Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

sale of licenses to sell tobacco, spirits, opium, and fish, make up an annual income of between £4,000 and £5,000.

On Borneo itself is the territory of British North Borneo (capital, Sandakan), ceded by local Sultans to a Company incorporated by royal charter in 1881, and governed by the Board of Directors in London. The Board nominate the Governor (salary £1,440), who must, however, be approved by the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

(38) HONG KONG.

The island of Hong Kong (capital, Victoria), at the mouth of the Canton river, about half-a-mile from the shore, was ceded to Great Britain in 1841, and the small promontory of Kowloon was added twenty years later. Hong Kong is a free port; it has five docks, and is a large entrepôt of trade. Area, 30 square miles; population, about 200,000, of whom nearly 9,000 are European or American.

GOVERNMENT.

The Governor, appointed by the Crown, has a salary of £5,000. He is assisted by Executive and Legislative Councils, over both of which he presides.

The Executive Council includes the Commanding Officer, Colonial Secretary, Attorney-General, Treasurer, SurveyorGeneral, and Registrar-General.

The Legislative Council substitutes the Chief Justice for the Commanding Officer, and has also five unofficial members, three nominated by the Crown, one by the Justices of the Peace, and one by the Chamber of Commerce.

The Chief Justice is President of the Supreme Court and Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court. He is assisted by

a puisne judge in the former, and a deputy-judge in the latter.

Elementary Education is aided by grants, and is under Government inspection. There is a central school maintained by public funds.

An Anglican bishop of Mid China is supported by the Colonial Bishoprics Fund.

The Public Revenue is about £1,250,000, and the expenditure has, since 1880, been considerably in excess of

revenue.

(39) FALKLAND ISLANDS.

The Falkland Islands lie off the east coast of Patagonia, in longitude 60° west. Further east, in longitude 37°, is the associated group of South Georgia Islands. Aggregate area, 7,500 square miles; population, about 1,700.

The Governor, appointed by the Crown, has a salary of £1,000. He is assisted by an Executive Council, including the Lieutenant-Governor, Colonial Secretary, Surgeon, and Chaplain. There is also a nominated Legislative Council, which substitutes (in the above list) two unofficial members for the chaplain.

The Governor is Chief Justice, and the Colonial Secretary is police magistrate.

There is an Anglican bishop, paid by the South American Missionary Society, and under the control of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Customs revenue, about £2,550; total public revenue, about £50,000. The expenditure has hitherto exceeded the

revenue.

The Acts of 1843 and 1860, providing for the government of the Falkland Islands, were specifically repealed by

the British Settlements Act of 1887, so that the Colony is now under the immediate control of the Privy Council, as formulated in the last-mentioned Act.

(40) WESTERN PACIFIC ISLANDS.

Acts of the Imperial Parliament were passed in 1872 and 1875 for the protection of natives in the Pacific Islands. An Order of the Privy Council in 1877 created the office of High Commissioner over all the islands not included in existing colonies, or under the domination of a civilized Power; one of the main objects being to establish a Civil Court for the adjustment of disputes amongst the British residents in these islands.

The islands in the jurisdiction of this Court are

[blocks in formation]

The Court consists of the High Commissioner, and Judicial and Deputy Commissioners appointed by him. The powers of the Judicial Commissioners correspond to those of the Supreme Court in England, whilst the Deputy Commissioners have the powers of Stipendiary Magistrates and County Court judges. An appeal lies from them to the Supreme Court in Fiji.

In addition to the Deputy Commissioners for Tonga, Samoa, and the Western Pacific generally, officers of Her Majesty's ships on the Australian station have been nominated to the same office.

Neither the Acts above cited nor the Order in Council

could be an absolute bar against the occupation of any island by another Power, so long as Great Britain had not set up an effective government.

INDIA.

India (capital, Calcutta) is a vast promontory of Southern Asia, bounded naturally by the Indian Ocean and by a chain of mountains consisting of the Halah, Suliman, and Himalaya ranges. The political boundaries, taken in order from west to east, are Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Chinese tributaries, Nepaul, Bhotan, China and Siam. Goa, on the west coast, belongs to Holland; Pondicherry, on the east coast, to France.

The divisions, area, and population (1881) of Hindostan are shown in the following tables :

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

The annual tribute paid by the Feudatory States is £700,000. Their gross revenues amount to about £6,000,000, and their armies to something like 300,000.

According to the census of 1881 there were 89,798 British-born subjects in India (excluding the army), of whom 72,382 were between the ages of 20 and 40, and 12,610 were females. The members of the Civil Service then numbered 2,996.

Enumerated according to language, the native population in 1881 was:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

*Owing to the subdivision of patrimonies, especially in Central India, the nominally independent States number about 800. Those above given are amongst the more important.

« AnteriorContinuar »