Page:Illustrations of China and Its People vol. I. 2ed edition.pdf/14

 Both it and the native inhabitants have undergone marvellous changes within the last twenty-five years. A splendid town has been built out of its barren rocks; and the hill-sides are covered with trees, which not only enhance the picturesqueness of the place, but are of great value in purifying the air, and improving the health of the population. In morality, too, it has undergone a change; though perhaps not quite so marked, as the organization of the police has become more perfect, while the good feeling and interest of the wealthy and respectable class of native residents have been enlisted in the suppression of crime.

The bands of desperate ruffians that used to infest the island are fast disappearing, although Hong-Kong still holds its own in crimes below piracy and assassination. The terrors of the law are insufficient to suppress pilfering and petty larceny, practised among domestic and other servants; and perjury constantly recurs, as the lower ranks of natives deem it fully as meritorious to benefit their friends by swearing to a lie as it would be criminal to injure them by telling the truth on oath. Under British rule, the population of Hong-Kong had increased from 7,450 in 1841, to 125,504, as returned by the census of 1865. The resident foreign community is estimated at over 2,000, principally Europeans and Americans; few, if any, having been born at the place. The majority of these men are engaged in trade, and only reside in Hong-Kong long enough to obtain a competency with which they may retire to their native land. The facilities of transit now afforded by the various lines of steamers render a trip home so inexpensive and expeditious, that those who can afford it frequently avail themselves of a run to the old country; the more so as the increased commercial activity and competition of the present day have lengthened indefinitely the period of residence necessary for the accumulation of even a modest fortune.