82 HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 2ND JULY, 1908
PRESENT.―
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR: ― SIR FREDERICK JOHN DEALTRY LUGARD, K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O.
HIS EXCELLENCY MAJOR-GENERAL BROADWOOD (General Officer Commanding). HON. MR. F. H. MAY, C.M.G. (Colonial Secretary).
HON. MR. W. REES DAVIES, K.C. (Attorney General).
HON. MR. L. A. M. JOHNSTON (Colonial Treasurer).
HON. MR. W. CHATHAM, C.M.G. (Director of Public Works).
HON MR. E. A. IRVING (Registrar-General). HON. COMMANDER BASIL R. H. TAYLOR, R.N. (Harbour Master).
HON. DR. HO KAI, M.B., C.M., C.M.G.
HON. MR. H. E. POLLOCK, K.C.
HON. MR. WEI YUK, C.M.G.
HON MR. MURRAY STEWART.
MR. C. CLEMENTI (Clerk of Councils). Minutes.
The minutes of the previous meeting were read, and confirmed.
Finance Minutes.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of H.E. the Governor, laid on the table Financial minutes Nos. 31 and 32, and moved that they be referred to the Finance Committee.
THE COLONIAL TREASURER seconded and the resolution was agreed to.
Financial.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of His Excellency the Governor, laid on the table the report of the Finance Committee (No. 11) and moved its adoption.
THE COLONIAL TREASURER seconded,
and the motion was agreed to.
Paper.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of His Excellency the Governor, laid on the table correspondence relating to the transfer to the Government of the Widows' and Orphans' Pension Fund.
The Floods in South China.
HIS EXCELLENCY―Gentlemen, I rise to propose a resolution which I much regret has not been in the hands of hon. members earlier. The matter is of some urgency, and the draft has only been received from the printers in time to place it on the table at this meeting. The resolution is:―
"That the Legislative Council of Hongkong desires on behalf of the community, to convey to the Governor General of the two Kwang provinces, its deep sympathy in the appalling calamity which has overtaken a large part of the population of Kwangtung and Kwangsi.
"It is further resolved that a sum of Thirty thousand dollars be disbursed from the General Revenue of the Colony as a donation from the Colony of Hongkong to the Fund for the relief of the sufferers from the recent floods in the Kwangtung and Kwangsi Provinces."
Hon. members will have seen in the local Press, and may have heard I daresay from other sources, of the terrible calamity which has overtaken the inhabitants of the neighbouring provinces in South China, with whom this Colony has always maintained close relations. I have not any authentic information to lay before the Council derived from official sources, but I wrote several days ago to the British Consul-General in Canton for confirmation of the reports which have reached us. It is, however, sufficient for us that the Chinese community in this Colony is fully convinced of the extent of the calamity, and of the enormous loss of life and great distress which has been caused by it. They have come forward themselves already with that generosity and sympathy for distress which we are used to associate with them, and which forms such an admirable trait in the Chinese character.
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The Tung Wah Hospital Committee recently― the day before yesterday, I think―sent a letter to the Registrar-General in which they stated that "the present flood is probably one of the greatest in history. The sudden bursting of the embankments caught the people absolutely unprepared. The number of those who were drowned is enormous. Some escaped to elevated spots where they now find themselves in worse condition, as they can do nothing but wait for death." They asked me to invite the European firms and merchants of the Colony to assist in relieving the sufferings of the thousands of our starving neighbours. I discussed with the Executive Council the steps we should take in this crisis, and we considered that to open a subscription list as was done in 1903 under somewhat similar circumstances, would at the present time be unsatisfactory owing to the large number of influential and wealthy European inhabitants who are absent from the Colony. It would not, I think, adequately represent the sympathy which we feel for the inhabitants of the two Kwang Provinces in their distress.
Hon. members will recollect that when Hongkong suffered from the disastrous typhoon in September, 1906, the Governor-General of the two Kwang Provinces sent a handsome donation to my predecessor for the relief of the sufferers in that typhoon; though in all probability the numbers then affected were much smaller than those affected by the present distress. The resolution which I have read proposes that $30,000 should be devoted from the revenue of the Colony towards the relief of this distress. I wish that the sum were much larger, but looking to the difficulties in which, as hon. members are aware, we are placed in regard to our finances at the present time, I think it is as much as we can well afford. I trust however that the extent of the generosity and sympathy of the European community with the Chinese in their trouble will not be measured by the extent of this donation. Later on, when the Colony is reinforced by its absent members we may be able to open a subscription list with more satisfactory results than would be likely to accrue at present. I hope hon. members, by voting this resolution unanimously, will show that we genuinely sympathise, and that we at any rate give this instalment at once on the
principle that bis dat qui cito dat. (Hear, hear, and applause).
