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DRAFT.
638
C
were adopted, it would be necessary to
reconsider the proportion of Revenue
which has been fixed as the amount of
the contribution.
3..
That proportioneseventeen and
half per cent † taken on the total gross
revenue of the Colony, less Land Sales,
and incluing all those items which have
hitherto been accounted for as Revenue,
appears to me to be by no means an un-
reasonable sum to ask the Colony to con-
tribute; and I have already explained
in my despatch No.258 of 26th October
last, why I consider that there is no
unfairness in charging the same per-
centage in the case of Hong Kong as in
that of the Straits Settlements, al-
though in the latter Colony municipal
revenues are not taken into account.
4.
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