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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 26TH NOVEMBER, 1892.
As there exists in our midst an industrious and generally honest Portuguese community, and as many respectable Chinese are qualifying for public employment, there will be no necessity, except in rare cases, to recruit the Clerical service, as distinct from the Civil Service proper, by the appointment into it of Englishmen hereafter. I propose therefore a reorgani zation of the Clerical Establishment, and a division of that Establishment into 6 classes, with salaries ranging from $360 per annum in the lowest to $2,400 per annum in the highest class. It will be found on comparison that the average salaries to be paid under this scheme will exceed the average paid in Singapore, Mauritius, and Ceylon, and will be more liberal than the salaries paid by the best private firms in Hongkong.
For Portuguese and Chinese clerks these salaries will be found sufficient. These officers do not labour under the disadvantages that Europeans do. As they have not as a rule to remit money to Europe, as they are domiciled here and acclimatized, they can live less expensively, with less risk, and far more comfortably, than Englishmen occupying corres- ponding positions. This reorganization will ultimately effect a saving of between $25,000 and $30,000 a year. In arriving at this conclusion and making this statement, I wish it to be fully understood that I do not in any way undervalue the services of the Portuguese officers now employed in the Departments of Government. They are trustworthy and industrious public servants, and several of them have satisfactorily and faithfully fulfilled their duties for a quarter of a century and upwards.
With regard to the Civil Service proper, I have suggested to the Secretary of State several important changes, in the way of abolition and amalgamation of appointments and also reduction of salaries as opportunities occur, by which, if agreed to, a further saving of from $25,000 to $30,000 a year will be secured. To some of these recommendations his Lord- ship has already consented.
The strength of the Military Forces now stationed in Hongkong and the peaceable and orderly conduct of the population generally render it possible to diminish the cost of the Police. The growth of that force, and the concurrent growth of the Pension list, have in recent years been very remarkable. In 1882 the cost of Pensions was $9,000 and in 1891 $22,000. The time has arrived when they can safely be checked and I hope permanently. reduced. The Captain Superintendent has materially assisted the Government by suggesting economies amounting in the whole to $15,000 a year, and these will be effected by a slight alteration in the composition of the Force and by the exercise of greater care in regard to the issue of clothing and stores. This reduction is irrespective of that which I propose in regard to Pensions in the future.
If you will add these figures together, taking the lowest of them you will see that a prospective saving of at least $65,000 a year is contemplated. Retrenchment in several directions has, as I have indicated, already commenced, whilst year by year the amount saved will, on the occurrence of vacancies, increase until the extreme limit is reached.
one.
The question of the erection of a new Gaol has for several years been a very burning Soon after my assumption of the Government I made a representation to the Secretary of State on the subject. I urged his Lordship to reconsider the view which he had previously expressed that a new Prison should be built, block by block, on a site different to that occupied by the existing Prison. I am glad to say that my representation has not been altogether unsuccessful. The Secretary of State has agreed to forego the construction of a new Prison on condition that the "glaring deficiencies," as he describes them, in the present Gaol are removed, and that provision is made for the confinement of Criminal Prisoners on the separate system. This will necessitate the acquisition of additional space, which is available in the neighbourhood of the Gaol, and the remodelling of the cells now used as associated cells. It will of course be necessary for me to satisfy his Lordship that these conditions are not only capable of fulfilment, but will be fulfilled. When that is done the question may be considered as finally, and, I trust, satisfactorily, settled. I appointed a Committee to go thoroughly into the matter and it has just reported. The cost of the proposed works will be $250,000, whereas $600,000 at least would have been required for the construction on an open site of a new cellular prison. I strongly recommend you to accept this solution of the difficulty and, by agreeing to the Report of the Committee and by consenting to the Loan, to give me power to carry out without unnecessary delay the suggested improvements.
With regard to the general condition of the Colony it is hardly necessary to point out that it has not fully recovered from the commercial crisis of exceptional severity through which it has recently passed. Business of nearly every description is still unfortunately somewhat depressed and it will be more or less disorganized throughout the East so long as the existing uncertainty as to the future of silver continues.