My Lord,
As already intimated in my note of the 18th instant, your Letter and Inclosures of the 15th instant were the subject of my immediate attention.
In explanation of the difference between the first estimate and the final account of Public Works, the Provisional Committee made by the Board for the Management of Public Works, I may humbly refer to the return from the Accountant General which has been enclosed. The Audit Report on the Accounts of the Harbour Works at Hongkong appears that in England, it thence appears that for a period, not of a year but of nineteen months, (1st September, 1843, to 31st March, 1845) the income which these works were expected to yield will be received for £16,000; at the same time that Leases of Crown Land of this colony for Land Revenue of the Colony already sold was taken by estimate at £20,000, while it really did not reach £7,230, or half that amount.
When the expenses are taken into account...