THE  PROVINCES  AND  THE  TREATY  PORTS  261
1843.  The  Royal  Charter  creating  the  colony  was  dated
April  5,  1843.  The  original  cession  included  only  the
island  of  Hongkong,  with  an  area  of  29  square  miles.  North
of  this,  between  it  and  the  mainland,  is  the  fair  haven  of
Hongkong,  one  of  the  few  harbors  in  the  world  which  may
be  called  perfect,  the  eastern  entrance  being  600  yards  wide,
and  the  western  entrance  fully  as  wide,  but  protected  by
outlying  islands,  while  the  anchorage  has  a  general  width
of  a  mile.  The  Kowloon  peninsula,  with  an  area  of  about
two  square  miles,  projecting  towards  the  harbor  on  its  north
side,  was  added  to  the  cession  in  i860.  The  northern  side
of  the  harbor  was  dominated  through  its  whole  extent,
except  for  the  Kowloon  peninsula,  by  Chinese  territory  ;
and  in  1899  the  “  Kowloon  Extension,”  with  376  square
miles  on  the  mainland,  was  added  to  the  colony  by  a  lease
from  the  Chinese  Government  for  ninety-nine  years,  the  lease
including  also  the  large  island  of  Lantao  and  the  waters  to
the  farther  shores  of  Mirs  Bay  and  Deep  Bay.  Hongkong
has  been  a  busy  mart,  especially  since  1856,  and  has  filled
for  the  ports  of  South  China  the  function  of  distributing
centre,  filled  for  North  China  and  the  Yangtze  basin  by
Shanghai  ;  of  the  collective  foreign  trade  of  the  whole  of
China  it  may,  with  a  fair  degree  of  certainty,  be  said  that
one-fourth  of  the  imports  and  one-third  of  the  exports  are
financed  and  distributed  through  Hongkong,  the  balance
being  handled  by  Shanghai  or,  to  a  small  extent,  directly
by  subsidiary  ports.  This  cannot  be  supported  by  reference ­
  to  the  statistics  of  Hongkong,  since  the  colony
publishes  no  statistics  of  trade  ;  and  the  only  statistics  it
publishes—those  of  shipping—are  misleading,  since  they
include  coasting  trade  to  places  often  only  a  few  miles
away.  Hongkong  was  formally  declared  a  free  port  on
February  6,  1842,  and  a  free  port  it  has  remained  ever
since,  subject  only  to  the  aid  it  has  given,  since  1887,  to
theXhinese  Government  in  the  prevention  of  smuggling  in
opium.  Ihe  Chinese  Customs  Station  of  Kowloon  (vide  antea)
was  established  in  1887  t°  control  the  trade  by  junk  between
Hongkong  and  Chinese  ports.  A  garrison  of  about  4,000