VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF HONGKONG. No. 2 OF 1869.
FRIDAY, 17TH SEPTEMBER, 1869.
PRESENT:
His Excellency Governor SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B. The Honorable the Acting Chief Justice (JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE.)
The Honorable the Colonial Secretary, (JOHN GARDINER AUSTIN.) The Honorable the Colonial Treasurer (FREDERICK H. A. FORTH.) The Honorable H. B. GIBB.
The Honorable WILLIAM KESWICK.
The Honorable JAMES B. TAYLOR.
ABSENT:
The Honorable the Acting Attorney General (EDWARD H. POLLARD, Q.C.) The Honorable the Auditor General (W. H. RENNIE); Both absent on leave.
The Council meets this day at 3 P.M., by Special Summons.
The Minutes of the Council held on the 26th February last, are read and confirmed.
His Excellency the GOVERNOR administers to RICHARD ROWETT, Esquire, who is in attendance, the Oath of Office as a Provisional Member of this Council vice the Honorable HENRY JOHN BALL, absent on leave; and the Honorable RICHARD ROWETT takes his seat at the Board accordingly.
Read a first time, a Bill for regulating the Periods of Vacation of the Supreme Court, and the Transaction of Business in certain Cases during the same.
His Excellency lays on the Table a Bill for amending the Laws relating to the Construction of Buildings and Prevention of Nuisances in the Colony of Hongkong, as submitted by the Commission to which the original Bill on the subject had been referred for revision.—His Excellency points out that it contains a provision, Section No. 48, to the effect that the Surveyor General is to exercise his powers under the Ordinance in conformity with instructions from the Governor.
The original Bill is then ordered to be withdrawn, and the revised Bill on the Table is read a first time.
Read a first time, a Bill to make further Provision in relation to Criminal Law and Procedure.
Read a first time, a Bill for granting Licenses for the Distillation of Spirits, and the Rectifying and Compounding thereof within the Colony.
Read a first time, a Bill to amend the Law relating to "Promissory Oaths."
Read a first time, a Bill to provide for the Payment out of the Revenue of the Colony of Expenses incurred in the Relief of Distressed British Seamen belonging to Ships registered in this Colony.
Read a first time, a Bill to amend "The Ordinance for the Suppression of Piracy
(Hongkong), 1868."
Read a first time, a Bill for dealing with certain Claims in relation to Funds confiscated for Colonial Purposes.
Read a first time, a Bill for amending the Law relating to the Granting of Pensions and other Allowances to the Police Force.
Read a first time, a Bill to recover in the Court of Summary Jurisdiction Crown Debts under Five hundred Dollars for Rent, and for certain Assessments and Fees.
Read a first time, a Bill to make further Provision for the Maintenances of good Order within the Colony.
His Excellency lays on the Table the Supplementary Estimates Ordinance, 1868, and the Appropriation Ordinance, 1870, and makes the following Explanatory Statement in reference to the last Two Bills:─
1. Various circumstances, ─but principally the illness and subsequent departure of the Auditor General, Mr. RENNIE, caused the Supplemental Estimates for last year to be so long delayed that, I find myself now laying them before you simultaneously with the Estimates for 1870. Probably no immediate disadvantage attends this exceptional delay for once. On the contrary, you may perhaps feel enable thereby to take a more complete survey of the whole financial position of the Colony by noting at the same time the actual results for the previous year's expenditure, and the provision necessary for the requirements of the ensuing year.
2. The supplemental sum actually required to defray the Government expenses during 1868 is only (Page 8) $37,191. Of that sum several items, such as the cost of the Fire Brigade and the Passage Allowances of the Mint Officials, had their origin in necessities wholly arising subsequent to framing the Estimates for 1868 and when it was not possible or at least would have been very inconvenient to have summoned you to meet merely to pass a vote for expenses as to which there could be no difference of opinion.
3. On the other hand you will find that there was a large
saving of $77,985 in the actual total Expenditure of 1868 including
Colonial Estimates, Page 31
the $37,000 now to be voted, because that Expenditure was only $991,310 whereas it had been estimated to amount to $1,069,296. You must remember, however, that the sums received from Gaming Licenses in 1868 appeared on the Estimates of that year. That is no longer the case now, and therefore the estimated Receipts and Expenditure of 1868 were proportionately increased.
