396
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 17TH OCTOBER, 1868.
Appendix A.
3. On the other hand, amongst your Assets are recessarily included sums which are practically unavailable such as a large portion of the subsidiary coins, which cannot be refused at the Treasury and which, therefore, keep steadily increasing, as the accompanying Return explains. From that Return you will perceive that on the first day of this month, the Colony possessed no less than $43,482 in Copper and Bronze coinage, the greater part of which may be regarded as being at present entirely useless and as an amount which increases almost every week. Occasionally, it is decreased by arrangements with Contractors for Public Works to take a portion of their money in Copper, or by a rise in the value of the latter coinage which was lately at par, but it is sure to find its way back to the Treasury whenever it falls below par in the markets of Canton or Hongkong.
4. It is essential also to bear in mind that the Bronze, or mil coinage, amounts to $17,000, of which there is apparently no prospect of getting rid on any terms. This result is the more unfortunate, because those coins have cost a considerable extra outlay, from having been coined in England instead of at the Mint of the Colony, whilst the heavy expense attending their manufacture abroad and freight, etc., etc. from a distant country has been proportionably augmented.
5. The available Assets of the Colony must therefore be diminished by those sums, whilst it must also be remembered that out of what might remain if a Creditor and Debtor account were to be now balanced, a considerable portion would consist of arrears of Rents and Taxes, which require time to collect, and part of which it is certain could not be recovered.
6. Thus although in my Financial Statement of August last year, the Colony's Assets, on the 1st January, 1867, were stated to amount to about $24,000, yet small as that sum was, it would have been a delusion to expect to realise it in any shape.
7. At present the Colony, independent of any subsidiary coinage, an item which exceeds $60,000, holds here in Cash $190,135, and has also a respectable Balance of about $40,000 in the hands of the Crown Agents to meet its frequent Liabilities in England, a result which in a mere financial point of view is highly satisfactory.
8. Perhaps some, who remember the difficulties of the local Treasury in 1866, may hence infer that it is easy by a touch of the helm to turn the vessel of the state like other vessels from the breakers on which a slight mistake might so easily place her, yet the effort may be more arduous than appears, there are so many currents which tend to drive her in the direction where she has once been steered. I can vouch that the production of our present financial safety and prosperity required much rigid economy and the strictest supervision, exercised even with severity, over all the Departments for the purpose of getting the Colony clear of the reef of Bankruptcy to which I found her drifting and which she may be said. to have touched. It is nevertheless evident that the large balance now in hand is mainly attributable to no economy possible for any Governor, but is principally the result of two new sources of Revenue, viz., the Stamp Ordinance and Fees from the Licensed Gaming Houses which this Government established last Year in default of any better means of controlling certain dangerous classes of the community.
9. All these causes have so changed the financial position of the Government from that in which I found it on my arrival, that although the Liabilities of those days have been discharged, and although in 1869 it is contemplated to raise by Rates for Police, Water and Lighting, $34,000 less than the sum estimated for the current year, I am now enabled to lay before you an estimated Expenditure exceeding One Million of Dollars with every prospect that nevertheless there will remain a surplus of $230,000 on the 31st December, 1869, reduced by unavailable coinage to $170,000 and liable practically to some further diminution, if the Supplementary Estimates should obtain a greater development than has been allowed for in the calculations now submitted. That is a contingency always possible, as for example, it is not improbable that owing to original defective construction and the sinking of the earth in its neighbourhood, the necessity may arise for rebuilding the Harbor Master's Office, which is already in a dangerous state.
10. I last year stated that the possibility of such Contingencies occurring proves that this Colony, like any other large Firm or business, should always retain an easily available surplus, over and above Assets in the form of Rent and Taxes due. Such surplus should not be less than from $100,000 to $130,000, and I must again impress on you that although the Estimates now before you, shew a