HON. DR. HO KAI―I have much pleasure in seconding the resolution which you have put to the Council Although we have not what may be called official confirmation of the calamity and its extent, still I think we may get some idea of it from the memorandum which has been sent by the Viceroy of Canton to the Chinese Government. It has been published in the native papers and I believe in some of the European papers as well. There the Viceroy reported to the Throne that the present flood is the most calamitous that has taken place during the last 15 or 20 years, and he asked the Throne to devote a sum of money for the relief of the sufferers in the Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces. Thus we have some official confirmation of the fearful disaster which has overtaken the poor people of these provinces by reason of the recent flood. Sir, as you have stated just now, the Chinese Government in 1906 showed its sympathy with the inhabitants of Hongkong when they suffered from the disastrous typhoon, and subscribed a sum of 30,000 taels towards the relief of the sufferers, and by voting this $30,000 I think we are in a measure returning the kindness and sympathy shown to us at the time of the typhoon. I am sure that hon. members and every member of the community will, without distinctions of nationality or race, endorse the action of the Government. As you say, Sir, the amount is not very large, but it practically shows to the Canton Government and people our sympathy with them in their calamity. For that reason I have much pleasure in seconding the resolution.
The motion was agreed to.
Widows' and Orphans' Fund.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY moved the first reading of a Bill entitled An Ordinance to provide for the Transfer to the Government of Hongkong of the Widows' and Orphans' Pension Fund and of the Management and Control of the Pensions of Widows' and Orphans and to consolidate the laws in relation thereto.
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He added―In connection with this Bill I beg to lay on the table, by direction of your Excellency, correspondence relating to the transfer to the Government of the said fund. That correspondence contains full information on the subject which I shall be happy to supplement on the second reading. I regret, Sir, that this Bill has not been in the hands of hon. members earlier. The amount of printing at present has been very heavy and I trust hon. members will excuse the short notice in considering this Bill. As the first reading is only formal I trust they will read the Bill for the first time to-day.
THE ATTORNEY -GENERAL seconded and the motion was agreed to.
Exportation of Opium Ordinance.
THE ATTORNEY -GENERAL moved that Council go into Committee on the Bill entitled an Ordinance to prohibit the Exportation of Prepared Opium to China.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the motion was agreed to.
HIS EXCELLENCY:―This Bill has been held over for some weeks because I was unwilling to proceed with it until I should been seen the Imperial Edict under which the Government of China undertakes to reciprocate our action. I accordingly wrote to the British Minister at Peking who replied in a letter which I received yesterday that the Imperial "rescript" which he had informed me had been issued was in fact an "Edict," and should have been so described. There is therefore no further need for delay.
The Bill passed through Committee with slight amendments and was afterwards read a third time.
The Public Health Ordinance.
THE ATTORNEY -GENERAL moved the Council to allow the Bill entitled an Ordinance to amend the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance 1903, and the Public Health and Buildìngs Amendment Ordinance 1903, to be recommitted, as there were certain amendments which he desired to move.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and
the motion was agreed to.
THE ATTORNEY -GENERAL moved an amendment to clause 4. He said Clause 4 dealt with the constitution of the Sanitary Board, and as the method by which the unofficial numbers of the Board were elected had been altered, he proposed to amend the clause so as to preserve the tenure of office of unofficial members of the Board. Therefore it would be necessary to provide for that in clause 4, and he proposed to insert the words "Shall not affect the tenure of office of the present unofficial members of the Sanitary Board, each of whom shall continue to be a member of the Board until the expiration of the current term of his office." He had also to move a further amendment to section 9 of the principal Ordinance which referred to ratepayers. In lieu of ratepayers the electors would be such persons as were required to serve on common juries, etc.
These amendments were agreed to.
THE ATTORNEY -GENERAL―In regard to Clause 85 of the Bill, since the last meeting of the Council, Your Excellency has received a letter from His Honour the Chief Justice in reference to this clause. The letter reads:―
Chambers,
Supreme Court, Hongkong,
1st July.
