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been $7,098,395 so that the estimate of the present year shows a reduction of $550,370, which is more than accounted for by the absence of any profit on subsidiary coin ($120,000), the decline in land sales ($100,000), and the reduction in the rent of the opium farm on the new contract ($490,000), all these being clearly matters beyond the control of the Government.
There are a few increases in minor sources of revenue to counterbalance these losses, but there is nothing in the estimates of Revenue needing special comment.
The Estimated balance for the year in favour of Revenue is only $16,285, but as the dollar is taken at 2/- the expenditure is probably rather overestimated.
The figures of expenditure are:
1905 (Actual) $6,431,740 1906 (Probable) about $7,076,000 1907 (Estimate) $7,056,955 $5,277,834.45(* It would have been about $6,750,000 but for the typhoon.)
About $350,000 of the reduction is due to economy in Public Works; the rest appears to be mainly the result of converting the dollar at 2/- instead of last year's figures of 1/8. The result of the higher exchange shows in the case of every Department, e.g., in the Post Office, the saving on the contribution to the Peninsular and Oriental subsidy is sufficient to cover the cost of the Agency at Tientsin, to which we have agreed as a temporary measure, and of a new branch office in Hong Kong. The same factor coupled with a number of small economies has reduced the Ordinary Expenditure to $274,000 less than the Estimate of 1906, and