THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 8TH DECEMBER, 1894. 1047
The Government is indebted to the Retrenchment Committee for its valuable report on the expenditure of the Colony and the possibility of effecting economics in its administration. I have forwarded the report to the Secretary of State, and have submitted most of the recom- mendations of the Committee for his Lordship's favourable consideration.
Gentlemen, there are one or two other matters connected with trade, education, crime, and exchange compensation, to which I feel bound to refer, but I will do so as briefly as possible.
Trade, as represented by shipping and emigration, received, as I have already stated, a severe check in the spring and summer of this year. Emigration was practically stopped for four months and trade to the adjacent ports was disorganised by the quarantine restric- tions imposed and by the absence of numerous Chinese merchants who fled from the Colony. Notwithstanding these hindrances, however, vessels with a total tonnage of no less than 11,813,136 tons passed in and out of the waters of Hongkong during the ten months ending the 31st October last. The cargoes of those vessels aggregated 6,209,191 tons, being a difference of 111,755 tons of shipping and 98,512 tons of cargo as compared with the same period in 1893. If we exclude the junk trade from this calculation, and it was naturally most affected by local causes, the difference between the first ten months of 1894 and 1893 would be 24,000 tons of cargo in favour of 1893.
The revenue collected by the Harbour Department to the 31st October last was $4,000 less than that collected during the same period in the previous year.
The educational work of the Colony was also temporarily paralysed. An endeavour was made to counteract the panic that set in at first by keeping the schools at work in spite of the diminished attendance caused by the removal of Chinese families from the Colony. Since September, the schools throughout the city are filling again by the return of fugitives, and in a few months more the decadence will be made good by the recuperative force which is evidently inherent in the educational movement.
For reasons connected with retrenchment, three Government schools have been perma- nently closed. Of the grant-in-aid schools 9 were closed, but 7 new schools have taken their place. Queen's College will, I believe, shortly be placed under the direction of a Governing Body, and the Police School has come under the inspection of the Education Department.
There are now 21 Government schools and 100 grant-in-aid schools at work in the Colony in addition to a considerable number of private schools.
In regard to crime I may observe that there has been a marked decrease in the number of serious offences brought to the notice of the Magistrates.
Larcenies, burglaries, kidnapping offences against the Women and Girls' Protection Ordinance, all show a decline up to the 31st October as compared with 1893. Many of the offences that did occur were directly attributable to the plague and its attendant circum- stances, whilst, on the other hand, much of the decrease is doubtless owing to the existence of that scourge and the flight of the criminal population. Nevertheless, during every month of the year (to the end of October), crime appears to have been at a satisfactorily low ebb. Within the last three weeks, I regret to say, there have been several most serious cases which, we may be sure, will be dealt with rigorously.
With the exception of a new Public Health Ordinance, it will not be necessary to trouble you with much legislation during the ensuing session. This is an announcement which you will receive with gratification.
The question of exchange compensation is one of some difficulty not to say delicacy. You are aware that it has been granted in Ceylon and the Straits Settlements and the Retrenchment Committee suggested that when a favourable opportunity occurred, it should be extended to the Civil Service of Hongkong. The MARQUIS OF RIPON has agreed to terms which, not being so favourable as those granted to the Straits Settlements, the majority of the Hongkong Civil Service have at present declined to accept, whilst others, to the number of about 55, have agreed to accept them. You will be asked by the Senior Unofficial Member to vote $80,000 on this account, a sum sufficient to cover the compensation to be awarded to all the officers entitled to it. Not nearly the whole of that amount will be required unless the officers who now reject the offer agree later on to accept it. For this year the cost can be paid out of balances, which stand, in round numbers, at the very satisfactory figure of $600,000, exclusive of all monies derived from loans. The compensation is as follows :--In future half of an officer's salary while on active service will be calculated at 3/-, and his salary when he is on leave of absence will be paid at the same rate. In the Straits Settlements 4/- is to be granted to officers on leave."