Enclosure 6.
562
3.
I also forward copies of the local "Hansard" containing reports of the Meetings of the Legislative Council held on the 17th September and on the 3rd and 10th October when the Estimates were dealt with.
On the first of those dates I introduced the Estimates with an explanation of the more important increases and decreases in the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure and of the financial position of the Colony generally. On the 3rd October the proposals of the Government were criticised in speeches by two of the Unofficial Members of Council to which the Colonial Secretary, the Director of Public Works and I replied. The Appropriation Bill was then read a second time and passed the third reading in the following week.
4.
It is with regret that I have to record a further decline in the Revenue of the Colony as shown by the Estimates for the ensuing year. This decline is due principally to two causes, the decrease in the receipts derived from the Opium Monopoly and the reduction in the rates of postage under the Rome Convention.
Your Lordship will observe that the question of supplementing the Estimates by increased taxation or by a further loan came under review in Council. I