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to enquire into the arrears in the collection of the Police and Lighting Dues at Hong Kong, under the Ordinance dated 5th of 1863, require some explanation on the part of that officer.
Their Lordships, however, are not fully satisfied from the documents before them that the responsibility for these arrears rests solely and entirely with the Treasurer.
The Committee justly remark "that, having regard to the migratory habits of a large portion of the Chinese population in the Colony, unless the amount of the Rates be notified and the payment enforced during the currency of the quarter in respect of which they are charged, it is manifest that error, confusion, and loss must inevitably ensue." And my Lords consider that the origin of the large arrears, amounting on the 31st of July, 1865, to $42,039, may be traced to the lateness of the period, viz., the 20th of February, at which the assessment for the year 1864 was, under the 12th section of the Ordinance, fixed and published in the Gazette.
This duty, under the Ordinance, devolves upon the Governor and Executive Council, and though the Treasurer, as the officer responsible for the collection of the rates, cannot but be considered remiss in not calling the attention of the Governor to the necessity of earlier action in the matter, his duty (in a strictly departmental sense) hardly seems to commence until after the public notification of both the valuation and assessment.