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HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
PRESENT:
1ST JUNE, 1911.
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR, SIB FREDERICK J. DEALTRY LUGARD, K.C.3.G., C.B., D.8.0.
COLONEL C. W. R. ST. JOHN, RE. (THE OFFICER COMMANDING THE TROOPS).
HON. MR. ( CLEMENTI (Colonial Secretary).
Hox. Mn. C. G. ALABASTER (Attorney- General).
HON. MR. A. M. THOMSON (Colonial Treasurer).
HON. MR. W. CHATHAM, C. G. (Direc-
tor of Public Works).
Papers
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of His Excellency the Governor, laid on the table the following papers :--- Sessional paper No. 6; Report of the Post Office; and Report of the Director of Education.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. by com- mand of His Excellency the Governor, laid on the table the Report of the proceedings of the Standing Law Committee.
1
The Military Contribution
HON. MR. EDE moved the following re solution standing in his name:"That it is
HON. MR. A. W. BREWIN (Registrar desirable that the Military Contribution General).
should be fixed at the annual sum of One In doing so
HON. CAPTAIN F. W. LYONS (Captain- | million Dollars ($1,000,000).” Superintendent of Police).
Hos. Da. HO KAI, M.S., C.M.S. HON. MR. WEI YUK, C.M.G. HON. MR. H. E. POLLOCK, K.C. Hos. MR. E. A. HEWETT,
Hoy, MR. C. MONTAGUE EDE HON. MR. C. H. ROSS.
I
be said: Your Excellency, The unofficial members of this Council are unanimous in the opinion that this question should be brought up for debate at this time, viz., before the Imperial Conference closes. fully realize that the question of the Military Contribution is a knotty and much debated one, but in moving the motion I am encouraged by your Excellency's at-
MR. R. H. CROFTON (Clerk of Councils). titude as shown in the debate of the 24th
Minutes
September, 1908. You there stated that you approached the matter of the Military Contribution with an open mind, possibly
The minutes of the last meeting were read with a bias in favour of the view that the
and confirmed.
Financial
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY--Your Excellency has directed me not to lay on the table to-day the financial minutes which appear as the first iten under the head "Imsiness" in the Agenda list, because you think it will be a convenience to hon, mem- bers if in future financial minutes are pre- sented in the form of quarterly schedules. The Finauce Committee will therefore in future be called together only once a quarter instead of as at present after almost every That is the meeting of the Council practice elsewhere, and will, I hope, com- mend itself to hou. members.
Contribution weighed too heavily, and that you were fully prepared, if your examina- tion of the matter should confirm that view, to appeal to the Imperial Authorities for That statement warrants its reduction. that if it can be shown by reasoned argu- ment that the Contribution at present paid by the Colony falls unnecessarily heavily on the taxpayer relief may be counted upon. The following factors affect the question:--- (1) The ratio of taxation at present levied. (2) The cost of Defence of Trade and Pro- perty. It has been stated, and is believed by a section of the community, that we are more lightly taxed than residents at Home, and I deem that the time has arrived when this statement, which has for so long passed current for truth, should be disproved. I
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preface my remarks by saying I have studi- Bowley, who in his notes on the Report of ed all available statistics fairly fully. I the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws have examined the incidence of taxation on and Relief of Distress, as well as in his different classes of the population, but I book, "National Progress in Wealth and have discovered it to be impossible by this Trade," places the figures at £2,000,000,000 means to arrive at any tangible result either annually. He arrives at this by divuling for or against the argument for a reduction. the national income into four groups: - (1) I propose therefore to treat the whole ques- The part received as wages, (2) the part tion from the point of view of the Law of | under review of the Inland Revenue "De- Average, a very simple law and easily un- partment, (3) the sum of money which derstood by the people. Following this is earned as salaries too small to be con- law, to arrive at the burden of taxation per head one must divide the Revenue by the population. The Gross Revenue of Great Britain in the year 1909, for which full statistics are available, was Imperial £153,000,000, Municipal £163,000,000, or, in all, £316,000,000, the population in the same year being estimated at 46,000,000, or a taxation of £6. 17s, per head. The Gross Revenue of this Colony in the same year amounted to $6,800,000, while the popula. tion here and in the New Territory was 129,000, or, say, $16 per head, which trans- lated into sterling equals £1 9s., or rather less than one-fifth of the taxation per capita at Home. This at first sight appears to support the contention of those who believe that we are too lightly taxed, but the most important factor has yet to be reckoned; with, and that is the ability of the taxpayer to stand the burden of taxation. It is very difficult to arrive at the average wealth of the individual in Great Britain. At first sight the income tax collected would seem to give one a fair indicatiou, but this is misleading, in so far as many below a certain figure per annum pay no income tax at all, and various books of statistics differ as to what proportion this class is to the whole. Another method of estimating the average wealth per head is to take the gross income brought under review of the Depart. ment, which in 1908-9--the Intest available --was £1,009,000,000 sterling; but even this method is faulty by reason of the factor£1,090. that it still excludes a large percentage of Colony is not even as easy to arrive at, but the population whose inconies are not a fair estimate sets it down at $275,000,000, brought under review at all, and one must perforce look elsewhere for more exact figures. In L. G. Chiozza Money's book, "Riches and Poverty," published in 1904, one finds that the national income of the United Kingdom in 1903 was estimated at £1,710,000,000, sterling, but this figure has been challenged by an authority who is more widely known and accepted, riz., A. L.
sidered by the income tax collectors, aud (4) the profits from investments abroad and businesses at Home which in part escape the tax gatherer, though legally liable. This estimate, which was made in 1904, has not since been challenged. It is true that the population of Great Britain has in- creased since that date, but the average rate of wages has not risen, and although it may be possible, or even probable, that the sum given by Bowley has grown to a larger figare between 1904 and 1909, it is quite impossible to make au estimate which is not open to be at once challenged, and I therefore take the actual figures given, viz., £2,000,000,000 annually, as representing the total income of the population of the United Kingdom in 1909. What, therefore, was the capital value of property to produce that income? I can speak personally of sterling invest- ments ou a fairly large scale, and my experience, which coincides with that of many others in important commercial posi- tions, shows that the average rate of interest is rather under three per cent., but as 1 am anxious that no taint of special pleading shall characterise this argument I have put down the average rate of interest at four per cent, or 25 per cent. higher than that obtainable for well-invested money. Thia shows that the capital value of privately- owned property in the United Kingdom is £50,000,000,000 sterling divide by the population, and it gives a per capita wealth The value of property in this
which is the equivalent of £25,000.00, or, say, 260 per head, as against £1,090 per head at Home. It follows therefore that the average wealth of an individual in this Colony is one-eighteenth of that of an in- dividual at Home, so that although we pay taxes of £1. 9s. per brad, or, as I and earlier, about one-fifth that paid per unit in the United Kingdom, this sum is paid out of
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