December 2, 1899.]
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
461
two points in connection with the financial positure during next year, say, $436,720, or an ag- tion of the Colony generally and especially in gregate of $336,720. connection with the Public Works Extraordin
character and if the Justices think a house is wanted in that particular deighbourhood.
Deputy Superintendent Badeley · The Justices are not compelled to disclose the work-ary proposed to be executed or commenced in ings of their minds.
1900, which appear to require attention and reconsideration.
With regard to the application of Mr. Bamjes in respect of the Stag Hotel, the Chairman said the Justices considered the application in private at the last suunal licen- sing sessions and decided not to grant it. He understood that since then certain alterations had been made.
Mr. Arthur said that accompanying the application was a letter from Messrs. Dennys and Bowley stating that two barmaids formerly employed in the hotel had been discharged and that it was not intended to engage barmaids *in the future.
Mr. H. Hursthouse appeared in support of the application. He said it was understood that the objection of the Justices to grant the license at the annual licensing sessions was at all events partly on account of two barmaids who were employed at the hotel. The effect of that refusal would be that the
place would have to be closed on Wedues. day unless in the meantime a fresh license was granted. There was ΠΟ
objection to Mr. Bamjee's personal character, and the two barmaids had since been dismissed.
The Chairman.-Are the police satisfied ? Deputy-Superintendent Badeley-Yes; we are satisfied.
The Justices considered the application in private, and decided to grant it.
THE HON. T. H WHITEHEAD'S PROTEST.
The following correspondence with a copy of Hon. T. H. Whitehead's protest regarding the estimates for Public Works has been forwarded to us for publication
HON. T. H, WHITEHEAD TO THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.
Hongkong, 24th November, 1899. Dear Sir, I hand you herewith сору in triplicate of my Protest, and reasons for that Protest, against the decision of the majority of the Council at yesterday's meeting in favour of the proposals of the Government in respect of Expenditure on Public Works Extraordinary during 1900. I intend to lay the Protest on the table under provisions of Rule 32 of the Stand. ing Orders of the Council at the next ordinary meeting, but I send these copies now in the hope that His Excellency the Governor will forward the same to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies by the mail to-morrow along with the Memorandum signed by the other Unofficial Members.
As the latter Memorandum has already appeared in print I am sending a copy of my Protest to the local Press this evening Yours very truly,
T. H. WHITEHEAD. The Honourable J. H. Stewart Lockhart,
C.M.G., Colonial Secretary.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY TO
HON. T. H. WHITEHRÅD,
Colonial Secretary's Office. 24th November, 1899.
Sir,-I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of to-day's date with its enclosures, and to state that the Governor regrets his inability to forward it by to-morrow's mail as His Excellency requires time to consider it with a viewto making his observations upon it before transmitting it to the Secretary of State. I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient
servant,
J. H. STEWaet LockhaET,
Colonial Secretary. The Honourable T. H. Whitehead.
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How is it that, with the large number of im- portant public works now pressing for attention, many of them most urgently required, so small an amount out of the admittedly available sur- 2.—In the first place the Colony is to be con- | plus revenue is to be applied in 1900 in the er. gratulated upon the fact that, in spite of the ecution of such works? very large and totally unforeseen expenditure incurred in taking over the New Territory, the corrected Estimates for the current year show a probable credit balance on the 31st December next of $400,000, including therein a balance from 1898 of 890,000. The revenue in nearly all its items has shown a surprising elasticity and the amount realised by the sale of land has been exceptionally large. In fact, the greater portion of the estimated surplus is derived from that source. There can be no more convincing proof of the growth and prosperity of the Col- ony (although other proofs are not wanting) than this increase in the quantity of land sold and the amount of premia realised on such males.
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5.-There is only one apparent justification for this very small estimate for Public Works Extraordinary in 1900, and that is the inability (if it exists) of the Public Works Department to prossed with works during the year to a greater extent than the amount esti- mated for, $331.100; but that is, in fact, no jus tification or exouse as the remedy is a simple and easy one, to adequately increase the strength of the Department either temporarily or per manently, or to get the necessary work done under the supervision of competent local architects.
Instead of increasing the strength of the Public Works Department to meet argent public necessities the Estimates for the coming year show a reduction in its strength, especially in Engineers, from what it was a few years ago.
This is a matter which urgently needs recon- sideration before the final approval of the Esti- mates and the passing of the Appropriation Or- dinance for 1900.
fands for the more urgently needed public 6. There is apparently abundant available works. The sound basis on which to proceed the list of works to be done in the order of their in the expenditure of that money is to arrange
importance and urgency, to take the most urgent in hand without delay, and to devote a portion of the funds in hand to providing, as an extraor dinary expenditure, the necessary staff for the purpose of superintending the work. There is no reason why an estimate for Extraordinary Public Works should not include the provision of an extraordinary supply of officers to super- iutend their execution.
