No.238
Hongkong.
Government House,
C. O.
12
23629
Rece'd 4 JUL 04,
Hongkong, 2nd June, 1904.
Six.
19448.
In continuation of my Despatch No. 181 of 28th April in which I reported that a vote had been taken for $3,280 for the expenses of Rent Collection in the New Territory, I have the honour to lay before you the reasons which made this expenditure necessary.
2. Up to the present time the arrangements for the collection of Rent in the New Territory have been almost entirely in the hands of the Police, while two clerks were employed in the Treasury in checking returns and Rent Rolls. This arrangement which for a time was the only possible one has never been very satisfactory, and now that the Rent Rolls for the whole Territory and Islands are completed it is necessary to have a permanent Staff to undertake the collection of Rent as well as of the many other fees due from time to time. I enclose copy of an extract from a letter from the Acting Local Auditor on the subject which shows the unsatisfactory nature of the system of collection by Police.
3. It is expected that in the course of the next two or three years this work will have become so simplified
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ALFRED LYTTELTON, K.C., M.P.,
&c. &c. &c.