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the last few years and when conditions in China become more settled the Colony will be "entering on an era
of unparalleled prosperity;"
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(2) that all the "thinking community" of Hongkong
support Governor in his proposals;
(3) that many of the works are of a productive character, either directly or indirectly, while some are absolutely essential and urgent;
(4) that to cut down the provision in the Estimates would only mean the postponement of the expenditure and would increase the cost and diminish
efficiency.
If this last argument is correct we are up against rather an awkward situation. If the whole programme wa approved it seems clear that at the end of the
year the surplus balances of the Colony (only a portion of which, however, will be liquid and available) will
at the worst be over $5,000,000 and in view of the
conservative nature of the revenue estimate and of
anticipated savings on the expenditure estimate it seems reasonable to hope that these balances will in reality be at the end of the year in the neighbourhood of $8,000,000. If only that portion of the programme on which work has already been commenced were approved these balances might be increased to about
$9,000,000, which should be sufficient to give a fair
start to Sir E. Stubis successor.
Of the items on which work has already been
started, by far the largest is the shing Mun Valley Water,
Scheme, for which $805,000 is provided for the current
year.