the licensing of vehicles. At a later stage, further functions will be delegated to it and these are likely to include the functions at present discharged by the Urban Council, as well as education, social welfare, public works and town planning and the supervision of public utilities and the control of franchises relating to them. In addition, the municipality will be the rating authority and will also act as agent of the Colonial Government for the collection of specified taxes.
The change in the constitution of the Legislative Council is of a simple nature. At present, the Council consists, apart from the President, of five ex-officio members, 4 official members and not more than 8 unofficial members. It has now been approved that the number of official members shall be reduced by two and concurrently that the number of unofficial members shall be increased by one. In this manner, the distribution of seats on the Council will be 7 ex-officio and official members on the one hand and 8 unofficial members on the other hand. The President will still retain his original and his casting vote. It is intended that of the 8 unofficial members, 4 shall be nominated by unofficial bodies, two of them by the Municipal Council and one each by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the unofficial Justices of the Peace.
Since the announcement of the Secretary of State for the Colonies' approval of the constitutional proposals preparatory work has been progressing on the detailed arrangements necessary for giving effect to the new Constitution.
Salaries Commission,
The last general revision of salaries was made as a result of the report of the Salaries Commission appointed in 1928 under the chairmanship of Sir Henry Gollan, K.C., C.B.E., although sterling salaries applicable mainly to officers of the Unified Colonial Services were revised between 1937 and 1939. Since the reoccupation of the Colony in September, 1945, salary scales applicable in 1941 have in general been retained with the exception of some non-gazetted Police Officers and certain officers in the Fire Brigade whose salaries were revised in 1946. The payment to artisans and lower grade clerks and similar workers of a high cost of living allowance on the same scale as in 1941 and of a rehabilitation allowance varying according to the fluctuations of a "food and fuel index" issued by the Labour Office, and to senior clerks and other officers of a high cost of living allowance on a sliding scale, were steps designed to meet the great disparity between incomes and the enormously increased expenditure occasioned by the fall in the value of money. That they did not do so became increasingly obvious in the latter half of 1946. Not only were the emoluments inadequate in themselves, but the fact that they were in many instances substantially lower than salaries paid by commercial firms led to many resignations, particularly from the Junior Clerical Service, and some deterioration in the public service resulted. Concurrently, recruitment to the public service was
4
DESTRUCTION OF THE JAPANESE WAR MEMORIAL.