Council. He can do so if he wishes, but need not do so always.
The bill was read a first time.
NATURALISATION OF DR. EITEL. His EXCELLENCY--Gentlemen, I propose an Ordinance which is very short; it is an Ordinance to naturalise as a British subject the Rev. Dr. Eitel. In the month of February last Dr. Eitel applied to the Governor to be naturalised, and I sent on the paper to the Acting Attorney-General (Mr. Russell) with a request that he would prepare the naturalisation Ordinance for the Legislative Council. Mr. Russell, however, drafted a general naturalisation Ordinance, which should be an Ordinance once and for all by which any person could be naturalised by the Governor in Executive Council. However, on referring the matter to the Secretary of State, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach expressed the opinion that it would be as well to proceed in the way that in fact Dr. Eitel himself had indicated in February, namely, that any person who desired to be naturalised in Hongkong could do so by legislative enactment. Of course you are aware there is no Imperial Act which authorises the legislature of any British colony to naturalise any person in that Colony. I move the first reading of the bill.
The bill was read a first time.
CHINAMEN NOT TO BE FLOGGED FOR REFUSING TO PUT OUT FIRES.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL—Your Excellency, I have to ask leave to introduce a Bill to amend Ordinance 9 of 1857. There are, I believe, only four sections of that Ordinance now existing, the various other sections having been repealed from time to time. The object of this bill will be best explained by reading the section it refers to and explaining the alterations. "Every person whomsoever required by the Superintendent of Police to co-operate with any fire brigade, whether consisting of volunteers or not, so that the same be approved by His Excellency, or in the working of fire engines, or in the suppression of fire, shall be bound to obey such requisition under the penalty, for every case of disobedience, of not less than ten dollars nor more than fifty dollars, to be imposed by any Justice of the Peace." Then there follow words which by this bill it is proposed to repeal "Or (if such Justice shall think it fit and the offender shall be a Chinaman) of not more than fifteen blows and not less than five blows."
The bill was read a first time.
VOTES.
The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY moved the confirmation of payments in excess of the estimates of 1879 amounting to $36,176, and in excess of the estimates of 1880 amounting to $20,916. The latter includes $15,000 for the conversion of the Lock Hospital into a Civil Hospital, and $1,049 on account of the temporary Smallpox Hospital.
The payments were confirmed.
SUPPLEMENTARY APPROPRIATION BILL. The ACTING COLONIAL TREASURER moved the first reading of a bill to authorise the appropriation of a supplementary sum not exceeding $51,777.90 to defray the charges of the year 1879.
The Bill was read a first time.
THE ESTIMATES FOR 1881.
His EXCELLENCY--Now, gentlemen, I have to move the first reading of our estimates for 1881. Owing to the activity of my hon. friend Dr. Stewart I am able to move the estimates for 1881 at a somewhat earlier period than estimates have hitherto been moved for many years past, at all events in my time. This, gentlemen, is the fourth occasion on which I have had the satisfaction of laying estimates before you. When I arrived in Hongkong I had to consider very carefully the state of the finances. At that time the revenue of the Colony which was laid before me in April, 1877, had reached $885,000. Included in that revenue was a considerable sum for land sales, and the first time that I had the honour of addressing you I pointed to the fact that the sales of Crown land, though called revenue, ought not to be treated as revenue of the Colony. The sale of Crown land, especially in a small Colony like this, is actually selling a portion of our capital. What we should consider as land revenue is the increment or increase in the value of land with the progressive increase of the prosperity of the Colony. In the statement for 1876 laid before me by Mr. Gardiner Austin there was a considerable sum put down as proceeds of land sales, if I mistake not a larger sum than that obtained in the land sales of the Colony for the last three years.
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However that may be, my attention was more particularly drawn to the fact that whilst the revenue was $885,000 the expenditure was $902,000; in other words there was a deficit, and it became my duty to be extremely careful with respect to the finances of the Colony. You are no doubt aware that for the three years past, that is, 1877, 1878, and 1879, we have not had any deficits. On the contrary, I find that during these three years we have had a total surplus of $206,000 added to our balances from colonial revenue, being an average on the three years of $68,000 a year. With respect to the past year, 1879, the audited accounts of the revenue and expenditure of the Colony for that year were printed in the Gazette in April last. You will perceive from these that the revenue was stated by the auditor to have amounted to $964,000, and the expenditure to $926,000, leaving a surplus in round figures of $37,000. Now the $926,000 of expenditure included a considerable outlay upon the police force, the increase being $10,839. I am sure no gentleman in the Council regrets having voted the requisite sums to enable me to lay out upon the police force of the Colony that additional amount. I think I may say, speaking in the presence of my hon. friend on my immediate right (the Chief Justice) that the expending of that increase no one can regret. I find also there is an increase of about $4,000 for educational purposes, and that also I think no one would be disposed to regret. I have also sanctioned an increase in 1879, over the preceding year, for fire brigade, of $2,800. The cause for that every one is familiar with. In the office of the Surveyor-General and his establishment I have sanctioned an increase of $1,648 in the year 1879, and I may say, having mentioned that, that the roads, streets, and bridges in this Colony have been kept in the year 1879 in most admirable order and whatever public works have been undertaken I think have been done to our satisfaction. But this brings me to an item which is present perhaps to the minds of some of my friends but which does not appear upon these accounts. Did the Surveyor-General do nothing in the year 1879 except to keep the roads, streets, and bridges, and ordinary public works of the Colony in good order? He undertook, as you are aware, a new Lock Hospital, which we have found useful for general purposes; other minor works were undertaken, but during the year 1879 the Surveyor-General expended a considerable sum--it is not stated in this return, but it amounted to something over $150,000--on the repairs to the Praya wall. And in mentioning this I must not conceal from you the fact that there is a difference of opinion as to the accuracy, as it were, of this return, that is, some maintain that this being a return of the expenditure of the colony of Hongkong during the year ended 31st December, 1879, it ought not to contain the expenditure on the Praya wall, and it is argued that that expenditure is extraordinary expenditure, that it is special expenditure, and that therefore it ought not to appear in this return.
I am bound to say that those who take that view of the case are very high authorities. To begin with, the Auditor-General, Mr. Marsh, who is now absent from the Colony, I assume he takes that view for the figures do not appear in the returns as audited by him, and I am aware of the fact that other very competent authorities agree with that view, and it is supposed that expenditure ought not to appear in this account on the ground that in fact it is taken from one of our balances, and will in process of time be regained by that balance. Well, I had myself, I confess, taken the opposite view. It is simply a question of account, and it only comes to this, that in the statement I am making to you I should prefer that you would consider the actual fact that though the expenditure of the Colony of Hongkong is returned here as $926,867 in the year 1879 it amounts to $152,000 more that was actually expended on the Praya wall. And as a matter of business which concerns my own department, in dealing with finances I take that view for this reason, that I have to act in everything relating to finance under what are called the Treasury instructions to Governors. Those are instructions issued for the guidance of Governors in Crown Colonies, and they entail upon Governors certain duties of extreme importance with respect to checking, overlooking, and controlling expenditure. And in those instructions,
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