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the
the expenses the purpose of defraying attendants on maintaining a police the general protection of the
for
inhabitants, and is to be raised on all lands, houses, and premises within the Colony of Hongkong, with the exception
of Charitable Institutions. Private houses, therefore, occupied by Military officers or hired by Government for
other purposes, are not exempt from the tax. The house, for instance, occupied as Government House, by His Excellency the Governor has always paid the rate since its occupation by him.
3.
In the absence of any special agreement between the lessor and lessee, the rate must ultimately be paid by the owner of the property, although in the first instance, if the rate be not paid when due, it will be levied on the tenant and chattels that may be found on the premises, a mode of proceeding not confined to this Colony, but in force wherever English Law prevails.
3. It is therefore the opinion of His Excellency the Governor, and he presumes that the respective Officers and Assistant Commissary General Smith, have been informed that the Attorney General concurs therein that the premises occupied by Lieutenant Colonel Lyre and the other officers are liable to this tax as others in Hongkong.
The local authorities do not, as alleged, intend to tax the Military, but it is not in the power of the Civil Government to waive any claim to
it is no more in ...