363
No. 20
90.
HONGKONG.
DESPATCH RESPECTING INCREASE OF SALARIES OF PUBLIC OFFICERS.
Laid before the Legislative Council, by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government,
with the Estimates for 1891.
HONGKONG.
No. 110.
SIR,
DOWNING STREET,
19th June, 1890.
I have had under my consideration Sir G. W. DES Vœux's Despatches No. 389 of 23rd December last and No. 396 of 30th December, forwarding the Report of the Committee appointed to consider the question of the necessity of increasing the salaries of public officers in Hongkong.
2. I am unable to accept the proposal that the salaries of any officers should be fixed at sterling, and paid each year in variable numbers of dollars, according to the average rate of exchange during the preceding year, as in all silver using Colonies the salaries of the servants of the Colonial Government must be calculated and paid in the legal currency of the Colony which employs them. No exception can be made in favour of Hongkong, as regards this principle.
3. In other respects, however, I am prepared generally to accept the proposals of the Committee, and am willing that the salaries of those officers which are usually filled by candidates from England should, with certain exceptions, (chiefly in professional appointments), and on certain conditions, as specified later in this Despatch, be increased by 35 per cent., and those of other offices by 20 per cent., it being understood that this rate of increase only takes effect in full where the salaries stand as they stood in 1875. Where the office has been created or reconstituted, or its salary raised once or oftener since 1875, the rate should be fixed according to the merits of each case, regard being had to the date of creation or of reconstitution or of increase of emolument, and to the amount and character of the duties. It may be convenient to say here that the conditions attached to my assent to the scheme relate, (a) to the rate of exchange for family remittances, leave pay and pension, and (b) the establishment of a Widows' and Orphans' Fund, this last condition only applying to a limited extent as hereafter specified.
4. The detailed scheme which formed enclosure No. 2 in Sir W. DES VEUX'S Despatch No. 389, may be adopted generally as a basis for calculating the new rates of salary to be placed on next year's Estimates, care being taken that where sterling amounts are mentioned in that scheme, they are converted into dollars at 6 dollars to the £1 sterling. Besides the special offices or classes of offices men- tioned later on in this despatch, I cannot approve of any proposals which involve a greater increase than that I have now sanctioned, viz.: 35 % above the 1875
The Officer Administering the Government of
HONGKONG.