229
13
No. 1900
HONGKONG.
EXTRACTS FROM DESPATCH No. 50 OF 16TH FEBRUARY, 1900, FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES REGARDING THE MEMORANDA FROM UN-OFFICIAL MEMBERS OF COUNCIL AND THE PROTEST OF THE HONOURABLE T. H. WHITEHEAD
ON THE SUBJECT OF THE ESTIMATES FOR 1900.
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government.
"16. I desire moreover to point out that I do not think it desirable that the whole of the small available balances of the Colony should be immediately swallowed up in the execution of Extraordinary Public Works as proposed by the Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council, as I consider it very desirable that the Colony should possess considerable reserve funds, to meet the possibility of an unexpected and unavoidable diminution in the Colony's Revenues. The present Hongkong balances are comparatively trifling in amount.
17. I concur in the view expressed in paragraph 4 of your despatch under acknowledgment that the proceeds of Land Sales are properly applicable only to works of permanent utility. This view has been frequently expressed in despatches from my predecessors, and it is in accordance with this principle that it was laid down in paragraph 26 of the Instructions for the preparation of Colonial Estimates referred to above that in the Abstract of Expenditure the head for works not annually recurrent should be kept distinct from the total Expenditure on other services which should not, as a rule, exceed the total estimate of Revenue exclusive of Land Sales. It is not, however, necessary to re-establish the Special Land Sales Fund which formerly existed in Hongkong out of which special votes outside the Estimates were taken for Extraordinary Public Works, since it is desirable to maintain the practice of placing all the Expenditure on the Annual Estimates. I would add that in recent years, although the special Land Sales Fund has been abolished, the Expenditure on Extraordinary Public Works has as a matter of fact on the average more or less balanced the Revenue derived from Land Sales.
18. I have carefully considered the memoranda from some of the Unofficial Members of Cound enclosed in your despatch under acknowledgment, and also the protest from Mr. T. H. Whitehead, M.L.C., forwarded in your despatch No. 346 of the 1st December last, and the above remarks deal with most of the points raised by them.
19. I would only add tha: fully concur in their views, which are shared by yourself as to pressing on Sanitary improvements in the Colony as fast as the finances admit : but Í adhere to the opinion that it is not necessary or desirable to raise a Loan for meeting any special Expenditure in the New Territory since the revenue from the New Territory appears likely before long to be sufficient to meet such Expenditure, and moreover the Public Works contemplated in that Territory are not of sufficient magnitude or of such a character as to render necessary or to justify the raising of a Loan."