I have the honour to state that, owing to the assistance afforded me by the Registrar General's Office in furnishing me with a list of the occupiers of a former Tenement to subsequent occupancies, the owners of these Tenements recovered, with unerring accuracy, the rates due from them, and I forwarded them to the Treasury.
I have further to state that, under the former system of collecting Rates from the Tenants, the number of Defaulters averaged about 700 per quarter, but there were but 360 Defaulters on the 1st Quarter of this year, and only twenty-five (25) during the last Quarter, at the same time that the Total arrears uncollected during the last half year amount only to $156.65 cents.
It is also attributable to the present satisfactory collection of the Local Rates to the assistance and countenance I have experienced from His Excellency Sir Richard MacDonnell since his arrival at Hong Kong, and which had pertinaciously been denied the Treasury during a former Regime.
I believe that it may further prove satisfactory to His Excellency to know that I cannot reckon the collection of the Four Rates at less than $6,000 (upon the whole ...).