SIR,―I have noticed in the newspapers that Your Excellency has acted on the suggestion which I had the honour to make to Your Excellency in my letter of 18th June last in connection with the new Buildings Ordinance. So far as I am able to judge from the newspaper reports, the constitutional point which I raised is met by the amendment. I think it my duty, however, to point out that the deletion of the sentence which made it obligatory on the Governor in Executive Council to submit a question of law to the Full Court when requested by the opposite party might possibly lead to a conflict between the Court and the Governor-in-Council, though not on a constitutional question. I observed that the Attorney General said that he should advise the Governor in Executive Council, in the event arising, to remit the question when request is made by the opposite party. But in the event of refusal very awkward questions might arise to which, for greater
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 85
caution, I am content to draw Your Excellency's attention before the bill becomes law. It appears to me possible that the Court might be called upon to require the Governor in Executive Council, in spite of such refusal, to state a case for the next Full Court, when a question of difficulty and delicacy would be raised, which I suggest to Your Excellency it would be better if possible to avoid. I have not seen the article as amended, but there is one further point on which I have been somewhat exercised and to which I think it right also to draw Your Excellency's attention. Is it quite clear that the question will come before the Full Court to be argued by both sides unless, of course, one party makes default? The Court cannot act as adviser to the Government. As I say, I have not seen the text of the article, and it may be that there is no room for doubt on this question.
I have the honour to be
Your obedient servant,
(Sd) F. T. PIGGOTT.
Well, Sir, the effect of that letter as regards paragraph 1 is that in the view of His Honour the Chief Justice, the Court might be asked to order by mandamus the Governor-in-Council to state a case for the opinion of the Full Court if the appellant desires it, and the Governor-in-Council has not acquiesced in the application. The clause as it reads vests a discretionary power in the Governor-in Council. The words are "The Governor-in-Council may at any time in his discretion." In my humble opinion, assuming the discretion has been fairly exercised, no proceedings for mandamus would lie. If the duty cast on the Governor-in-Council be of a judicial character a mandamus would be granted only where there is a refusal to perform it in any way; not where it is done in one way rather than another, erroneously instead of properly. In other words, the Court will only insist that the person who is to judge shall act as such; it will not dictate in what way his judgment shall be given. It was not the intention of the Council, when it passed the clause as it stands at present, that the discretion of the Governor-in-Council, which will at all times be fairly exercised, should be fettered. Having regard to the language of the Chief Justice that "the Court might be called upon to require the Governor-in
Executive Council, in spite of such refusal, to state a case for the opinion of the Full Court, when a question of difficulty and delicacy would be raised which I suggest to Your Excellency it would be better if possible to avoid"―having regard to the remarks of his Honour the Chief Justice the Government proposes to insert at the end of clause 85 express words to meet the apprehensions of the Chief Justice: "No proceedings by way of mandamus, injunction, prohibition or other orders shall be taken against the Governor-in-Council in respect of anything arising out of this action." I may explain, Sir, that this will not affect the Common Law remedies which exist in the previous clauses, but simply, having regard to the opinion of the Chief Justice in reference to the phraseology, it only provides that the rights of the Governor-in-Council, the discretion vested in the Governor-in-Council, shall not be fettered in any way by any such application.
HON. MR. POLLOCK proposed an amendment to section 265A by inserting the words "by order" in line 14. His object, he explained, was to make section 265A fit in with section 265B.
The amendments were accepted and passed. Council then resumed.
THE ATTORNEY -GENERAL―I think, Sir, that the Bill has been thoroughly thrashed out, and all contentious matters are at an end. I would move that the Bill be read a third time.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded.
