# MEMORANDUM.
POLICE, LIGHTING AND WATER RATES, 1866. 1ST JANUARY TO 25TH AUGUST.
Rates paid by Europeans, Parsees, Armenians and Jews,....$110,002.48
Rates paid by Chinese, ...$94,393.52
Excess paid by Europeans, Parsees, Armenians and Jews over Chinese,.... $15,608.96
Tenements occupied by Chinese, ...... 4,177
Do. do. by Europeans, Parsees, Armenians and Jews, 929
Excess of Chinese over European, Parsee, Armenian and Jewish occupancies, 3,248
TREASURY, Hongkong, 25th August, 1866.
(Signed,) FRED. FORTH.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY, SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, KNIGHT, C.B., Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Hongkong.
The Memorial of the Undersigned, Inhabitants of the Colony--
HUMBLY SHEWETH:
THAT at a Public Meeting held at the Supreme Court House, Hongkong, on the 28th Day of August instant, attended by a very large number of the Residents of the Colony, certain resolutions were carried, Copies of which are attached hereto and to which we beg Your Excellency's attention.
THAT in accordance with the fourth resolution, Your Memorialists now proceed to address Your Excellency on the subject of the proposed Stamp Ordinance.
In the first place they beg to refer to the items of Expenditure in the Estimates of 1867 in respect of which the alleged deficit in the Revenue is expected to arise, being Five in number and amounting to $114,000 and, looking at their nature and character, they beg to lay before Your Excellency their opinion, that, in respect of these items—
Firstly.-There is no necessity for any new method of taxation of a permanent character.
Secondly.-Even if there is a present necessity for more money than the ordinary Revenue of the Colony will supply, the best mode of raising the required sum is by direct taxation, in the manner always hitherto pursued in the Colony, which can be done, without any difficulty, by an increase of the existing taxes, or by the imposition of a special rate of a similar or analogous character.
Thirdly.-While your Memorialists fully Agree in the proposition that all Public Works, necessary for the advancement of the Colony, in either a sanitary, or social, point of view, should be proceeded with, they respectfully urge that the three items of proposed expenditure alluded to in the third resolution are not of such a character as to necessitate their being carried out, until the future financial position of the Colony, as depending, in a great measure, upon the maintenance or abandonment of the Mint, is determined, or until the Ordinary Revenue of the Colony will admit of the expenditure.
Fourthly.-If Your Excellency should coincide with Your Memorialists in their lastly expressed opinion, the items of expenditure calling for consideration are two: one, the $26,000 towards maintenance of the Gun-boat, the other $50,000 for part construction of a reservoir. With regard to the latter item, Your Memorialists, representing, as they do, all sections or interests of the Community, beg that Your Excellency will provide for this sum by a special rate for a fixed period, either added to the present Water Rate, or imposed on the assessed Rental of the Colony as a "Reservoir Rate," or, what is perhaps a more desirable plan, by borrowing this money on Debenture securing the holder, by a charge on a Water Rate, to be levied for the purpose over a longer period.
With regard to the former item, for the Gun-boat, Your Memorialists feel assured that the proper way to pay for this is to class it as Police Expenditure, and levy for it an additional Police Rate, which will be readily borne by all classes of the Community, who all, without exception, will benefit by its maintenance.
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