land, and
the threat of penalty of forfeiture of their purchases to all who
did not commenee building, to induce the British merchants to
remove from Macao to the new settlement, and nothing was, up to
that date, said or done, to induce holders of land to apprehend
either that the promises of her Majesty's Plenipotentiary would
not be strictly fulfilled, or that they would be placed in a more
unfavourable situation than parties similarly circumstanced in
other British colonies.
" Large sums were consequently expended in the erection of
dwellings and warehouses in the new town of Victoria, to an ex..
tent which would have rendered it injurious to all, and ruinous to
many, to be compelled to abandon their property; and it was
not until the early part of 1843 that it was notified,' that her
Majesty's Government did not see fit to recognise sales or grants
of land that had been made by or under any authority whatsoever,
up to the period of the exchange of the ratification of the treaty
of Nankin.'
" But as her Majesty's Government must have been well aware
that the colonists had acted with perfect reliance on the good faith
and justice of their Government, this order was so far qualified,
that on the 23d of August, 1843, it was notified :
" ' That an inquiry should be instituted into the equitable claims
of all holders of land to a confirmation either permanent or tern.
porary of their titles, so far as they could be confirmed consistently
with a joist regard to the interests of society at large.'
" In the early part of 1844 we were, for the first time, made
acquainted with the terms on which the Crown lands were to be
bold, and Sir Henry Pottinger, then Governer of the island, pub.
tithed the forms of the leases required to be executed.
" The conditions of these leases were universally considered so
unusual, and so certain in their operation to be ultimately injuri-
ous, not only to the holders of land, but to the future welfare ofthe
colony, that we were compelled to protest most solemnly against
them in a correspondence with the Governor, dated in March,
1844, from which correspondence we beg to subjoin the following

extract :
" We may be allowed to point out to your Excellency that an
adherence on the part of Government to the proposed terms of
lease would be eventually the means of placing those who first
commenced improving their property in Hong-Kong, and who
from the sums already expended cannot withdraw from the occu-
pation of their buildings without ruinous loss, on most unfavourable
terms, compared with others who have the option of resorting to
Places where land can be bought or rented, on much more mode-
rate conditions; and we submit that it can never be the wish or
Intention of her Majesty's Government to place the early occupants
of land in such a position.'
"No redress has, however, been granted ; and disregard-
ing the future prosperity of the settlement, in the desire to
raise a comparatively large temporary revenue, the local
Government has persisted in forcing unusually hard condi-
tions on the landholders, who had been led into a large ex-
penditure of money, owing to their faith in the promises
under which the land was originally sold (promises which were at
any rate tacitly acknowledged by the Government, and not repu-
diated until after the lapse of three years) ; while at the same time
it is no exaggeration to state, that had the existing regulations
been promulgated before, instead of after, the outlay of their funds,
not one British merchant would have been found willing to become
• resident in the colony.
" We have deemed it necessary and due to ourselves to enter
thus at length into some account of the formation of the colony,
and its progress hitherto, with the view of showing—first, the
nature of the inducements under which we were led to abandon
our residences at Macao and Canton, where both house-rent and
taxation see very light ; which we may illustrate by the fact, that
the groand.rent alone ef most of the eligible sites in Hong-Kong is
(without including rent or interest of money), a heavier charge
than all payments, rent inclusive, required of the tenants of houses
in Macao.
And, secondly, to prove that the very onerous terms on
which we have been compelled to occupy our property in Hong-
Kong have been forced on us, not only against our urgent remon-
strances, as a question of justice and equity, but in opposition to
to what we have always considered and represented to be the true
interest of the colony.
"Since the enforcement of these leases the measures of the ex-
isting Government of the. island have still further aggravated the
evils under which we have been suffering, by making, in a place
nominally declared to be a free port, every description of com-
merce and trade a subject of taxation, or source of revenue, or of
monopoly, sold to the highest bidders, thus driving away instead of
encouraging trade in an infant settlement; and, lastly, we have
now to complain of the promulgation of an ordinance, which we
submit to be unconstitutional and illegal, empowering Govern-
ment
assessors arbitrarily to value all household property, with the
view of raising a new tax ostensibly for the payment of a police
force, there being no municipal body of any kind in the colony to
determine whether such tax be necessary, or equitably levied and
appropriated.
" The result of the system actually in operation for the last two
years, commencing with the proceedings in land sales and leases
under the administration of the first Governor, and continued by
the finarieial arrangements of his successor, is sufficiently exem-
plified in the present state of the colony; for, owing to the heavy
rents and unsatisfactory tenure of property, the continued arbitrary
taxation and impedimenta to trade of all kinds, and the entire want
of confidence, as well on the part of the foreign community in
China as of the Chinese themselves, as to the establishment of a
better course of policy, there is at this moment, after four years' oc-
cupation of the island, scarcely one foreign resident, except Govern-
ment officers and those British merchants and traders who com-
mented building before the enforcement ef the leases; there are
no Chinese merchants, or even shopkeepers, with any pretension to
property; there is neither an import or export trade of any kind;
land, as will be seen by the public papers, even now, when many
private dwellings are temporarily occupied by the civil and military
officers of Government, pending the completion of thepublic build-
logs, several houses have been untenanted for months past, and the
value of all property is daily on the decrease.
" It Is necessary to bear in mind, that the trade of this part of
China has long been accustomed to flew through other chan-
nels, that the island of Hong-Kong has no natural productions,
or consumers of imports, beyond the mere wants of the colonists
themselves, and is even dependent for its daily supply of food on
the main land ; and that a place so circumstanced, especially in a
country like China, proverbially averse to sudden change, can
only be expected very gradually to acquire a trade by facilities and
encouragement, instead of being subject to ceaseless and heavy
taxation, charges from which places in its vicinity are moreover

