HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL,
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boycott, the Colony still had a surplus balance of $3,486,290, of which a sum of about $1,400,000 can be regarded as liquid assets realizable for current expenditure. It is a splendid record and may well inspire us with confidence and give pause to those who talk wildly of making Hong Kong once again the barren island" it was before the Treaty of Nanking.
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Gentlemen, we have no intention of calling any halt in the development of Hong Kong. On the contrary, we have it in mind to make further progress by constructing an aerodrome, which will enable us to participate in the world-wide development of commercial aviation, by further improving our water supply to meet the needs of our increasing population and by dredging the harbour, where neces- sary, to a greater depth. But we think that future generations of colonists, who will benefit from the schemes now initiated, ought to share with us in the cost. We propose, therefore, soon to raise a loan by means of which to finance these new schemes: and if, as I for one fully expect, the future progress of Hong Kong is such as to rival its progress in the past, the burden of the interest and sinking fund on the new loan will not weigh heavily on the community.
The stability of our financial position has been amply tested by the events of the past thirty years. At the beginning of that period the Boxer year came and went without any check to the Colony's progress. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 did not disturb local development in Hong Kong. Even the Chinese Revolution of 1911, followed by the Great War of 1914-18, and succeeded by disastrous years of civil war in China, continuing to this day, has not impeded the advance of this Colony, which finds itself stronger now than when the cataclysm began. We have, therefore, every right to look into the future with perfect confidence. This Colony is a marvellous exempli- fication of the results which can be achieved when Britons and Chinese collaborate in the development of a country. Such collaboration has done wonders for the Far East in years gone by and I am quite sure that the future holds even better things in store.
THE BUDGET.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY said-Your Excellency, --In ac- cordance with your instructions I rise to move the first reading of a Bill intituled, "An Ordinance to apply a sum not exceeding seven- teen million four hundred and fifty thousand one hundred and three dollars to the Public Service of the year 1928." I would once again remind Honourable Members that the total estimated expon- diture as shown in the printed estimates exceeds the total shown in the Bill by the amount of Military Contribution and Public Debt Charges.
The last two years have been difficult years for the Colony, but as Your Excellency has just pointed out in the historial retrospect which must have been of great interest to Honourable Members this
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