HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HON. MR. C. G.
C. G. ALABASTER-In rising to support this resolution I would like to draw the attention of the Council to the fact that during the last five years or so the Secretaries and the Under- Secretaries of State have been called upon to answer questions relating to Hongkong underlying which there has been an inuendo or slur on the good name of the Colony. These questions, we cannot believe, are asked maliciously by the honourable members who ask them. We are forced therefore to believe that these questioners are mere marionettes dancing vigorously though unconsciously to the wire-pulling of Empire breakers at Home and abroad. It is time that the
resentment against these charges should find expression. The resentment is not -confined to unofficial members; it is a resentment which pervades the whole community, and is shared by officials as well. We also would like to see that those who advise the Secretary of State on this and other important questions have an intimate and actual knowledge of the place on which they are advising. Otherwise there is a grave danger that they will be talking through their toquas. We would like to see some official or un- official who has retired from the Colony and knows it well, on this advisory body. We are not afraid of the results of any enquiry that may be made into the social life here, because we believe that Hong- kong is a clean city, socially and mor- ally. It is a town of over a million in habitants, one of the largest ports in the world, a garrison town, a naval station and the abiding place-tempor- arily or permanently-of people of all sorts and conditions and of every race and tongue; nevertheless we are prepared to say that morally it can stand in favour- able comparison with any town of its size in the five continents or the seven seas. I therefore beg to add my support to this
resolution.
H.E. THE GOVERNOR-This motion being the expression of the views of the Unofficial Members, it would be out of place and out of order for Official Members to express an opinion on any point except as to whether it should be forwarded to the Secretary of State, and the votes of Official Members are confined entirely to that question.
The motion was agreed to.
The Piers Ordinance
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THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill entitled an Ordinance to amend the Piers Ordinance 1899. That ordinance, he said, gives the Governor in Council power to revise the schedule of pier rents contained in the ordinance, but owing to the wording of the section that gives that power no such revision can take place before 1950 unless it takes place before the end of this year. We do not wish to revise the rents at present, but we may have to do so later, and the object of this Bill is to preserve the right to revise the rents and to keep it alive up to the end of the year 1949. Power is not taken to make more than one policy of the original ordinance was that revision before the year 1950 because the
in force up to the end of the year 1949. any revision made before 1925 was to remain
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the first reading of the Bill was agreed to.
Supplementary Appropriation
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY-Your Excellency, I beg to move the first read- ing of a Bill intituled an Ordinance to authorise the appropriation of a supple- mentary sum of $2,038,038 and 3 cents to defray the charges for 1923. Hon. Members will observe that the bulk of the sum required comes under the heads of Miscellaneous Services and Public Works Recurrent. Under Miscellaneous Services unforeseen expenditure included the balance of the Government donation to the Univer- sity with interest which was $176,000 over the amount voted, $85,000 as compensation $200,000 for the War Memorial Nursing in respect of the Yaumati Ferry Service, Home, $250,000 for the British Empire Ex- hibition, nearly $200,000 for loss on sub- sidiary coins, and a donation of $250,000 to the Japanese Earthquake Hongkong Relief Fund. The large sum required under Public Works Recurrent is almost entirely due to the heavy expenditure on Typhoon and Rainstorm damage owing to the typhoon on the 18th August and the phenomenal rainfall at the end of October. I am afraid several large sums remain to be expended this year on account of this typhoon and rainfall. I beg to move the first reading.
THE COLONIAL TREASURER second- ed, and the Bill was read a first time.
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