Hong Kong Blue Book

Hong Kong Blue Book for the Year 1915 A governmental administrative registry and statistical compilation for the British colony of Hong Kong, printed in 1916. The volume documents the colony's official structures and fiscal operations through 1915. Its extensive contents include detailed schedules of taxes, duties, and licensing fees—light dues on shipping, land rates graduated by district (Victoria, Hill District, Kowloon), and fees for commercial operations (auctioneers, billiard tables, boarding houses, boat licenses, breweries, carriages, and dangerous goods). Additional sections cover governmental revenue and expenditure statements, civil service establishments, courts and assemblies, foreign consuls, population statistics, education, banking, trade statistics, shipping records, agriculture, criminal proceedings, hospitals, railways and telegraphs, and postal operations. The detailed tiered fee structures for vessels by tonnage and functional classification (passenger boats, lighters, cargo boats, hulks) reflect substantial maritime commerce through Hong Kong's harbors.