4. I have further to call your attention to the fact that recent alterations in previous instructions enable me to present to you Supplementary Estimates which ask simply a vote for the sums really expended in excess of your authority. Formerly none of the savings in the Estimates for Establishments were considered applicable to any items of service "Exclusive of Establishments." The complications caused thereby belong now to the Past and I shall only illustrate the unintelligible basis on which Supplemental Estimates
were formerly framed by stating that although $37,000 is the total excess for which I seek your authority the Colonial Secretary computes that under the old system I should have been obliged to ask apparently for $286,049 to cover that excess! Now however, the savings under the different votes are made applicable to the general purposes of the particular head of service under which such items were classified, and the excess alone of an entire Department, in all its branches, is placed on the Supplementary Estimates. At the same time, in the table which accompanies these Estimates is afforded full explanation of the savings accrued in each ease, and also of the manner in which they have been applied.
5. Turning now to the Estimates for 1870, you will find that although they propose nothing very remarkable or which appears to invite special attention, they possess unusual interest as shewing that, after many difficulties, a tolerably sound financial state has been attained, because it is one which gives fair promise of permanence. No fleeting surplus is shewn by disposal of the Colony's Capital, viz. its land—the receipts from Licensed Play Houses do not appear as part of the Revenue—and yet the permanent means of the Colony are made to meet all its liabilities and provide fairly, though not extravagantly, for the general demands of a Community in a state of progressive improvement.
6. So recently as 1867, the estimated surplus of the Colony's Assets over its Liabilities amounted only to $24,000, whilst of those, $60,000 were unavailable coins, which no creditor could have been compelled to accept, so that practically the Colony was bankrupt. The worst feature, however, of its financial position then, was not so much the diminishing surplus, as the fact that the Colony had been steadily dropping into this insolvent state from a condition of comparative affluence. Thus at the beginning of 1865, it possessed a bonâ fide surplus of $298,000─at the beginning of 1866, one of only $184,000─and at the commencement of 1867, an imaginary surplus of $24,000, but practically a deficiency of nearly $30,000.
7. It must be remembered also that in 1866, when I arrived, I found the Expenditure of the Colony increasing in proportion as its Income was diminishing—the worst of all conditions whether for States or individuals. So much was this case that its actual Expenditure in 1865, exceeded its Revenue by $94,361, and in 1866 by $167,877. The Expenditure in 1867, however, was then decreased at once from $936,954 in the previous year, to $730,916─but not without leaving the Military Contribution in arrear. At the same time the Revenue was permanently raised by means of the Stamp Ordinance, which however did not come into operation till late in 1867 and thus the Colony began to right itself slowly—its Expenditure in 1867 being $128,584 within its Revenue, and in 1868 $142,794─though in the latter year all arrears of the Military Contribution were paid off.
8. Probably many suppose these results could only have been produced by using the fees received from the Police measure of
licensing Gambling Houses under certain Regulations. That, however, is altogether a mistake: The Colony has recovered from its difficulties, paid its current expenses, and discharged all its heavy liabilities without using for those purposes one cent of the License fees in question. At the same time I look doubtfully on the estimate of $120,000 as excess of Assets over Liabilities at the end of this year. I also question the excess of Assets, put down for the end of 1870, viz.: $111,000. I recommend you not to count on more than $30,000 really available surplus Assets at the latter period. (Vide Estimates, Page 3.)
9. It is undeniable, and I see no reason to regret it, that much assistance in other ways, as we shall presently find, has been derived by the Colony indirectly from those License Fees. It is, however, equally true that all its previous debts were paid, and its ordinary current expenditure met, as well as considerable Public Works carried on out of its own permanent Revenue. This would appear more clearly, if I could lay before you the Colony's account with the Special Fund, as for brevity it may be styled. I am, therefore, sorry I cannot publish it as its details are still under consideration of Her Majesty's Government. Full information, however, on the subject is accessible to individual members of Council. You will find, however, from the Estimate of the Colony's Liabilities at the end of 1868, (Supplementary Estimates, Page 3) that amongst the Liabilities of the Colony is inserted an amount due to the Special Fund of $160,065. At the end of the current year there will probably be an amount due to it of $140,000. The difference, therefore, between the latter sum and the $317,807, estimated total receipts of the Licenses form September 1867 to the end of this year, would indicate the amount appropriated from that fund during more than two years and a quarter, and that amount is $177,807.