THE HON. MR. MURRAY STEWART:―The importance to the Colony of the legislation which is now before us in its final stage will, I hope, be held to justify the somewhat unusual but not disorderly course of reaffirming certain relevant truths, by way of preface to the Third Reading. Even the old resident has his uses, and one of these is to remind this rapidly changing community of the continuity which runs through its somewhat chequered existence. Newcomers and short sojourners in our midst―those to whom life in Hongkong is merely a dull or a pleasant interlude―may
86 HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
hardly realise how that sense of continuity lends an interest to an otherwise humdrum occasion like the present, in the eyes of those who have watched the forging of the long chain of causes and effects in which it is an additional link. I did not join in the debate on the second reading because the comprehensive speech with which it was opened left nothing that could, at the time, advantageously be added in upholding the main principle. In the position of an avowed adherent of that principle, to listen to the first speaker's overwhelming attack in defence of it, was much like what I imagine it must be to watch, from some coign of vantage in the rear, the delivery of a brilliant and successful cavalry charge. To have followed in support would have been to trample on fallen enemies. The enemies then ridden down are the ideas which every now and then rally round someone who raises a cry for representative institutions in this Colony and who agitates for a municipality as a first step. In commenting at the time on the vigour of that onslaught, Your Excellency proceeded upon the assumption that the fallen were dead. I know them of old. I knew that they were only down, not done for, and inasmuch as they have risen up since and show signs of recovery I propose briefly to return to the charge. It may, I think, advantageously be reaffirmed that these ideas have no influential backing in this Colony; that they are neither so widely nor so tenaciously held as might be supposed by anyone deriving his impressions from utterances in the local Press. Of one thing I am very sure―that they are held in scant favour by the leading members of the mercantile community. The leading members of the mercantile community do not want to govern municipally, and they certainly do not want to be governed municipally, under any so-called popular system. The consenus of opinion is that under the special circumstances of our environment the existing system is suitable enough. True, as regards the working of the system they frequently make free use of the right of every Briton. But as regards the principle of authority in our municipal affairs resting with the servants of the Crown there is practical unanimity among those for whom I speak, and on their behalf I congratulate the Government upon having maintained it. The Government are further to be congratulated upon having kept steadily in view the
fundamental principle of the original Bill, which in turn is grounded upon the essential economic fact of our existence.
Hongkong is a wharf. That is its primary function. Its function as a warehouse is secondary. So is its function as a mart and distributing centre. If ships do not come here to discharge, there will be nothing to buy, sell, or distribute except granite. The shores of the old world are strewn with the crumbling ruins of cities formerly enjoying prosperity akin to ours, great commercial emporiums, busy and thriving ports from whose quays the stream of commerce has, for one reason or another, been diverted―the study of the causes of whose decline has a special claim upon the attention of all concerned in guiding the destiny of any modern maritime city. Humanly speaking, however, we may confidently rely upon the natural advantages of the harbour to attract shipping, if only we can keep the port free and uninfected. To ensure this by all available legislative and administrative means is the bounden duty of the Government. That is the half of the truth which appeals most powerfully to the mercantile section of the community. The mandate contained in the petition of 1901 was issued on the strength of it. But though it is the bounden duty of the Government to so legislate and administer, it is also theirs to see that they go no step beyond that duty in the direction of imposing onerous burdens upon the community; it is incumbent upon them to take care that in the endeavour to secure the health of the port they do not unnecessarily impair the wealth of the port, either by scaring capital away from property, or by harassing unduly the Chinese population, upon whose content and well-being, equally with tonnage, our prosperity depends. This is the other half of the truth which naturally impresses itself upon the property owning section of the community. This is the half of the truth which the report of the Sanitary Commission energetically advanced. Truth emerges from the opposition of half-truths. To find the point at which truth so emerges is one of the functions of Government. The contention over the public health has always obviously been a collision of half truths, and though to some it may seem unprofitable to discuss interdependent
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interests as though they were divergent, it is almost necessary for purposes of discussion to consider the community by sections. Property owners are a highly important section of the community, but those responsible for the administration of the Colony are under an obligation to look over the heads of property owners as a class. They must adopt a higher standpoint and take a broader view ― a view involving the widest possible consideration of the interests of the community as a whole. Formerly, as we all know, it was the fashion to censure the Government for an alleged failure to realise this. It used freely to be said that the well being of the Colony suffered owing to the Administration having adopted too lenient a view of the duties of ownership. I do not forget the state of public feeling in 1896 when people went in fear of their lives. There was not much sympathy for property owners in those days. The Colony was the victim of their cupidity. The Government was culpably negligent for not having restrained their greed. They deserved no mercy in the matter of compensation or otherwise. They ought to be made to pay. Anyone who will take the trouble to read the report of the Commission appointed in that year may discover for himself the origin of all subsequent sanitary legislation. There he will find the spokesmen of the community advocating laying upon the property owners the cost of improvements. In the years immediately succeeding, public interest in the matter to some extent waned. The American-Spanish war started a tidal wave of prosperity. Plague showed signs of abatement. Property advanced in price. The profits were widely distributed. The shortcomings of the Government were almost as widely forgotten. In the year of China's tribulation in particular, money poured into the place and no one was very much to blame for anything. But, in 1901, when plague broke out again as bad as before, was there ever such an incompetent Administration? And then again the usual comment was that our commercial prosperity had been sacrificed to the interests of the landlords.
