Page 27
1. Under instructions from the Right Honourable the Secretary of State, His Excellency the Governor is pleased to direct that the following Rules respecting Pensions to the Public Servants of this Colony be published for general information.
2. Subject to the exceptions and provisions hereinafter contained, all public servants holding offices named in the Civil List Ordinance, or offices described in the annual estimates as the fixed establishment of the Colony, and drawing salaries of thirty pounds a year and upwards, shall be entitled to pensions as follows:----
To any person who shall have served ten years and upwards and under eleven years, an annual allowance of fifteen-sixtieths of the annual salary of his office.
For eleven years and under twelve years, an annual allowance of sixteen-sixtieths of such salary.
And in like manner, a further addition to the annual allowance of one-sixtieth in respect of each additional year of such service until the completion of a period of service of thirty-five years when the annual allowance of forty-sixtieths may be granted, and no addition shall be made in respect of any service beyond thirty-five years.
3. The Chief Justice, or any Puisne Judge, provided he shall not have served in any other office in the Colony, shall be entitled to a pension after seven years' service; at which time an allowance of three years' additional service shall be made to him; such pension to increase at the rate of two years' service for each additional year he serves, until an allowance of ten years' additional service has been made to him; after which his pension shall increase at the same rate only as other officers, until he shall have reached twenty-five years' service, when he may receive the full allowance of forty-sixtieths of his annual salary, and no addition shall be made for any service beyond twenty-five years.
4. The Colonial Chaplain, provided that, previous to his appointment in such capacity, he shall not have served in other office in the Colony, shall be entitled, after ten years' and under eleven years' service, to pensions at the rate of twenty-sixtieths of the annual salary of his office, increasing an additional sixtieth for every additional year's service, until the completion of thirty years' service, when the annual allowance of forty-sixtieths may be granted, and no addition shall be made in respect of any service beyond thirty years. The Surveyor General and the Assistant Surveyor General, when debarred from private practice, shall be allowed the benefit of five additional years in regard of pension on the ground of professional services.
5. Any public servant of the Colony who may be elevated to the office of Governor of Hongkong shall, on his retirement from that office, be entitled to the same pension as if he had continued to hold the office which he vacated when he was appointed Governor, and (supposing him not to be fifty-five years of age) as if he had retired from ill-health. Provided that, if there shall be offered to any such ex-Governor, being under the age of fifty-five years, any public office or situation under the Crown, which, having reference as well to the state of his health as to the nature of his previous services, such ex-Governor may, in the judgment of the Lords Commissioners of H.M.'s Treasury, be properly called upon to accept, it shall be competent to the said Lords Commissioners to declare, should he decline the same, that the pension of such ex-Governor shall be suspended until he shall obtain the age of fifty-five years.
6. No public servant will be held to have an absolute right to compensation for past services, or to any pension under this Minute; and Government will retain power and authority to dismiss any public servant without compensation.
7. No pension will be granted to any public servant without the authority of Her Majesty's Government, in order to obtain which, certificates of service, age, good conduct, and of the ground of retirement, must be submitted to the Secretary of State.
8. No pension shall be granted to any public servant, who shall be under fifty-five years of age, unless upon certificate from the head of the department to which he may belong, and from two medical practitioners that he is incapable, from infirmity of mind or body, to discharge the duties of his situation; nor unless he shall have discharged those duties with diligence and fidelity, to the satisfaction of the head of his department. And in case the officer claiming such pension shall be himself the head of a department, then such pension shall not be granted unless he shall have discharged the duties of his office with diligence and fidelity, to the satisfaction of the Governor, by whom the same shall be certified to the Secretary of State.
Page 27