50th March, Ar the annual meeting of the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce on the 20th instant, Mr. E. Mackintosh in the chair, a number of interesting topics were touched upon in the course of the chairman's speech on the annual report, The first was the Telegraph Convention which Mr. Mackintosh said he thought was "not only scotched but killed." As we ourselves have led the fighting against this convention from the first, we are very glad to read Mr. Mackintosh's remark. 'I'he intended Pacific cable, which we announced some time since, is the death-blow to the Convention, but, as Mr. Mackintosh points out, we must not expect any sensible decrease in the cost of messages to Europe and America until China enters seriously into competition with the cables by her land lines. In discussing the Chungking Convention, Mr. Mackintosh relieves Sir John Walsham from some of the blame of its unsatisfactory nature to throw it on the Foreign Office at home; and we notice that our Tientsin contemporary complains of our unfairness, as "the surrender of British rights was effected Minister." We mention this as we have by the Foreign Office overruling the every desire to be just to Sir John, but we cannot believe that the Foreign Office would have made the surrender if the representative in Peking had been resolute. Nor can we believe that the Foreign Office is responsible for the proconsul at Chungking being left entirely without instructions when the} port is supposed to be opened.
Mr. Mackintosh's remarks on the! coolie emigration from Swatow only interest us very remotely; but it seems unreasonable that that emigration should be permitted front Swatow to Sumatra, but should be forbidden to British North Borneo, though it is understood that the government of the latter colony would gladly accept avy of the restrictions or regulations that have been applied in the case of the emigration to Sumatra in order to obtain similar privileges. The Chinese government must smile when it reads Mr. Mackintosh's remarks on the Light Dues exacted in Hongkong, remembering how it has been accused before now from time to time of not applying the Tonnage Dues collected by the Foreign Customs to the; exclusive: benefit of foreign shipping. Mr. Mackintosh estimates the amount of Light Dues collected last year in Hongkong at $71,000, and the amount to be received in 1891 and 1892 at; $85,000 each year; while the actual cost of the upkeep of the present lighthouses is about $6,600 a year. By the! end of February or March 1893, when! the aew Gap Rock lighthouse is exted to be finished, enough will have een collected to cover its whole cost and that of a telegraphic cable to conto 1889 the amount collected for Light Dues has been not only sufficient to extinguish the capital cost of the colony's lighthouses, but to have piled up a fund which if invested would be sufficient to pay for the upkeep of all the lighthouses in perpetuity. Shipping, says Mr. Mackintosh, is the life of Hongkong, and it would be of the greatest advantage to the colony that there should be no tolls on shu ig of any kind, and that Hongkong should be widely known through out the world as absolutely free—a sentiment which was received with ap-Dues have been merged in the general clause. Unfortunately, these Light revenues of the colony, and have gone with last year's snows; but their diversion is a strong argument in favour of the creation of a Lighthouse Board, which should have charge also of the conservancy of the harbour of Hongkong. "Of course," says Mr. Mackintosh, "we cannot find any fault with the officials. I have not found any fault with them." hen he adds the rather trenchant question: " How can they be expected to know accurately the wants of the Colony Allusion is then made to the fitful way in which the survey of the China coast is carried on by the Queen's ships, but this is a question which we have dealt with before. As regards the reduction in postage, Mr. Mackintosh seemed to think that the colony has been asked to do too much, but postage is not yet as cheap at Hongkong as it is at Shanghai: and Mr. Mackintosh sees and says: " As a matter of benefit for the commerce of this colony, I think there is no doubt the more we reduce postage the better." The timidity with which the Chamber of Commerce treated the Sunday labour question is reflected in the chairman's speech; and when he touches on the Namoa piracy he confirms the opinion of the Chinese authorities on the mainland, that the rendition of Chinese criminals is made too difficult. The safeguards that the law provides to prevent political offend ders being given up are used to screen criminals of whom Hongkong would gladly be rid. Native trade, we learn, was very bad during the past year and the fluctuations of exchange have made the foreign trade little better than gambling. Mr. Keswick and Mr. Sharp were rather late in the day with their condemnation of the wild. speculation from he reaction after which the colony is still suffering, Mr. Sh inti out that the elders of the colony were much to blame for the "spirit of gambling and inflation" which so many are now rueing. They should have spoken out at the time; but " we have whispered it again and again among ourselves, and we have smiled and—pocketed the money! We have smiled and pocketed the money, and that contrary to warning from one and from another." Still Mr. Sharp has no misgivings as to the future of Hongkong and the proceedings of the meeting of the 20th show at least that Hongkong has an energetic representation in its General Chamber of Commerce.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.