The Police Rate in Hongkong determined, not by the Legislative, but by the Executive Council.
8. I do not imagine the Charter of the Colony, to which the Colonial Secretary refers in support of the present system, to be an irrepealable and immutable Law - but a Law which the Sovereign Lawgiver may modify in the interest of her subjects. Whatever may have been the purpose of the Charter, under existing colonial usages it appears to me the functions of the Legislative and the Executive Councils are in practice not unfrequently confused and interchanged, and that much of the action of the Executive
might with public advantage be placed under the supervision of the Legislative Council, on the understanding always that the Legislative Council should stand on a broader basis, and that its aptitude for useful legislation should be increased by the introduction of a certain number of popularly elected Members.
9.
I do not know, in what respect the experiment made by Sir George Bonham six years ago failed. I am not acquainted with the prediction which anticipated that failure. My experience is, as President of the Legislative Council (of which the Colonial Secretary