10. Let us, however, inquire how that money has been expended. You will not find it appropriated to any selfish outlay on objects calculated to diminish the burthens or promote the convenience of the Foreign Residents. Expenses which should be borne by the ordinary Revenue of the Colony continue to be so borne, and I may inform you that is not merely the wish, but the positive order of Her Majesty's Government that no part of the Special Fund be expended in relieving you of the taxation entailed by duties which every civilized Community is bound to discharge.
11. The appropriation of any part of that Fund has therefore been limited:1st─to purposes auxiliary to the Police object for which the Licensing system was instituted, and which alone could justify such an experiment, viz.: the suppression of crime and more especially crime such as was formerly generated by frequent contact of the ignorant and needy with the criminals of the Colony in illegal gambling haunts, where the former were tempted to join in schemes for Piracies, Burglaries, and Theft. It has, therefore, been suggested that improvements in the constitution of the Police, whether by land or water, and in all appliances for detection of crime, which could not
have been undertaken by the unaided ordinary Revenue of the Colony, might on that principle be temporarily borne by the Special Fund. Thus the cost of the Colonial vessels, which patrol the waters of the Colony, and whose utility becomes more apparent by every day's experience, is at present borne by the Special Fund. The erection of a Telegraph round the Island, and of additional Police and Telegraph stations to complete the guarded circuit so effectually as to render improbable future landings of such parties, as attacked Sowkewan on the 18th of April last, may be similarly regarded as a reasonable charge on the Fund for suppression of crime.
12. Nevertheless, to prevent any diminution of the Police Rates being effected by an unfair resort to the Special Fund, it has also been suggested that the Colony should always provide from its ordinary Revenue the means of defraying the highest Expenditure on its Police incurred in any year preceding the License system. That year was 1866 and the actual expenditure then on the Colonial Police was in round numbers $120,000, an amount ascertained after deducting from the sum charged against Police, several items improperly entered under that head—as for example Lighting Street Lamps, $20,000─an item now placed under "Miscellaneous." Therefore $120,000 is the least sum for Police which the Colony is bound to find from its own resources. At the same time to promote Police protection and prevent an inconvenient accumulation of the License Fund, expenditure in excess of that amount, if approved by the Secretary of State, may be temporarily borne by the Special Fund.
13. 2ndly. You may assume that no application of the License Fund for any but the Police purposes, already explained, will be permitted unless for the special benefit and improvement physically or morally of the Chinese population. The Council is aware that none but persons of Chinese or Malay origin, and that no females of any nation whatever, are now admitted into the Licensed Houses, whilst the License Fees have been proportionally reduced so as to compensate for such restrictions. Even foreign travellers are not permitted to visit the Houses. The Chinese alone frequent them. Therefore, the Fees if used at all, and it would not be easy to justify a perpetual and unmeaning accumulation of them, ought apparently to be used only for purposes auxiliary to the original object of the experiment, viz. : suppression of crime, or the special benefit of the race by whose peculiar infirmity that experiment was first necessitated and is now maintained.
14. The purposes, therefore, to which a portion of the Special Fund has been or may be devoted, are all in accordance with the above principles. Thus extended means of education are afforded to the Chinese such as new School Houses, a Lecture Room at the Central Hall, Apparatus for conducting experiments calculated to develop an interest in practical and scientific knowledge, especially of a kind applicable to manufactures. Assistance likewise in maintaining that useful corps—the Chinese watchmen—has been
given and more is promised, though, in proportion as it is assisted from without, the Chinese subscriptions for its support decline, so that ultimately I fear the corps must be dissolved at least for a time. I might also enumerate an extended classification of Interpreters and the employment, on a different system, of abler and better paid men in that capacity, so as to meet a hardship long complained of by the native population in connection with our Courts—a large contribution ($15,000) to the erection of the Chinese Hospital under Chinese management (but with due precautions),—and a reimbursement to the Harbor Master's Department for loss of Revenue by abatement of Fees hitherto exacted from Chinese vessels only. Even the expense of special sanitary improvements in the physical condition of the Inhabitants of the Chinese Quarter of the City, which might otherwise have been indefinitely postponed, will be facilitated by contributions from the same source.
15. In all those particulars, however, care is taken that the Special Fund shall contribute nothing, except for items over and above the Colony's ordinary previous Expenditure, for which Expenditure Her Majesty's Government is resolved that it shall raise an adequate Local Revenue. Thus under the head of Education (Page 19, Estimates 1870) you will perceive that the Expenditure having been increased, the difference only between the Expenditure in 1866, and that contemplated for 1870, viz.: $4,448, is to be taken form the Special Fund, a plan similar to that followed in the Police Estimates (Vide Estimates, Page 24).
