28,269.56
309,400.00
ASSETS.
24
Enclosure No. 3 in No. 8.
Statement of Assets and Liabilities on the 31st December, 1863.
By Balance in the Treasury Chest and Vault....
Monies deposited in Chartered Banks at Interest
LIABILITIES.
$
C.
To Deposits not available
Pensions due by the Colony on 31st December, 1863
26,300.30 1,850.00
337,609.56
Expenses incurred in December, 1863 not paid until 1864
40,000.00
Balance in hands of the Crown Agents' on the 31st December, 1863 The Subsidiary Coinage, consisting of Ten cents pieces, Cents and Mils, paid for but not received at Hongkong on 31st December
13,130.78
40,319.74
Bills of the Emigration Agent for British Guiana transmitted home, the amount of which has not yet been placed to the Credit of the Colony
42,000.00
Advances, and other Monies to be recovered Estimated product of Sale of Old Furniture in Government House
8,140.02
1,500.00
Outstanding Revenue, viz:
Land Revenue
48,457.79
Taxes.....
2,500.13
Postages.
5,430.83
Interest
9,815.00
Other Revenue.
3,541.24
69,744.99
Total Liabilities, £14,197.19.7--$ 68,150.30 Excess of Assets over Liabilities... £92,761.8.5==$ 445,254.79
Total Assets, £106,959.7.10=$ 513,405.09
513,405.09
Auditor General's Office, Hongkong, 11th March, 1864.
W. H. RENNIE,
Auditor General.
25
112
In the actual working expenses be remitted half yearly to the Imperial Government until £50,000 be paid up. The payment may be spread over a longer period than two and a half years; or, on the other hand, it may possibly be made in less than that time. In either case, however, unless the Mint should prove a failure, the payment would be secure; and if the Mint should prove a failure it would be only just for the reasons explained in my letter of the 9th instant that the loss should fall on the Imperial Government.
7. In effect my proposal amounts simply to this, that the Colony should now pay in advance the military contribution demanded of it for 24 years, namely £50,000, and that the Imperial Government should advance the £50,000 necessary for the establishment of the Mint and be repaid this advance eventually out of the profits.
8. I think that this proposal is so reasonable that it can scarcely fail to receive the concurrence of Her Majesty's Government. It would indeed be hard if the Colony were taxed to meet an Imperial demand because its surplus funds are being diverted for an undertaking which ought in fairness to be established at the risk and expense of the Imperial Exchequer and in justice to myself I must observe that I should never have recommended the establishment of a Mint at the expense of the Colony if I had known that a military contribution of £20,000 a year was to be imposed.
9. If my present proposal be accepted, I think the correspondence which has passed upon this subject should be laid before the Legislative Council, so that the arrangement come to should be clearly understood. And indeed under any circumstances I beg that I may be informed of Your Grace's wishes with respect to the publication of the correspondence, for it will assuredly be called for when the matter is brought before the Council.
I have, &c. (Signed) HERCULES G. R. ROBINSON.
His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, K.G.,
&c.,
&c.,
&c.
No. 10.
(No. 35.)
MY LORD DUKE,
No. 9.
Copy of DESPATCH from Sir H. ROBINSON to His Grace the Duke of NEWCASTLE, K.G.
Hongkong, 12th April, 1864. Since writing mine of the 9th instant I have received Your Grace's Despatch of the 16th February intimating, in reply to one from Mr. Mercer of the 2nd December last, that the demand previously made for military contribution from this Colony would be enforced.
2. Having placed Your Grace, as it was my duty to do, unreservedly in possession of my own views on this subject, it only remains for me to observe that I shall endeavour to carry out Your Grace's decision in the matter with all loyalty and to the best of my ability.
3. But I would earnestly plead for some slight modification merely as regards the time and mode of payment.
4. If the contribution of £20,000 for 1865 is to be actually paid over during the course of next year a special tax must at once be imposed to raise that amount: and I do not see how it will be possible to impose any tax for the purpose which shall press equally upon all interests in the Colony without interfering with the freedom of the Port. Any measure of the kind will cause great dissatisfaction, and in all probability seriously interfere with the progress of the Colony.
5. Eventually also if a little grace be given it may be found that a special tax will not be required. The Colony is advancing at this moment from its surplus £50,000 for the Establishment of a Mint. This sum would be sufficient to pay the military contribution for two years and a half from the 1st January next, by which time it is just possible that the Colonial revenue may be able to meet such a charge.
6. What I would propose therefore is that the Colony in consideration of the sum advanced for the Establishment of the Mint should be considered to have paid the military contribution up to June 1867; and that all the profits of the Establishment over and above...
(No. 88.) SIR,
COPY of DESPATCH from the Right Honorable E. CARDWELL to Governor Sir H. ROBINSON.
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 30, dated the Downing Street, 25th June, 1864. 9th April, in which you ask for an early intimation of the Secretary of State's final decision as to the contribution to be paid by the Colony of Hongkong towards its Military Defence, and also of your further Despatch No. 35 of the 12th April, proposing that the Colony should now pay in advance the Military Contribution demanded of it for Two and a half years, amounting to £50,000, while the Imperial Government should advance the £50,000 necessary for the establishment of the Mint, such advance to be repaid eventually out of the profits.
I have given my best consideration to the arguments adduced by Mr. Mercer and yourself against calling on the Colony of Hongkong to contribute, like other British Colonies, to the cost of its Military Defence. I am quite unable to see in these Despatches any reasonable grounds for the exemption which is claimed for the Community under your Government, and I must request that you will, in accordance with your previous Instructions, consider it as definitively settled by Her Majesty's Government that an annual Contribution must be henceforth made by the Colony to the amount, £20,000, prescribed by my Predecessor the Duke of Newcastle. Nor can I consent to allow this payment to be encumbered by any circuitous arrangement with the British Treasury, whether respecting the establishment of the Hongkong Mint, or any other Item of Colonial expenditure.
If however the convenience of the Colony renders it inexpedient to advance at once from the Colonial Balances, or from the yearly Revenue, the sum necessary for the establishment of the Mint, I shall be prepared to give my favorable consideration to a proposal that the Colony should raise that sum by Loan or Debenture, or otherwise. You will consider yourself at liberty to lay the entire correspondence in the matter before your Council.
Governor Sir H. Robinson,
&c.,
&c., &c.
I have, &c. (Signed) EDWARD CARDWELL.