The deduction to be made from a survey of the past fourteen years seems to be that the degree in which the claims of property owners are to be considered, and the degree in which the Government are to be blamed for considering them too much, vary in direct ratio to the number of
plague cases. The truth of this deduction has received striking confirmation during the last four months. The introduction of this Bill was made the occasion of an outburst of sympathy in the press with the hardships of property owners. The Commission was held to have championed their cause, and it was proclaimed in flaring headlines that the Commission had been flouted. The chief need in this Council was said to be for determined opposition to the Government, in the threatened interests of property, and these were abandoned, almost in despair, after the debate on the second reading. And yet three weeks ago when a clause which in its original form was said by property experts to spell ruin, and which was unofficially opposed as introducing a certain burden of doubtful benefit, the representations of the unofficial members were discountenanced, and the Government were urged not to listen to the wail of property owners. Why this change of attitude? It can hardly be explained unless we assume it to have been caused by the regrettable increase in plague cases during the period intervening between the introduction of the Bill and the Committee stage. That is the way I explain it, and herein is to be found in miniature the history of sanitary legislation in this Colony.
If the Government in their desire to comply with the petition of 1901 erred on the side of severity, it is only an instance of the first law of motion to obtrude itself into human affairs. And it therefore appears to me to display the existence of a rather poor spirit in any section of the community which seeks to throw all the blame for defects in the resulting legislation―defects be it noted which have since revealed themselves ―upon the shoulders of the permanent officials. Those who, like myself, signed that petition, will feel that the community can without undue generosity consent to share whatever blame is needful to be borne for the wrongs which this Ordinance seeks to set right. It is now admitted, I take it, that the Government were too lenient towards property owners prior to 1903, and that since then they have not been lenient enough. This admission is implied by the recognition of the necessity for the present ordinance. That the necessity was amply recognised by the officials of the Government has been
88 HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
demonstrated by the indefatigable manner in which they have striven to find ways and means of reconciliation and agreement. The numerous preliminary meetings, held between the permanent officials immediately concerned and those best qualified to speak with technical knowledge on behalf of the property owners, relieved this Council of all the hard work and the members who were not thus engaged are able to praise, without self praise, the results in reasonable compromise which have been achieved. The actual work of drafting such a constantly changing document must have been prodigious, and those upon whom it mainly fell are to be congratulated upon the sight of the end of their labours, and upon the lively hope that these have not been undertaken in vain. At least in this hope all sections of the community may unite, and also, I venture to think, in the belief that all the earnest work, all the tedious pains, all the anxious thought and care distilled into these few pages of print have not been thrown away, but on the contrary have greatly improved the machinery of the original Bill. For the satisfactory running of it we must now look to the same individual assiduity that has wrought this improvement, and which, compounded with commonsense, should act as a lubricant to decrease friction and prevent jars. Of all needlessly narrow interpretations of the powers of the Building Authority we shall hope to have heard the last. To trust greatly is to expect great things. In particular we shall expect great things from the personal qualities of the new executive head of the Sanitary Department, upon whose tact and administrative judgment we must rely for the enlistment of the sympathy and co-operation of the Chinese,―without which, when all is said and done, the Government can do next to nothing. The cause of plague is obscure. How the rat gets it who can say? But how men get it from rats we know. The cause is obscure but the cure is cleanliness. To persuade the Chinese of that is the crux of the whole question. How much can be done along these lines by personal representation and leadership was proved by Sir Henry Blake's notable experiment made seven years ago. The successful administration of the law will depend upon the human agency employed, but that after all is not the business of this Council. The business of this Council is to pass good laws, and in the belief that this amending, and much amended, Ordinance
can now be so regarded, I shall record my vote in favour of the Third Reading. That the letter of the law is now perfect I do not assert, but that it is on the whole satisfactory, I venture to affirm. And so at the end it is possible to see, and it is only right to say, unofficially as well as officially―and in the position which I temporarily occupy in this Council, as well as for another reason, it gives me particular satisfaction to say ― that the result of the appointment of the Sanitary Commission has proved to be a distinct benefit to the Colony. When the first bitterness of the contention set up by their report is recalled and is contrasted with the present reasonable attitude displayed in public utterances concerning it, there would appear to be reason for thinking that public opinion favours the idea that the present is a suitable occasion for the Government and the community to adopt the good old custom of shaking hands after a fight; and, joining in the terms of the general confession, to agree to go forward with the added strength of mutual support and confidence in waging unremitting warfare against the fell disease which at intervals has so sorely afflicted humanity since the beginning of history. In combating it the community has been divided long enough by opposing half truths. It is time to seek union in the whole truth. The whole truth is that in our right minds we desire, all of us, the all-round well-being of the Colony, and this whole truth should make us free― free from myopic views and divisional strife―and bound only by the duties, the claims and the aspirations of our common citizenship.