16. All these contributions to useful purposes entail a large Expenditure. Nevertheless, at the end of the current year, there will be more than $140,000 still remaining to the credit of the Special Fund, which will again commence rapidly to accumulate, unless the License Fees be considerably diminished, a policy which it would be difficult to justify, as it could only benefit the Licensees.
17. Now, it is evident that no Expenditure, so effective as that adverted to for suppression of crime and the improvement, physical and moral, of the large population in our midst, can take place without reacting beneficially on this Community generally. Therefore, it may be said that the licensing system, by increasing the means of Government to effect good, directly benefits the Colony. I leave, however, to others, if any be still so inclined, to argue that such resulting advantage ought to make us abandon a policy which has effected a remarkable diminution of crime and corruption, and this, moreover, at a time when it has been raised from the level of mere experiment to that of successful Legislation. Let us hope, therefore, that different views are now entertained by former opponents of the measure. The motives of many deserved and met general sympathy whilst personally I have always regretted that none of them were able to suggest some policy more in harmony with their own opinions and yet equally effective for Police purposes. In the interim, however, they could not reasonably have expected me to abandon substantial results for theories which however applicable
elsewhere, as I readily admit them to be, seemed wholly out of place here under the circumstances.
18. I have thus explained the position of the Colony towards the Special Fund so far as I can explain a subject of which many details are still unsettled, and which you must regard as liable to re-arrangement and modification. The Council, moreover, must always regard that Fund as one which may at any moment disappear. You should, therefore, distinctly bear in mind that except for improving the Police Force, and benefitting the Chinese community, as explained above, that Fund is unavailable. Even those indirect benefits must cease in the event of a change of instructions from Her Majesty's Government or the discovery of some effective substitute for the licensing system.
19. Hence, it is all the more desirable that you should keenly scrutinize the state of your finances, and see whether any diminution of expenditure, either on your Establishments or otherwise, can be effected without detriment to the Public Service, so that you may gradually lessen your permanent annual charges, and release a portion of your Revenue now absorbed thereby.
20. I am aware that such economies seem easiest to those who know least of the work and duties of the various Departments. For example a reformer of our Police would on inquiry be probably surprised to find, that in the day time 32 beats have to be patrolled, and the men relieved at the end of each six hours, and that 92 beats at night have to be similarly manned and relieved, whilst from five to nine boats and their crews are kept always on duty and relieved night and day, at stated periods, in the harbor, as also that a Gaol guard of 23 has to be daily provided and Patrols furnished along a distance of 10 miles. To all these must be added special duties, which require daily some 50 men, independent of the outstations beyond the City, which must likewise be guarded and patrolled. He would also have to make an allowance for men in Hospital, and from the severity of the duty, they number 50 per cent more in the Police at present than in the Military.
21. Such a reformer would thus learn how it is that a necessity for meeting numerous duties entails a corresponding necessity for paying a numerous force, and that no mere improvement in its quality can dispense with the primary want of many men to do duty in many different places at the same time.
22. So far from the Superintendent of Police considering the Police sufficient in numbers, he complained to me last May that at night "in the Central part of the town, 31 men had to perform the duty laid down in the 'Section Book' for 61," and that so few constables could be spared for the outlying villages "that adequate daily explorations of the adjacent hills were impossible." The Estimates before you, therefore, propose an increase as well in number as in quality, provision being made for a total of 717 instead of 643 whilst the number of Europeans will be increased from 112 to
146, and the Expenditure from $183,000 to $202,000. That sum, however, does not include the expense of gratuities and passages for 30 men from England, who if procurable at all, which is very doubtful, will cost the Colony £3,000 before they have done an hour's duty.
23. With the proposed Telegraphs, and when the additional outstations now building are completed, it may perhaps be found that a smaller Force can do the duty. I nevertheless see little prospect of your ever having a Police Force at once effective and cheap. I know no place where it would be so difficult to realize such an anticipation as Hongkong. This is especially the case because the influx of criminals from the adjoining turbulent Provinces, which differ entirely in the character of their population from that of the natives of the Straits or Shanghai, is regulated by circumstances beyond your control, and the course of which you can only watch, whilst keeping yourselves ever on the alert and the defensive, as though in a normal state of siege.
