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of my present views of the duty imposed on me.
8. I trust however that the general interpretation of my intentions which I endorsed on the Duke of Buckingham's despatch of 20th October when first received, be admitted as a sound basis of my action. That Memo was to the effect 1st that no part of the License Fund should be used to diminish the local taxation of the Colony and secondly that the purposes to which it should be devoted ought to be primarily the suppression of crime, and dangers to property and Society arising directly or indirectly from Gaming and next to the improvement moral and physical of the Chinese portion of the population.
9. I have no doubt that even admitting the propriety of all deductions, recommended or permitted from the License Fund, the balance remaining will be embarrassingly large, perhaps not much less than $250,000 with a tendency to increase. Now this large existing and increasing fund is not to be wrapped in a napkin and left idle till some contingency, very difficult to define and almost more difficult to anticipate with any reasonable hope, shall afford an opportunity of suppressing by some successful coup vice which, from its nature and from the shifting character of the population of the Colony, cannot be disposed of