b.
ク 334 Licensing system.
4. It is admitted also that a great advantage accrued to the Colony by the termination of such demoralisation by the present system, and that illegal gaming houses have been thoroughly suppressed, a fact not to be refuted by the best idle contradiction of persons who cannot vouch their assertions by a single proof. It is also a great advantage, that the necessity of preventing accumulation of the License fee necessitates the expenditure of part of them for the examination of the physical and moral state of the Chinese portion of the population, as being the parties who really contribute those fees. Nor can it be denied that there is a direct advantage for the time being in the assistance given to the Police protection of the Community by creation of more Police Stations and Telegraphs, and the incorporation of a higher class of men in the Force.
All that and more admitted, but it is, nevertheless, equally true, that the Colony having wisely increased its taxation by the imposition of the Stamp duty, whilst pursuing a rigid system of economy during two years, and abstaining ad interim from undertaking many Public Works of acknowledged utility, has done so by foregoing these expenditures, and not by using the Special Fund.