24. Moreover, at this distance from England and in this climate, temperance and honesty in Europeans command an exorbitant premium, and unluckily when they have been contracted for and imported, too often disappear, whilst, do what you will, whether you recruit in Europe or in India, you cannot procure a force homogeneous and speaking the requisite languages. You can only put it together bit by bit, and gradually utilize it by patience and by holding out to each individual substantial inducements and facilities to improve. This has been done and I have reason to be satisfied with the progress made and being made.
25. In proportion, however, as you find less chance of diminishing your Police Expenditure, owing to the peculiar geographical position and exceptional circumstances of the Colony, I would be glad that you should, as I have already said, turn your attention to effecting economy in other Departments. I am aware of the difficulty attending attempts to accomplish Departmental retrenchment without impairing efficiency. Lord Lawrence, has recently described how he commenced his late administration, hoping and resolved to effect great retrenchment in all the Indian Departments, and how he was forced to leave them largely increased. I mention this not to discourage, but to prevent undue expectations. As yet, I have only seen my way doubtfully to suggesting the eventual amalgamation of most of the duties of the Treasury and Audit Office, an experiment which may be said to be now in its first stage, and the eventual saving from which may amount to upwards of $6,000 annually. Nevertheless, I think an equal saving can ere long be effected in other minor details, which however, I have not yet ventured to put on the Estimates, preferring to feel my way first. My chief wish at present is to urge on you the necessity of keeping the principle of economy in view, when possible without impairing efficiency.
26. To facilitate your labors the form of the Estimates now
before you has been improved, by keeping all the expenses of each Department together instead of spreading them, as formerly, over different and totally unconnected pages. Because some Departmental expenses are for "Establishments" and others are "exclusive of Establishments," and others again for "Rent," or "Transport," I see no reason why such expenses should not be grouped together. Such an arrangement, whilst more symmetrical and clear, does not interfere, as you will find, with the distinct classification of the details so grouped.
27. In the Summary (Pages 30 and 31) you will see the totals of the cost of all the Departments collectively and separately, as proposed for next year, side by side with the expenses incurred for the same during the past year. You will there see that the total Expenditure of last year amounted to $991,311, whereas the vote proposed for next year is nearly $200,000 less—or $791,882. This diminution is, in a great measure, owing to the fact of the large arrears of the Military Contribution having been paid last year, so that there is about $114,000 less to provide on that service alone.
28. Improved arrangements of your Estimates will probably prevent many mistakes. Few persons, and certainly not those to whom it would be inconvenient that accurate information opposed to their theories and objects should be forced on them, take much trouble in sifting such dry details. It must also be admitted that it was not easy formerly to understand the Annual Estimates. Thus in the Harbor Master's Department, there were no means of knowing accurately the cost of the Gunpowder Depôt, a concern which accidentally is superintended by Harbor Master, but which has little connection with his special duties as such. You can, however, now see that, independent of the sum necessary to reserve for purchase of a new Hulk hereafter, the annual cost of the Gunpowder Depôt is $3,928. On the other hand, if any one were to ask how much the Office of Harbor Master, properly so called, costs the Colony, it would be impossible to say, because you cannot divide the $21,272, allotted to the Department so to distinguish the cost of the ordinary duties of the office from others even more important and onerous which devolve on him for suppression of Piracy Crime under the Harbor and Coasts Ordinance. The latter involve the examination, visiting, registration and general superintendence of about 36,000 Junks annually, and this in a Colony where each year 5 millions of tons of Shipping, manned by 800,000 sailors, arrive and depart.
29. —In a similar manner it may be said that the Establishment of the Postmaster General has increased largely from a total Expenditure in 1868 of $32,088 last year to an estimated Expenditure of $41,112 for 1870. New duties entail fresh expenses, and Her Majesty's Government having imposed on this the superintendence of the various Postal Stations at the Ports in China and Japan, there is now an Expenditure of about $10,560 in Salaries, Rent and Allowances at the Ports instead of about $4,000 formerly. It is true the Colony receives from the British Government an annual
reimbursement in aid, of $6,000, and an increased profit on letters, which however has not averaged more than $500. The bargain, therefore, has not been a good one, especially if you have often to incur such an outlay as that of paying $10,000 to build a Post Office at Japan.
