THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 24TH NOVEMBER, 1877.
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 24TH NOVEMBER, 1877.
HIS EXCELLENCY then says:---Gentlemen, it becomes my duty to lay upon the table the existing probably reach larger figure. I now come to the licences. Of these licences, the important ones for the year 1878, and, in doing so, I have first to draw your attention to the financial statement which was placed in my hands immediately on my arrival in the Colony in April last. This is the return for the expenditure of the Colony for 1876, it is dated the 4th April, 1877, and was issued from the Colonial Secretary's Office on the 13th April. As you are aware, this return contains the last complete statement of any one year's financial transactions of the Colony, and on my arrival my attention was at once drawn to this important document by the Colonial Secretary, Mr. GARDINER AUSTIN. I found on examining it that the revenue of the year 1876 had amounted to $885,308, whereas the expenditure of the same year had amounted to $902,500. More than that, whilst the revenue of 1876 was less than the expenditure of that year, it was also less than the revenue of the preceding year, and while the expenditure of 1876 was in excess of the revenue, it was also in excess of the expenditure of the preceding year; or, in other words, the authentic figures placed in my hands, showed that the revenue of the Colony was declining, that the expenditure was increasing, and had passed beyond the revenue, being something like $17,000 in excess of the revenue. Now, how was that $17,000 paid? The $17,000 came out of the balance in the Colonial chest. The balance in the Colonial chest when the estimates were framed, and at the end of 1876 amounted to $134,297. There's no doubt that that was a very respectable balance to have in the chest, and when my predecessor framed estimates which enabled him to draw only so small a sum as $17,000 from it, every one must feel that his estimates were sound and prudent.
However that may be, it was my duty, having to face a financial condition such as this, to look very carefully at both sides of the balance-sheet of the Colony, to endeavour on the one hand to stimulate the revenue, and on the other to carefully watch the expenditure. In a Colony such as this, a Crown Colony, the real responsibility devolves upon the representative of the Crown. The Governor is expected by his instructions to look most carefully into the expenditure of the Colony, watch it month by month, and under the Treasury regulations which give him that authority and impose the duty upon him, it is laid down that as early in each month as the expenditure for the ensuing month can be seen with sufficient accuracy, the Heads of Departments are to draw up a requisition in accordance with the classified list of heads in the estimates, to be laid before the Governor for his sanction, and, if the Governor sanction it, a letter is written to the Head of the Department to that effect.
Such throughout the Colonial Empire is the manner in which the expenditure in Crown Colonies is watched by the Governor under the Treasury instructions. On the 25th May, I made a minute that I did not see that the Treasury instructions in this respect were complied with in this Colony. On the 25th May, I received requisitions for expenditure to be incurred in the month of May by various Heads of Departments. What was the use of putting them before me on the 25th May? The expenditure had taken place, and I had no power of checking it if I thought it necessary to do so. Accordingly, I inquired how it came to happen that the requisitions did not come before the Governor in the time laid down in the Treasury instructions, and then I found it had been the practice for some years to send in the requisition for expenditure near the end of the month in which it had been incurred.
The formality was gone through with great strictness for the Government to approve of such requisitions; after that, a letter was written to the Heads of Departments informing them they were at liberty to incur the expenditure, which, practically, had already incurred. Of course it may occur to some of you that the Heads of Departments are responsible officers, and that whatever Treasury instructions may say, Heads of Department will be themselves responsible. That is a very good argument as applying to Colonies with responsible Governments; there the Heads of Departments are responsible, but in a Crown Colony, it is different; the Governor is expected to look carefully into the expenditure, to check it if necessary, and to stop improper expenditure.
With respect to the question of revenue, I have been extremely anxious to ascertain how far the revenue we have been receiving in the Colony is a healthy revenue, and how far it may be developed if necessary, without imposing any further taxation on the Colony. Now, to take the items as they stand in the estimates laid before you, you will find our first item is the land revenue. I estimate that for the year 1878 at $200,000. The actual sum collected in the first nine months of the present year under that head was $194,000. We expect to get a sum in the three subsequent months which will raise the total to considerably over $200,000, but in making my estimate for the next year, I have confined it to the $200,000, and I do it with the assurance of the Surveyor-General that that sum is well within the mark.
How ought an Opium farm to be sold? If you get a number of tenders, and assume that they are all genuine, you are very likely to be mistaken. If, on the other hand, you do that which the Singapore Government threatened to do, which the Government of Saigon threatened to do, which has been done before now by the authorities in Netherlands-India, where they have a population of 300,000 Chinese to deal with, or what I myself had to do in Labuan, then indeed you at once deal with it in a way which enables you to get at its fair value, and which compels the Chinese traders to give the Government the fair proportion they should of a great business and large profits.
When I went to the little Colony at the other side of the China Sea, $730 a month was received from the Opium farm. It had been $800 a month, but the farmer went to my predecessor, and explained that he was being ruined. Fortunately, on passing through Singapore, I had the opportunity of seeing Sir HARRY ORD, who pointed out to me the proper way of dealing with the Opium farm, and soon after my arrival in Labuan, I had the satisfaction of learning from one or two of the leading Chinese merchants that they were really willing to give me the best advice and assistance they could on the question.
I well remember one of them (Mr. Choa Mansoo) came to me at Government House and said-"The Opium farm is undersold. If you choose to take it into your own hands and let the superintendent boil the Opium, instead of selling it at $730 you will be entitled to get $1,000 a month.' He gave me his figures. He said the number of Chinese is so much, the export of prepared Opium so much, the Government is entitled to expect a fair share, and the farmer will have a handsome profit. I took his advice. The result was that in a few weeks the Opium farmer came and offered $800. That was declined. He then offered $900, and before the end of the year, when we were making our preparations to deal with it, he offered $1,000; and before I left that little Colony I was able to sell that Opium farm for $1,450 a month.
Thoroughly competent judges—I need not quote their names—are of opinion that your Opium farm, instead of declining, ought to have been increasing, and instead of fetching only $132,000, ought to have fetched nearer a quarter of a million this year. When Sir HARRY ORD resolved to exact a larger share of the profits some of the Chinese in Singapore said the Opium farmer in Johore would make all the Chandoo, and that the Singapore Government would lose by the attempt to increase the value of the farm: and to me in Labuan it was also pointed out that the profit would go to the Opium farms in Brunei if I persisted in asking more than the $730. It is the old story. Such things are always said, and I believe they have been said here too;