HIS EXCELLENCY―Gentlemen, I welcome the speech of the hon. member who has just sat down. He has spoken in his usual eloquent terms, in summing up the general motives of this bill. I think I too may congratulate the Council on having at last got this heavy task off its hands, a task to which everyone of us has given the utmost thought and attention with the desire to achieve the best we could in the interests ―I may say the often conflicting interests―involved in its production. Our object has been on the one hand to preserve the interests of sanitation in this Colony, which has been liable year after year to plague, and which is never free from disease. On the other hand to do no violence to property
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owners and to avoid, if possible, the depreciation of property, and on the other hand not to alienate the feelings of the Chinese, but to endeavour in a more energetic way than perhaps ever before, to enlist their sympathy and co-operation with us in order to carry out our desires in the matter of sanitation. And we hope to enlist that sympathy, not merely by making the terms of the Ordinance less drastic, but by endeavouring to get them to understand the meaning of the ordinance and how by carrying it out they will be working for their own good (applause). The second point on which the hon. member who represents the Chamber of Commerce dwelt―and I followed his remarks with the greatest pleasure―was that during the long discussion on this bill it has been the desire of the Government to listen to every possible argument and discuss it fully, and by means of conferences held outside this chamber to smooth the way when difficult points arose so as to arrive at unanimity, and avoid friction, even at the risk of having to commit, and recommit and recommit again, as we have done during the last two or three weeks. I am glad too, that at the close of his speech he anticipated me in one remark which I had it in my mind to make, and that was to congratulate the Sanitary Commission on the ultimate result now achieved by the passing of this Bill. That Commission, as I have frequently said in this chamber, has merited the gratitude of the Colony, and I think that after their long twelve months' work they may feel legitimately proud in that they were the prompting cause of the inauguration of this Bill. I would, however, take objection to the phrase that the Government should now shake hands with their opponents in the good old way which was the custom after a fight. I maintain we have not fought. (Hear, hear). We have had legitimate argument, each side representing its own point of view, and we have examined each point of view. The Government does not admit having taken up a diametrically antagonistic attitude towards the Sanitary Commission, or towards anyone else and for my part I certainly disclaim any such feeling. (Applause).
The Bill was then read a third time, passed, and became law.
HIS EXCELLENCY ― Council stands adjourned until next Thursday.
FINANCE COMMITTEE.
A meeting of the Finance Committee was then held, the Colonial Secretary presiding. The following votes were passed:―
The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of Two thousand two hundred and twenty one dollars ($2,221) in aid of the vote, Harbour Master's Department, for the following items:―
A―HARBOUR OFFICE
Personal Emoluments.
*Allowances for Painting Numbers
on Junks to:―3rd Grade Clerk, at
$30 ................................................... $ 15 2 5th Grade Clerks and Shroffs, at
$36 each........................................... 36 Inspector of Junks and Cargo Boats,
at $180............................................. 90 Assistant Inspector of Junks and
Cargo Boats at $120....................... 60 3rd Grade Assistant Inspector of
Junks and Cargo Boats, at $90...... 45 11 Police Officers, in charge of
Outstations, 4 at $180, 4 at $120,
and 3 at $60 each............................ 690 3 Police Constables at Outstations, 2
at $90 each, & 1 at $60 .................. 120 3 Seamen, $24 each............................ 36 34 Boatmen, 10 at $24, 12 at $18
and 12 at $12 each.......................... 300 20 Police Boatmen at Outstations,
13 at $24, & 7 at $18 each............. 219 Painter, at $48...................................... 24 ――$1,635
Other Charges.
Paints, Brushes, &c., for Painting
Number on Junks, ......................... 550
E―STEAM-LAUNCHES.
Steam-Launch Daisy
Personal Emoluments.
* Allowances for Painting Numbers
on Junk to:―
Engineer, at $24,.................................. $ 12 2 Seamen; at $24 each........................ 24 36
Total $2,221 * For 6 months from 1st July to 31st December, 1908.
Charitable Services
The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of Thirty thousand dollars (30,000) in aid of the vote, Charitable Services, Other Charitable Allowances.