Hong Kong Blue Book

About this issue

The OCR results are damaged and degraded, but the document is clearly the Hong Kong Blue Book for the year 1931, a government administrative and statistical register. The contents include a detailed table of contents listing sections on agriculture, commerce, education, government establishments, civil service personnel, population, railways, shipping, and revenue collection. The latter half of the document contains a comprehensive schedule of taxes, duties, fees and license fees administered by the colonial government. These include light dues for ships entering Hong Kong waters (four cents per ton), license fees for various commercial activities (auctioneers, billiard tables, boarding houses, boats of various classes and sizes), and vehicle licenses for jinrikishas, motor cars, and chairs in Hong Kong and Kowloon. Property taxes were assessed based on access to government water services. The document provides detailed fee structures, often with multiple tiers based on vessel tonnage or vehicle specifications, alongside citations to the ordinances under which each fee was levied.