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A dispassionate view of the actual position may also be gathered from the appended extract from the editorial of 2nd ultimo in the other leading local paper, The Hongkong Daily Press:-
"No self-respecting Government or legislature can afford to play fast and loose with the salaries of public servants, and when an increase is granted it is not expected to be taken away a year afterwards. The statement made at the time the general increase was granted in Hongkong, that the salaries would be liable to reconsideration in subsequent years, was not equivalent to a promise on the part of the Government that they should be reduced. If the state of the Colony became so bad that there was no money to pay the salaries with, the Civil Servants would have to go without them altogether, but happily we have not arrived at that point yet, nor even at a point where a reduction in the salaries is absolutely necessary. Nevertheless the Colony's state is such that every opportunity ought to be taken, as vacancies occur, of reducing the number of officers, and, when a supernumerary is transferred from one department to fill a substantive appointment in another, to reduce the salary if the office is one of those which appear to be overpaid."
"The necessity for retrenchment does not arise from any falling off in the general trade and prosperity of the Colony, but from the fact that the community has seen a considerable portion of its accumulated savings swept away and is now appreciably poorer than it was a few years ago. Hence the pressure of taxation is more severely felt and is borne with greater impatience, an impatience that is increased by the knowledge that the Colony has to support an army of Civil Servants far in excess of its requirements. The Colonial Secretary says that 'while individuals in the Colony have in recent years lost heavily by gambling 'the condition of the community at large is sound and progressive.' But the individuals who have lost heavily by gambling are a pretty numerous class, and there is a still more numerous class of bona fide investors who have seen their property largely depreciated in value and who if they are compelled by circum- stances to realise can only do so at heavy loss. All this means curtailment of private expenditure, a smaller custom for the stores, and the depression which any community experiences when the practice of small economies is forced upon it by inexorable necessity. But our difficulties are of a temporary nature and are already, we hope, beginning to disappear. As to trade generally, there is no doubt it is expanding and is bound to go on expanding. Of course no one looks for very large profits in these days of uncertain exchange, small commissions, and keen competition. But in judging whether a community is advancing or receding in prosperity the only reliable test is the increase or decrease in the volume of its trade. In Hongkong we have no statistics available to give us the value of the trade from time to time, but information is obtainable which gives a general idea of whether it is increasing or declining. There are the shipping returns, for instance. These show an increase. But, we are told by the pessimists, the ship- ping returns prove nothing, that it is all a delusion about shipping being the life blood of the Colony, that ships only come here because it is cheaper to run them at a loss than to lay them up, that they bring only part cargoes and that the bulk of these they take on with them to Shanghai or Japan, leaving only an infinitesimal quantity here. With no figures to show what the ships actually do bring those who desire to represent the trade of the Colony as falling off have a free hand when they indulge in talk of this kind. But when we look at the returns of the Chinese Customs we are on rather more certain ground. Mr. McLEAVY BROWN'S report on the trade passing the Kowloon Customs stations last year showed that at all events the portion of the Colony's trade coming under the notice of the Foreign Inspectorate had increased, and the last quarterly returns tell the same tale. The number of junks passing the stations inwards last quarter was 6,451 as against 6,291 in the same quarter of 1891 and 6,240 in 1890, and there has been a corresponding increase in the number outwards. These figures show that there has been not even a temporary falling off in the general trade of the Colony, while as to the future, the magnificent geographical position of the place not only renders any permanent decline practically impossible but ensures a steady growth. We do not know if financiers at home are likely to be much affected by the speeches of the Unofficial Members on Wednesday, but if they choose to use their own judg ment and intelligence they will readily see that the stock of the proposed loan will form a first rate investment. The various companies in which several of the Unofficial Members are interested as directors would be glad to take it all up as an investment for their reserve funds if the loan were floated locally in silver.'