Official Circular
To the Departments of the Government of Hongkong,
1. His Excellency The Governor is pleased to direct the circulation of the following Memorandum among the Departments of this Government, and requires the attention of all Government Officers to the Instructions therein given, in order that the Public Business may be conveniently carried on.
2. Through the many changes that have occurred from time to time in the various Departments, the Correspondence with the Colonial Secretary's Office has been conducted (a few instances excepted) with much irregularity.
3. The following Rules therefore, originally circulated on 19th August, 1848, by command of the Right Honorable The Earl Grey, Secretary of State for the Colonies, are now reissued for general guidance.
MEMORANDUM on the forms to be observed in Official Correspondence with the Department of the Colonial Secretary. "1. All Letters, as well as Enclosures, are to be written in a legible hand on foolscap size paper, one quarter of the page being left in the inner side, as
a margin.
"2. All Letters to this Department are to be munnbered, beginning at the commencement of each year with No. 1, and proceeding with the numbers
successively to the end of the year.
"3. Each Letter must be confined as much as possible to a single subject.
"4. In transmitting Enclosures in Letters, the contents of those Enclosures are to be briefly stated in the body of the Letter, and attention is to be directed to such points contained in them as may appear to be particularly deserving of notice. Whenever it is mentioned in a Letter that a paper is enclosed, a line is to be made in the margin, and to such line is to be affixed the number corresponding to the number of the Enclosure. "5. All Letters and the Enclosures which they may contain are to be folded and docketed. The docket of the Letter will consist of the place where, and the time when it was written, in the 1st and 2nd lines, respectively; the name of the writer and of the person to whom it is addressed in the 3rd and 4th; the number of the Letter in the 5th; the number of its Enclosures, if any, in the 6th; the word "Received" in the 7th with a blank after it, for the date of the day on which the said Letter shall be received; and in the 8th line a short Précis or abstract of its contents.
"The docket of the Enclosures will state what the Enclosure is (whether it be a Letter or any other document) its date, and its number; and will also contain a reference to the Letter in which it is transmitted.
6. A Schedule (as per form annexed) of all Letters addressed to the Colonial Secretary during the preceding twelve months is to be transmitted to this
Office at the close of each year."
"NOTE.---With reference to Paragraph 2, particular attention must be paid to keeping all Letters addressed to this Office entirely separate; that is to say,
the regular sequence of their numbers is on no account to be interrupted by communications to other Departments."
4. The copies of the Hongkong Government Gazette forwarded to each Department shall be carefully filed and preserved on record.
5. All separate copies of Ordinances furnished to a Department shall in like manner be carefully preserved.
6. Such copies of the Colonial Regulations as are placed in the Government Departments shall on no account be removed therefrom.
7. A Book shall be kept at each Office, in which the Clerks and Subordinate Officers shall record the hour of their arrival on each morning (Sundays excepted) throughout the year, and after each leave of absence shall note the same and its duration in the said Book.
The Head of each Department shall be held responsible for the observance of this Rule.
8. All Officers in receipt of monies on account of the Public Service shall pay the same every Saturday afternoon into the Colonial Treasury; and every neglect or omission in this respect shall be duly reported and, if possible, explained to the Colonial Secretary on or before Wednesday in the week next ensuing.
9. The following shall be deemed Government Holidays and observed as such in each year:
New Year's Day,
Good Friday,
Her Majesty's Birthday,
And 3 days at Christmas to be announced by the Government.
10. A Printed Copy of this Memorandum shall be conspicuously exhibited in each room of the Public Departments of Government.
By Command of His Excellency The Governor,
(Signed)
Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 20th April, 1860.
SCHEDULE of LETTERS transmitted by the
to the Colonial Secretary, during the Year ending 31st December, 186
No. OF DATE OF LETTER.
2
3
4
6
7
LETTER.
SUBJECT OF LETTER.
No. OF ENCLOSURES.
(True Copy)
WAAlexander
acting Colonial Securay
8
127
82