Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/90

82 purposes, and that consequently it should be converted into a purely military cantonment. To this view Sir Hercules Robinson on behalf of the Government offered strenuous opposition. He maintained that the civil authorities originally mooted the question of the acquisition, and that in doing so they had in view the necessity of providing for the wants of the general population as well as of the military garrison. He strongly urged that the peninsula was indispensable to the welfare of the Colony, inasmuch as it was required to keep the Chinese population at some distance, and to preserve the European and American community from the injury and inconvenience of intermixture with the Chinese residents. The Imperial Government, with a strange disregard of colonial interests, decided in favour of the military view. The ultimate decision given in 1864 extended the military occupation over the bulk of the peninsula and gave them prescriptive rights over the remaining area, which was divided between the Colony and the navy.

The construction of public works occupied a leading place in the work of Sir Hercules Robinson's administration. Early in his term of office he invited plans for a scheme of water supply, which had been tentatively discussed in his predecessor's time. Elaborate plans were sent in by several competitors, and ultimately those of Mr. S. B. Rawling, Clerk of the Works of the Royal Engineers, were selected by the committee appointed to adjudicate in the matter. Tenders were immediately called for, and an ordinance was passed empowering the Governor to appropriate from current revenues the sum of £30,000 as the works proceeded, and to supply any deficiency of funds if necessary by mortgaging the water rate at 2 per cent. on the gross annual value of house property according to assessment. In 1863 the work was completed and was hailed as a great success. But events soon proved its inadequacy for the needs of the Colony. Another project with which Sir Hercules Robinson closely identified himself was Sir John Bowring's much criticised scheme for the construction of a sea wall. The work had been prosecuted in a desultory way, and a good proportion of wall was completed in 1862, but the masonry was deficient in solidity and palpably would not stand the strain of a storm. Sir Hercules Robinson decided to rebuild the whole praya wall, and to use the opportunity which the works afforded of extending the praya seawards by reclaiming from the sea a further strip of land 100 feet in width. He soon found, as his predecessor had done, that he had to reckon with a determined opposition from the marine lot holders. Eventually Sir Hercules Robinson so far yielded as to intimate that the extension would not be enforced where not desired by the lot holders.

In many ways Sir Hercules Robinson left a vigorous impress upon the Colony. During his administration it advanced to a very marked extent on the path of prosperity. This was not altogether due to his work, but there can be no question that with a less able man at the helm or one who had a lower sense of dignity and discipline, the position might have been a very different one to what it was when he quitted Hongkong in 1865. Sir Hercules Robinson's influence is seen in the financial statistics of the Colony. When he went to the island the revenue was only £65,226; on his departure the exchequer receipts were more than double that sum. The position is best illustrated by the following figures, showing the revenue and expenditure of the Colony over a series of years from the time of the occupation:— The progressive increase in the revenue it will be noted dates from 1857—two years before Sir Hercules Robinson appeared on the scene. While this fact indicates that the tide of good fortune had already set in strongly when he was appointed, the greatly accelerated pace at which the revenue increased during his administration may fairly be attributed in considerable measure to his successful government and the confidence it inspired in quarters where confidence implied commercial support.

The spell of prosperity which marked Sir Hercules Robinson's term of office was unfortunately not maintained. Almost as soon as he had left the Colony black clouds began to fill the financial horizon. The effect of the monetary crisis in Europe was felt in Hongkong. Property was seriously depreciated and commercial transactions on all sides were restricted. "Yet," says Dr. Eitel, "public works, the praya, the new gaol, the mint, the waterworks, the sea wall at Kowloon, commenced or constructed in a period of unexampled prosperity, had now to be carried on, completed, or maintained, from the scanty resources of an impoverished and well-nigh insolvent treasury." Nor were financial difficulties alone the obstacles with which the Government had to contend. "New laws were clearly needed for the regulation of the Chinese, whose gambling habits were filling the streets with riot and honeycombing the police force with corruption. Crime was rampant, and the gaols overflowing with prisoners. Piracy, flourishing as ever before, was believed to have not only its secret lairs among the low class of marine store dealers, but the support of wealthy Chinese firms, and to enjoy the connivance of men in the police force. A sense of insecurity as to life and property was again, as in days gone by, taking possession of the public mind." In these depressing circumstances Sir R. G. MacDonnell, who