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As to the Second Clerk I am not prepared to sanction the retention of the whole of his personal allowance, which was given (according to enclosure 9 in despatch under acknowledgment) in part to compensate for loss in exchange and not merely for length of service. This allowance should therefore be cut down at any rate by one half from $240 to $120.
10. Harbour Master's Department. I am unable to admit the accuracy of the comparison that has been made between the salaries of the Harbour Master and Assistant Harbour Master and the salaries of the similar posts at Singapore, or to sanction any increase to their salaries on that account. I have to point out that the additional $840 assumed to be drawn by the Master Attendant at Singapore in excess of the pay of the Hongkong Harbour Master is made up (1) of a horse allowance of $240 which is not a personal emolument at all any more than the conveyance allowance ($144) drawn by the Harbour Master at Hongkong in his capacity of Superintendent of Exports and Imports, and (2) of an allowance para not by the Straits Government but by the Board of Trade for collection of Basses Light Dues, (which I understand are not collected to any appreciable amount, if at all, in Hongkong), and this allowance is not a fixed $600 per annum, (as appears to be assumed), but is a variable amount, $600 being the maximum, having aver- aged in 1887-9 less than $400 a year. Similarly the $300 drawn by the Deputy Master Attendant at Singapore for Shipwright Surveying is for work not included in Captain HASTING's duties at Hongkong, and the Basses Lights Dues Commission, (averaging in 1887-9 about $430 a year), is, as stated above, paid by the Board of Trade.
11. I am, however, willing to approve the proposal that the Assistant Ħär- bour Master should be made Superintendent of the Water Police with an aggre- gate salary of $3,000 together with free quarters. I gather from your despatch No. 125 of 28th April last, that you considered that he could perform these duties in addition to his present duties. If this arrangement be made, I request you to report whether it will involve any saving on the Police Establishment.
12. Several of the officers in the Harbour and Lighthouse Departments have free quarters and their cases accordingly come within the principles laid down in my despatch No. 203 of 20th September last. I, however, consider that the Schedules of Estimated Values of Quarters in 1875 and 1890, (enclosure li of despatch under acknowledgment) must be revised so as to make the estimate in the latter year at least twice that in the former, for, as you are aware, in the papers on which I sanctioned the general rise of salaries it was alleged that house rent for Europeans had increased from 100 to 150 per cent. and for Chinese 100 per cent., and it seems clear that those officers who have free quarters must be treated as though the value of the quarters to them had increased 100 per cent., since they have all along been saved the heavy item of rent. The salaries of all the officers specified in the said Schedules in enclosure 11 must be consequently revised. I am unable to say whether the values given for 1875 are overestimated, or those for 1890 underestimated, or both, and on this point I desire to receive a further Report from you. I may remark that the value of the quarters to be considered is not the actual letting value but the amount of rent which the officer is saved by being allotted quarters.
13. In the meantime assuming the Estimate as given for 1875 to be correct, the First Boarding Officer was in that year receiving aggregate emoluments amounting to ($1,500 + $336—) $1,836, and 35 per cent. rise on this would amount to $2,478, from which deducting the present value of the quarters (twice $336. or $672) the proper salary to be awarded would amount only to $1,806, and, pending the receipt of your further report, I can only sanction this rate. Similarly the Second Boarding Officer's increased pay should be only $1,644; the First Inspector of Junks should get $912, but he might retain his personal allowance of $60 in addition to this rate; the Assistant Inspector of Junks (referred to in