92
Extract from Minutes of Executive Council held on the 20th August, 1884.
*
*K
*
*
Read a Despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 150 of 1884, acknowledging the receipt of the Governor's despatch, No. 138 of the 26th April, in which was forwarded a letter addressed to the EARL OF DERBY by Bishop RAIMONDI, preferring on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church a claim for aid from the Colonial Revenue together with a memorandum by the Colonial Treasurer. In this Despatch the Secretary of State approves of the Roman Catholic Chaplain receiving pay for attendance on the Roman Catholics in the Prison and in the Civil Hospital on a scale similar to that adopted for the Military Roman Catholic Chaplain, and directs that a proposal may be made on this principle.
Read also a memorandum by the Assistant Military Secretary (Col. BARTON), showing the principle adopted by the Military Authorities for the payment of the Salary of the Roman Catholic Chaplain to the troops in Hongkong. It appears that there is now an average of two hundred (200) Roman Catholics in the Garrison, and a similar average in the Gaol and Civil Hospital, and that the capitation rate gives the Roman Catholic Military Chaplain about $60 a month.
Bishop RAIMONDI having been communicated with, and having expressed officially his willingness to accept an arrangement based on a principle resembling that adopted for the payment of the salary of the Roman Catholic Chaplain, viz., a rate calculated on a capitation basis, the Council advise that a vote of $60 a month, subject to readjustment at the end of two years, should be proposed to the Legislative Council as payment for the services of a Roman Catholic Chaplain in the Gaol and Civil Hospital. It is understood in accordance with the directions of the Secretary of State in Despatch No. 150 of 1884 that on the occurrence of a ̧ vacancy in the Colonial Chaplaincy a similar principle of payment will be adopted in the case of the Church of England, or of any other Christian Communion, which may hereafter have a just claim to similar remuneration.
The Right Honourable The Earl of Derby, K.G., to Governor Sir George F. Bowen, G.C.M.G.
Hongkong. No. 244.
SIR,
DOWNING STREET,
23rd October, 1884.
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 297 of the 25th of August, and to approve the arrangement which you propose for the pay- ment of a Roman Catholic Chaplain for attending the Gaol and Civil Hospital,
Governor
Sir G. F. BOWEN, G.C.M.G.,
&c.,
I have, &c.,
(Signed)
DERBY.
&c.,
&c.