might,
sue this
recommending
to re
way the Treasury
to make such an addition
to the Imperial subsidy
ap
will admit of
the
the monthly salaries of the Agents at Canton, Swatow, Amoy
and Foochow being raised to fifty those of the Agents at Ningpo and Shanghai to forty-five
dollars each, and
dollars each.
An examination of the question, however, shows
that no
addition to the
Imperial subsidy is needed.
It is
to place the government
of Hongkong
in a position
to fix the salaries of the
Agents at the
respective rates proposed. The Imperial
subsidy
£100
subsidy, after deducting paid in London to the order of Mr. Lister the Colonial Postmaster General, is £410 a year, a sum which formerly represented 3408 dollars at the rate of 1/2 to the dollar, but which now, at the reduced rate of £3/2 to the
dollar, represents 4484
This is more than
dollars
is
the
700 dollars in excess of the sum required to pay each of the agents monthly salary now proposed by the Governor.
While, therefore, the fall in exchange which has reduced the Agents' salaries since they were fixed in 1868 appears to afford
reasonable
ground for increasing
those