263
No. 26.
Speech of His Excellency the Governor at the Prorogation of the Session of the Legislative Council of Hongkong,
June 1st, 1885.
HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL,
1. The satisfactory conclusion to which you have carried no small amount of public business enables me now to close this Session.
2. Several measures of importance will be prepared by my Government during the recess for your consideration at your next Meeting. As I have stated on a previous occasion, I understand it to be generally agreed that the public convenience will be best consulted by opening the Annual Session of the Council in the month of November of each year. But it will be necessary to have a Special Meeting in next September to consider the Estimates for 1886. It has been found to be practically impossible to calculate accurately at an earlier period the probable revenue and expenditure of the ensuing year.
3. I will now proceed, according to the practice established in all Colonies, to lay before the Legislature a brief summary of the present condition of Hongkong, with regard to Finance, Legislation, Public Works, Education, the Public Institutions, and the Police.
4. With regard to Finance;I thank you, in the name of the QUEEN, for the supplies which you have voted for Her Majesty's service in this Colony, and as a contribution to the cost of the Defence Works. The Report of the Colonial Secretary and Auditor General shows that the probable assets of the Colony on the 31st of next December will amount to nearly two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000). It will not, therefore, be necessary to raise during the present year any portion of the Loan proposed for the com- pletion of the Extraordinary Works connected with Sanitation, Water Supply, and Defence.
5. With regard to Legislation;-fifteen Bills have become law during the Session; the more important being the Ordinances regulating Weights and Measures, Bills of Exchange, the Disposition of Property by Married Women, and Amending the Post Office Ordinance.
6. With regard to Public Works; -the depression of the Public Revenue, con- sequent on the unsettled state of political affairs in this quarter of the globe, has rendered necessary some temporary reduction and postponement in several of the principal undertakings contemplated last year. Steady progress has, however, been made with the Tytam Water Works; with the Victoria College; and with the general plan of Sanitation approved, in 1883, by Her Majesty's Government, on the recommendation of Mr. CHADWICK. In connec- tion with the last-mentioned subject, the details of the proposed new Building Ordinance will be carefully considered during the recess by the Public Works Committee.
7. With regard to Education ;- the Annual Report of the Government Inspector shows very satisfactory progress, for 'both the number of Schools under Government supervi- sion in the Colony, and also the number of Scholars attending those Schools have been doubled within the last ten years. Moreover, from paragraph 13 of the same Report, it will be seen that the changes recently introduced into the Education Code have proved completely successful, and have already resulted in decreased expense coupled with increased efficiency.