3.-His Excellency the Governor in his open- ing statement put the credit balance from last year at $90,000 or thereabouts, and the balance at the end of the current year as shown by the corrected estimates at about $315,000, so making up the estimated total of $400,000. His figures for 1898 are taken apparently from the Tres- surar's Financial Returns laid on the table with the draft Estimates (Paper No 40 of 1899), This paper in its amended form includes two statements of the assets and liabilities of the Colony at the end of 1898 differing very con- siderably from one another and both of which cannot be corret. His Excellency seems to have adopted that dated the 13th March, 1899, and it undoubtedly seems to be the more correct as it contains a statement of the arrears of taxes and and Crown rent still outstanding and to be col- looted on 31st December, 1898; but the paper even as amended appears to be faulty and needs explanation before it can be accepted or even un- derstood. Among the liabilities the Treasurer includes $407,080.76 under the head of "Deposits not available." This amount probably represents monies deposited with the Government in con- nection with the Praya Reclamation, by suitors in in his address to the Council the "overwhelm. 8.- His Excellency the Governor pointed out the Supreme Court, and otherwise. The prin- ing importance of eradicating" the scourge of cipal items should be stated. It would appear plague and that if any information could be as if these monies have been applied in aid of obtained throwing light upon the causes of it, the general revenue although described as "not
"no expenditure within the reach of the Available" and as monies to be kept separate.
Colony would be too great to secure the " 088- On this balance of assets over liabilities on 31st De-ing of freedom from such a scourge,” cember, 1898, to be $213,358.39, whereas the assets as $251,056.94, or an increase of $37,698.55. one dated 29th September gives the balance of How does this arise ?
The statement dated 13th March shows the
7.-What are the Extraodinary Public Works in their order the most urgent and the most now in contemplation, and which of these are important?
importance
point there can be no difference of opinion. It
made for any work of any appears strange that, among the Public Works extraodinary estimated for, no provision is
directly bearing on the sanitation of the Colony or aiming at the improvement of the dwellings of the poorer classes of the Chinese population, it being common knowledge
that the defective construction of numerous
From the former sum of $213,358.39 there is deducted in the statment 8123.834.14, Balance of 1893 Loan." which without explanation in unintelligible. The Loan Ao- couuts are supposed to be kept separate from Chinese dwellings, want of light and air, the the general revenue of the Colony The return overcrowding, and the absence of all sanitary does contain a Sinking Fand Account, but no general account showing the present position of appliances for the use of the vast Chinese po- the Loan Fund. Has it all been expended?pulation, are among the contributory if not the If so has it all been expended on loan main causes of the plague. works, ie., on the works for which it was specifically borrowed. or has any portion of it been taken and applied in aid of the general revenue of the Colony F If so, then the money borrowed from the Loan Monies for general purposes should appear somewhere as an item of revenue, and the amount due from General Revenue to the Loan Fund should have appeared as a liability. The returns by the Treasurer of the assets and liabilities of the Colony at the end of 1898 are not comprehen- sible as they stand, and are in need of very considerable explanations and additions.
The final settlement of the Estimates for 1900 should be postponed until these accounts are cleared up and re-stated.
9.-More public latrines are most urgently required. There is nothing from a sanitary more urgently necessary. point of view For want of them, as Mr. Drury, Sanitary Surveyor, points out in his admirable re- port, dated 5th August last, the whole fruits of our expenditure on the drainage of the Colony during the last ten years is so much money thrown away. The storm-drains are still sewers as foul as the sewers themselves. The subsoil is still being steadily saturated
with filth. Ianumerable houses are still the water-closets and urinals of a large number The necessity of the native population. for public urinals and for many more of them, and for the taking over of the exist- the Colony, had 4-According to His Excellency the Gover- ing private latines in nor's statement and the Treasurer's Return be- been the subj-ot of the most pressing represent- fore referred to, there will be a surplus on 31stations to the Government since the first arrival of helate Colonial Surgeon in the early seventies. December next, over and above the current ex- penses, in round numbers, of $400,000, and the Every sanitary authority has reported in favour Estimates for next year provide for an Expen- of it See Evidence and Appendix annexed diture on Public Works Extraordinary during to the Report of the Insanitary Properties 1.-A. careful consideration of the Estimates 1900 of $331,10) only. The actual amount Commission dated 9: March 1833]; but there ̈ for the coming year and of the statement to the available for Public Works Extraordinary in is no provision at all in the Estimates for the Council with which His Excellency the Gover-11900 is the said $400,000, plus the estimated purchase of private latrines and provision for the mor introduced the Estimates, suggest ons or - surpins Ravenne over the ordinary Expendi. | erection of only one public latrine during 1900
THE HON, T. H, WHITEHEAD'S PROTEST. PROTEST by the undersigned Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council of Hongkong with reference to the Estimates for Public Works Extraordinary, during the year 1900, and against the refusal of the Government to reconsider and remodel them.
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