The position is thus satisfactory in spite of the reduction of revenue from the high water mark of 1905 and 1906, but there is heavy expenditure besides the Canton Kowloon Railway looming in the early future, such as the second section of the Tytam Tuk Waterworks and the Typhoon Refuge, while the revenue is so largely dependent on opium that its future is precarious.
The following figures at 5-year intervals may be of interest:
Total Revenue Opium farm let at Assessed Rateable Value of Colony 1888 $1,557,300 $182,400 $3,042,201 1893 $2,078,135 $340,800 $3,637,643 1898 $2,918,159 $372,000 $4,521,947 1899 (New Territories taken over) 1903 $5,238,858 $750,000 $8,749,643 1906 $7,035,011 $2,040,000 $10,969,203 1908 estimate $6,227,890 $1,452,000 $10,716,173Of this $4,265,730, the opium monopoly, as above stated, accounts for $1,452,000. Spirit Licences bring in $272,670; Carriage Chair, etc., licences amount to $107,000; Pawnbrokers Licenses to $86,950; Assessed Taxes $1,400,000; & Stamp Duties $600,000. Of the remaining 32% of revenue, i.e., $1,962,160, the Post Office accounts for $315,000.
Rents of Government property are expected to bring in $558,793,750, & Sales of Government Lands $300,000.
As the Governor pointed out in Council in his first speech on the Estimates (pages 39-42 of enclosure 6), the decrease in the revenue as compared with 1907 is mainly due to the opium farm rent being lower and to the new Postal Convention, by which the Postal revenue is expected to decrease from $418,200 to $315,000.
Of the total revenue, $4,265,730, or over 68%, is made up of Licences and Internal revenue (with light dues).
Turning to the Estimates of expenditure, the decision to pay officers at 2/- to the dollar when that coin is over 2/- in value has at any rate one advantage: the exchange compensation to dollar officers (when the dollar is over 2/-) is just half their nominal salaries.