30. You will also find that a sum of $6,744 is expended by the Government on Marine Sorters employed on board the various Mail Steamers from Singapore here and hence to Shanghai. Now, if the Public wish the luxury of an early and sure delivery of their letters, I presume they expect to find the charge included in the Estimates. It nevertheless swells the cost of the Post Office and may possibly furnish scope for various judicious remarks as to the folly of maintaining such an unwieldy Establishment. Now, if you really think this luxury useless and extravagant, you have only to say so and I shall strike it from the Estimates. If, however, you think it may reasonably be maintained, and that nearly $7,000 is thus wisely expended every year to promote general convenience and the interests of Merchants specially, I count on your influence with the latter to abolish the present perverse usage of sending clandestinely large packages of letters by the very Mail steamers which are actually carrying Marine Sorters, at great expense, to arrange and facilitate the delivery of such correspondence without any extra charge.
31. Nevertheless in a Council where practically I assert there is the most substantial liberty of suggestion, speech and action, and where it has always been the anxious desire of the Executive to encourage the free interchange of thought for the improvement of such Legislation as may be proposed, I do not think it necessary to go seriatim through all the Establishments or items now offered for consideration. You have had copies of the Estimates supplied to you beforehand, and no doubt your own experience is sufficiently suggestive.
32. In reference to Public Works, however, as being the branch of Expenditure in which the Executive is most responsible because its greatest power of initiation and "veto" lies there, I have to call your attention to the fact that in reality circumstances have greatly narrowed the margin of choice in that direction. You will observe that out $137,000 estimated for Works and Buildings, no less than $98,000 are required for completion of the Reservoir at Pokfoolum. The original estimate for that work by which the Government was induced to undertake it at all, was $100,000, whereas it now appears that it will cost double—whilst, as it is half completed, you have no option but to proceed with the work. Its whole history, however, has been most discouraging as shewing how heavily, even when attempting the most useful and necessary objects, the Colony can lose by the occasional incompetence of its employes, and how seldom the most obvious deficiencies of such persons can restrain them form projecting schemes beyond their strength. I only regret that the work had been proposed and launched before my
arrival here.
33. It is true that suggestions by an eminent Engineer in
England have added to the cost of the work whilst in progress. Those suggestions, however, were few, as indeed that most eminent professional man could suggest little as to a scheme, whose general propriety and fitness, depended mainly on circumstances not before him. The most costly change was the substitution of cement for ordinary mortar, and if the change was essential, I see no reason why that point should have escaped attention here.
34. Be that as it may, the large sum of $100,000, and
possibly much more, being required to finish what you were led to believe would have been completed without such additional expense, it would be useless to discuss at present projects for either a new Court House or a new Civil Hospital. The former Building I hope can easily be made to serve the purposes of the Colony for several years yet, though the same cannot be said of the Civil Hospital.
35. For "Roads, Streets and Bridges," the Sum of $41,000 is
put down, including the item of $15,000 to be expended in 1870 on account of the continuation of the Upper Road to the Gap above the Race Course. This item has now appeared for Four consecutive Years on the Estimates as laid before you by the Government, but has hitherto been obliged to give way to some more pressing claim. Now however, as all differences between the Colony and the Military concerning the ground through which part of the Road would pass, are at an end, and as moreover the inconvenience of the City's possessing only one mode of igress and escape to the Eastward has during the last Twelve Months become more obvious than formerly, I think this useful, and possibly reproductive work, has some chance of being at last commenced.
36. I have, however, no desire to press it specially against
your opinion if unfavorable, for if you maintain the Public Credit by ensuring a sufficient Revenue to meet all reasonable duties, I hope you will not suppose the Government has any pet immutable scheme for appropriation of the disposable Revenue. The duty of the Executive, it is true, necessitates the initiation of all Expenditure, but, as you are aware, it is and has been my desire to found such proposals, as far as possible, on some basis which I may have had previous reason to consider in harmony with our common wish and duty.
The Bills are then read a first time ; namely :—
(1). A Bill to authorize the Appropriation of a Supplementary Sum not exceeding Thirty-eight thousand Dollars to defray the Charges of the Year 1868.
(2). A Bill to apply a Sum not exceeding Six hundred and Forty thousand Dollars to the Public Service of the Year 1870.
His Excellency adjourns the Council at 20 minutes before 5 o'clock till Friday, the 24th Instant, at 3 P.M.
RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL,
Governor.
Read and confirmed, this 24th Day of September, 1869.
L. D'ALMADA E CASTRO,
Clerk of Councils.