exempt.
•' We trust, therefore, we shall not be deemed presumptuous
In submitting to her Majesty's Government our urgent entreaty
that they will be pleased to direct the abolition of the opium farm,
auction duties, and other harassing taxation recently imposed,
wbich have already had the effect of deterring many Chinese from
fettling In the place, and driven away several who were already
established ; and been, in fact, utterly destructive of our Incipient
trade. If this be not conceded, many of the European residents
will also be compelled to quit a place totally without commerce,
but more heavily taxed, in ground-rents alone, than any other
part of China, and remove to those ports where the trade is actually
ehrried on, abandoning properties en which many have expended
their whole fortunes.
We further venture to suggest that the system adopted in other
colonies may reasonably be extended to this distant settlement;
and that it is hoped Government will be pleased to authorise the
formation of a municipal body, vested with the usual power of
deciding ola the appropriation of the moneys raised for local pur-
pose..
" We cannot, in conclusion, refrain from urging, that such a
settlement as Hong-Kong was never actually required by the British
,merchants; mid that it has become even less so since the opening
of the five Chinese ports, where the foreign residents are free from
all taxation, and where the rent of land and houses is generally
fiery moderate.
•

" We submit, therefore, that it will be found as inexpedient in
principle, as under existing circumstances we consider it would be
unjust in praetice, to call on the civil part of the community for
any large proportion of the expenses of a colony which is held
nth*: as a military and naval station, giving Great Britain the
command of these seas, and as the residence of a few merchants
occupied in extending British commerce along the coast of China,
end keeping up an active correspondence with the rest of the world,
than it p►ace which, under any circumstances, can be expected to
possess an extensive trade, or afford any considerable revenue to-
wards the payment of its own expenses.—We have the honour to
be, my Lord, your Lordship's most obedient and humble servants,
" JARDINE, MATHESON, and Co.
" DENT and Co.
" MACVICAR and Co.
" FOX, RAWSON, and Co.
" TURNER and Co
" LINDSAY and Co.
GIBB, LIVINGSTON, and Co.
" JAMIESON, HOW, and Co.
" W. and T. GEMMELL and Co.
" FLETCHER and Co.
(Per pro.) " MURROW and Co.
" CHARLES W. MURRAY.
" R. OSWALD and Co.
•
" THOMAS RIPLEY and Co.
" DIROM, GRAY, and Co.
" HOLLIDAY WISE, and Co.
" ROBERT STRACHAN.
" JOHN CARR.
" HVGHESDON and Co.
" GEORGE R. BARTON, M.D.
" N. DIJUS.
BURD, LANGE, and Co.
" JOHN CAIRNS.
" HENRY HOLGATE.
"Ti!. FORD and Co.
" L. JUST, Sen.
" L. JUST, Jur.
"D. LAPRAIK.
" J. D. PORTER.
" GEORGE DUDDELL
" J. PALMER.
it. CHARLES W. BOWRA.
"SAMUEL JOHN COOKE.
"4 Victoria, August 13, 1845."

" 5m..2 LANDS ON HONG4LONO ISLAND.

" Macao, June 7, 1841'.
" Gentlemen,—Having had under my consideration the partici/.
bra of the first sales of lots in Hong. Kong on the 14th inst., :I am
of opinion that I shall be Cellitilillis the best tub:rests or the este•