176
position.
ι
which the motion
for reduction was based) was
completely
at variance with
other representation that had
a short time before been
made to me in another connection
the Senior Unofficial
Member and endorsed by his colleague, Mr. Whitehead. Your Lordship will most conveniently be placed in possession of the
circumstances to which I allude
perusal
of
the annexed passage from the speech of the
Colonial Secretary
second reading of
The senior unofficial member, though not very decided in his opposition to the Bill, for he does not counsel abandonment
of the proposal but merely postponement, has given expression to some doubts as to the prudence of borrowing now, and has also given vent to some forebodings as to the present unprosperous state of affairs. It is a disappointment, sir, to find that the hon. member has not
to give the second reading
of the bill his cordial support, for from what other quarter opposition might come it might fairly have been expected that he at least would have heartily supported the Government in this matter. The prospects of the Praya Reclamation are involved in the Bill, and so keenly did he realise very recently the vital importance to the colony of speedily completing that great work, which he has done, more than any other man to effectuate. that only last spring he officially proposed to the Government that it should borrow the amount required to complete the work and advance it to the marine lot holders on their undertaking to repay the advances within twelve months of the completion of their respective sections.
Hon. C. P. CHATER-In Hongkong in silver. The COLONIAL SECRETARY-And he is now in favour of borrowing in gold, but I fail to see how that affects the point. He had then, sir, no doubts as to the prudence of Government immediately borrowing; in fact he reversed Polonius's advice. "Neither a borrower nor a lender be," and counselled the Government to immediately both borrow and lend. He based his proposal on the ground that some of the lot holders might find it difficult to meet their calls, and that to the rest of them it would be a boon to be enabled to place the amounts in immediately remunerative undertakings. (He would appear, by the way, to have been mistaken as to his fact reason, for since then there have been two calls, one of which has been paid practically in full, and the other is in the course of satisfactory settlement.) He pointed out the practical impossibility of suspending the work, the Government being under a legal obligation to complete it, and he dwelt on the injury to the work already done, the serious public inconvenience, and the grave sanitary complications which suspension would involve. On ... August he again wrote to show why, in my opinion, the
It is, to say
the least of it,
very embarrassing to be assured
Lay
the
the loan
Government need not hesitate to make such a loan, and why they may consider its repayment as well assured." He said, "there are not wanting signs of an approaching recuperation." After giving his reasons for this he proceeds to state that the fall in the rents of houses (of which we heard a good deal the other day) is purely temporary and will soon rectify itself. On this head he writes: "The fall of rents has been due to too great haste in building, which has caused the supply of houses, especially of those for Europeans, to exceed the present demand. This, however, is a matter that will be cured by time, especially as the population of the colony is steadily increasing." In saying that the fall in the rents of houses would be cured by time, he must have had a very short time in hand, for under his proposal some of the advances would have been repayable within two years. I may point out in passing that all this materially corroborates the position taken by the Government in regard to the recent motion for the reduction of certain salaries. And as lately as the 20th of last September he wrote: "the risk run by the Government is really nil" ... the amount that was required to complete the reclamation, and that consequently Government was under his proposal to borrow from time to time and advance to a very small section only of the community, the marine lot owners, was $2,491,198, or say in round numbers 25 lacs; and the outstanding liability of the Government, supposing every lot owner punctually to repay his advances when repayment became due, would at one time have exceeded 5 lacs, the exact figure being $5,000,000 ... Such was the operation which he pressed on the Government as involving absolutely no risk, and yet to-day he is disposed to question the prudence of the Government's proposal at the present juncture to borrow some 1 lac only on behalf of the whole community by a loan the repayment of which will be distributed over a period of years. On this question of prudence I appeal from his doubts of to-day to his confidence of the 20th September last and I venture to ask him whether, in view of the proposal which I have mentioned and of the arguments by which he supported it, he cannot see his way to voting for the second reading.