In November, 1874, the question was raised, in connection with the finding of the Marine Court in the case of the S.S. White Cloud, lost in the typhoon of 1874 by negligence of the Master, whether the Governor has power to alter or add to the finding of the Marine Court of Inquiry. No decision was however obtained to solve the question.
Turning now to the subject of the local population, it appears that, during the first year of Sir Arthur's administration, there was a slight falling off, as the population of Hongkong decreased, from 124,198 people in 1871, to 121,985 people in 1872. During the next four years, however, the population increased by 17,159 people, as the Census of 1876 proved the population to amount to 139,144 souls. It is noteworthy that the foreign population received proportionately the greatest increase, as, after the typhoon of 1874, which destroyed so many houses at Macao, hundreds of Portuguese families removed from Macao to Hongkong.
The revenues of the Colony did not advance during this period. The revenue of 1872 rose indeed to £192,714, constituting an increase of £16,752 as compared with the revenue of the preceding year, but during the following years it fell off again and amounted in 1876 to no more than £184,405. Nor did the expenditure vary much from year to year, that of 1871 being £186,675, while that of 1876 amounted to £187,569. In fact a small deficit in any one year was succeeded during this administration by a small surplus in the next year. The same sluggishness is observed in the annual produce of the stamp tax and of rates, the former decreasing from £24,574 in 1872 to £21,634 in 1876, and the latter increasing from £38,002 in 1872, to no more than £38,439 in 1876. Special pains were taken by Sir Arthur to stimulate the revenue from opium. He appointed (June 8, 1872) a Commission (Ph. Ryrie and Ch. May) to inquire into the working of the opium monopoly, because there was very good reason to suppose that the amount received from this farm was far short of what it ought to have realized. The Commissioners, however, failed to ascertain the real value of the
