THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 4TH SEPTEMBER, 1880.
673
not appear upon these accounts.
Did the Surveyor-General do nothing in the year 1879 except to keep the roads, streets, and bridges and ordinary public works of the Colony in good order? He undertook, as you are aware, a new Lock Hospital, which we have found useful for general purposes; other minor works were undertaken, but during the year 1879 the Surveyor-General expended a con- siderable sum-it is not stated in this return, but it amounted to something over $150,000-on the repairs to the Praya wall. And in mentioning this I must not conceal from you the fact that there is difference of opinion as to the accuracy, as it were, of this return, that is, some maintain that this being a return of the expenditure of the Colony of Ilongkong during the year ended 31st December, 1879, it ought not to contain the expenditure on the Praya wall, and it is argued that that expenditure is extraordinary expenditure, that it is special expenditure, and that therefore it ought not to appear in this return. I am bound to say that those who take that view of the case are very high authorities. To begin with, the Auditor-General, Mr. MARSH, who is now absent from the Colony, I assume he takes that view, for the figures do not appear in the returns as audited by him, and I am aware of the fact that other very competent authorities agree with that view, and it is supposed that that expenditure ought not to appear in this account, on the ground that in fact it is taken from one of our balances, and will in process of time he regained by that balance. Well, I have myself, I confess, taken the opposite view. It is simply a question of account, and it only comes to this, that in the statement I am making to you I should prefer that you would consider the actual fact, that though the expenditure of the Colony of Hongkong is returned here as only $926,867 in the year 1879, it amounts to $152,000 more that was actually expended on the Praya wall. And as a mere matter of business which concerns my own department, in dealing with our finances I take that view, for this reason, that I have to act in everything relating to finance under what are called the Treasury instructions to Governors. Those are instructions issued for the guidance of Governors in Crown Colonies, and they entail upon Governors certain duties of extreme importance with respect to checking, overlooking, and controlling expenditure. And in those instructions, as it seems to me to prevent the possibility of an extraordinary or special expenditure being treated in an extraordinary or special manner and not according to ordinary routine, there is a clause to the effect that from the date of those instructions no such words as "extraordinary expenditure" or "special expenditure" shall be used, and any expenditure whatever that is incurred from month to month must come before the Governor in proper requisitions, and being sanctioned by him can then be incurred. The result of it all is that I shall reprint this return in the Gazette, appending to it a note in which I shall state for the information of the Council and public generally the exact amount of expenditure in 1879 upon the Praya works, and the amount of money borrowed from our balance of the special fund, and when that is done honourable members will have before them, as it seems to me, the real expenditure of the Colony in the year 1879. Now, gentlemen, in moving the estimates in the month of August I am in a position to congratulate you on the fact that the returns furnished to me by my honourable friend the Acting Colonial Treasurer, Mr. TONNOCHY, show that our estimates of revenue for 1880 were sound estimates, and I may say, speaking generally, that our estimates of revenue have been exceeded. My honourable friend has just handed to me a still more recent return than that to which I was about to refer. Here, now, is our comparative statement of revenue and expenditure for 1879 and 1880 up to the end of last month. Without troubling you with all the details, I may briefly inform you that the total receipts from 1st January to the 31st July, 1879, amounted to $571,000. Comparing that period with the seven months of this year, I find $627,600, showing a considerable increase in the revenue of this year as compared with that of last year. Taking the total estimate of revenue for the year 1880 and comparing that total estimate with what we have now obtained, there is very little doubt also that in all the great items of revenue, those especially which show the prosperity of Hongkong, there will be a considerable increase. In our police, lighting, water, and fire brigade rates there is a large inercase. In an item which is of great interest to commercial men, that is the stamp revenue, I find an increase. The estimate for stamps for 1880 was $115,000. Well I have here the sum we have obtained. If it continues for the rest of the year, as I have every expectation it will, it will bring up that revenue to $125,000, being $10,000 more than estimated. And I may mention, in touching upon this, that as compared with 1879, and especially the earlier part of 1879 and latter part of 1878, there is one item in which the stamp revenue shows a decline, and that is in the stamps on share transfers, but I don't regret the fact. We find an increase on the stamps for marine policies of insurance, bills of lading, bank notes, and those more healthy signs of real commercial busine 3. I don't regret the fact that there is a difference, I think amounting to $4,000, upon the stamps on the transfer of shares. On the whole of our revenue there is a considerable increase. Therefore, gentlemen, I have now to move the first reading of the estimates, and we will discuss them at our next meeting. I may tell you that the estimate of revenue which my honourable friend the Colonial Treasurer has prepared, and which I entirely accept, amounts to over $1,070,000. The expenditure I hope, with your assistance, to keep at something like $980,000, which will give us something like $90,000 of a surplus. The details will vorne before you in the usual form of printed estimates, and after the proper time elapses which is laid down in our rules, I will move the second reading of the Appropriation Ordinance and the estimates, and on that occasion I need hardly say I shall be most happy to receive from my honourable friends on the Council any suggestions they may choose to make. I can only say, gentlemen, that if it be my appiness for two or three years more, with the Queen's permission, to subunit estimates to this Coun il. I trust they may show similar evidence of our commercial prosperity.