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2. In the meantime should you not be disposed to grant the application from the Civil Servants I enclose a minute on this subject which has been prepared by the Colonial Treasurer, as it makes a comparison between the salaries in Hongkong and the Straits Settlements. The cost of living here is, I am informed, sensibly greater than in the Straits Settlements.
3. In considering the area over which an increase of work follows the taking over of the New Territory, I find a considerable increase in almost every branch of the service. Up to the present the arrangements have doubled my work and that of the Colonial Secretary's Office, and the Police and Public Works Department and Land Office and Attorney General's work have increased very largely as will also the important work of the Botanic and Afforestation Department. It will be necessary that a District Magistrate, an Officer of the Land Department, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, and later on a European Medical Officer shall live at Táipó, and apart from the fact that the whole of the New Territory is found to be malarial, the expenses of living there are and will be greater than in Hongkong. These officers must be supplied with quarters; but I think that the rate of pay ought to be at least 15% more than the pay of similar positions in Hongkong. This might be arranged by that addition to the ordinary salary being paid while serving in the New Territory.
4. I would add that the duties of Aide-de-Camp and Private Secretary are very onerous here and I would suggest an increase of $500 each which would make the amount equal to that paid in the Straits Settlements.
5. I may be permitted to add that, since the taking over of the New Territory, the great increase of work has been accentuated by weakness of the staff from absence and sickness. Those upon whom the increased pressure has fallen have kept the business up to date by working often far into the nights, and I have to express my warm commendation of the unmurmuring cheerfulness with which the calls of the service have been responded to by all the officials concerned. To fully appre- ciate it one must know the trying conditions under which pressing work has to be done in the Government offices during the exhausting summer in Hongkong.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient, humble Servant,
The Right Honourable
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P.,
&c.,
&c.
HENRY A. BLAKE, Governor, &c.
(Minute by the Acting Treasurer, dated 20th March, 1899.)
Honourable COLONIAL SECRETARY,
As the reciprocity of appointments between this Colony and the Straits is practically confined to Officers usually appointed by the Secretary of State from England (and particularly Cadets), I do not think there is any necessity for discus- sing the salaries of offices other than those so filled.