DI
MON
DROIT
THE HONGKONG
Government Gazette.
No. 43.
Published by Authority.
VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 17TH OCTOBER, 1868.
VOL. XIV.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF HONGKONG.
No. 5 of 1868.
SATURDAY, 3RD OCTOBER, 1868. PRESENT:
His Excellency Governor SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B. The Honorable the Chief Justice (JOHN SMALE.)
The Honorable the Colonial Secretary (JOHN GARDINER AUSTIN.) The Honorable the Acting Attorney General (HENRY JOHN BALL.)
The Honorable the Acting Colonial Treasurer (W. H. ALEXANDER.)
The Honorable the Auditor General (W. H. RENNIE.)
The Honorable H. B. GIBB.
The Honorable WILLIAM Keswick.
The Council meets this day by Special Summons.
His Excellency The GOVERNOR administers to JAMES BANKS TAYLOR, Esquire, who is in attendance, the Oath of Office as a Provisional Member of this Council, vice The Honorable PHINEAS RYRIE, absent on leave; and The Honorable JAMES BANKS TAYLOR takes his seat accordingly.
The Minutes of the Council held on the 23rd May last, are read and confirmed.
Read a first time, a Bill to amend Ordinance No. 11 of 1844, and to enable the Justices of the Peace to grant Licenses for the sale of Fermented and Spirituous Liquors by Hotel Keepers, Restaurateurs, and Confectioners.
Read a first time, a Bill for amending the Laws relating to the Construction of Buildings, and Prevention
of Nuisances in the Colony of Hongkong.
Read a first time, a Bill to enable the Governor in Council to grant a Pension to WILLIAM QUIN, Esquire,
late Superintendent of Police.
Read a first time, a Bill for repealing the "Hongkong Emigration Ordinance 1867," and for better
securing the Health of Emigrants in Chinese Passenger Ships clearing from Hongkong.
His Excellency lays on the Table, a Bill to apply a Sum not exceeding Eight hundred and Thirty
thousand Dollars to the Public Service of the Year 1869, and makes the following Statement :-
1. Last August, when explaining the Estimates for 1868, which I then laid before you, I was obliged to draw your attention to the many temporary and uncertain elements then involved in the calculations affecting the Revenue side of the account. In that respect I have the satisfaction of thinking that the Revenue estimated for 1869 is one unlikely to be deranged by similar disturbing influences, and that, as ought always to be the case in framing Estimates, there is a greater probability of an excess than a deficiency in the amount of Revenue estimated.
2. At page 3 of the Detailed Estimates, which I now lay before you, the Excess of the Colony's Assets over its Liabilities on the first day of the present year is put down as $25,851, and having gone into the calculations, I think there is little apparent room for error in that item. I may also remark that the surplus intended is such as would have remained on the first of last January after payment of all known Liabilities, including arrears due for the Military Contribution. The latter however, can no longer be counted as part of the Colony's Liabilities because all sums due on that account, even to the 30th September of this year, have been already discharged.