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Rh arrears of rent on land and buildings, the income of the Colony was raised, at a bound, from £9,534 in 1844, to £22,242 in 1845. The opium farm caused the revenue of 1846 to mount up to £27,842 and by charging higher fees on boat registry (Ordinance 7 of 1846) the revenue of 1847 came to £31,078. On the other hand the attention paid to public works caused the expenditure to rise, from £49,901 in 1845, to £66,726 in 1846. But it was reduced again in 1847 to £50,959.

What assisted the Governor in his efforts to improve the finances of the Colony, in spite of the fearful odds that were against him, was the fact that, though the foreign trade was stagnating, the native junk trade held its own, and that the population of the Colony, though decimated by removals to the Treaty ports of China, remained for several years wonderfully steady. During the three years from 1845 to 1847, the population numbered respectively 23,748, 22,453, and 23,872 souls. In the year 1848, the population was indeed reduced to 21,514 persons. But the Governor attributed this decrease, not to the alleged decay of local commerce, but to a more careful registration 'which, while giving a truer account of the actual number, relieved the Colony from those who hung loose on and only applied for registration tickets to make a bad use of them.'

In his efforts to repress crime, Sir J. Davis found himself handicapped, like every successive Governor of Hongkong, by the continuous influx of criminals from the neighbouring mainland of China, by the untrustworthiness and inactivity of native constables, by the dissolute character of European sailors or soldiers enlisted in the local Police Force, who were ignorant of the native language and consequently dependent on truculent native interpreters, by the costliness of importing trained British constables, and finally by the inherent inapplicability to Asiatics of British laws and British modes of punishment. Sir J. Davis was, however, fortunate in obtaining (September 6, 1844), from London, the services of an Inspector of the Metropolitan Police, Ch. May, who did the best possible with the imperfect material