HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
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It should not be beyond the ingenuity of Government to ascer- tain the assessed value of the premises occupied by those enjoying the privilege of rent-free houses. If this privileged class could be-as they should be-made to contribute their share of the four per cent. additional rate, then, and only then, could the claim for equity for this form of taxation be substantiated.
Locally Recruited Staff.
We are well aware that a Retrenchment Commission is assiduously pursuing its investigations into the increasing cost of operating the Colony's administrative machinery. This fact does not preclude attention being drawn to the very high cost of trans- porting Government servants to and from the Colony. The fact is beyond dispute that this very subject has been exercising the Direc- torate of certain public companies in Hong Kong with the object of instituting drastic economy and so that what was once conceded as a privilege in the heyday of the Colony's prosperity may not be per- petuated into an extension of that privilege to the point of economic unsoundness.
The cost of transport of Government servants will increase from $250,000 in 1930 to $350,000 next year. This large increase calls for comment. I anticipate Government's reply that the greater the growth of the Colony, the larger must be the numerical strength of its personnel, hence the higher transportation cost. This being the case, Government should not be above accepting, mutatis mutandis, the hint contained in one of the recommendations of the recent Salaries Commission which reported upon the question of the salaries to the Shanghai Municipal Council's Staff, both foreign and Chinese. Regarding local applicants for Municipal Service the Commission recorded that: "In view of the high cost of obtaining and maintaining foreign employees in the Council's service, including passages, long leave and other benefits, the Com- mission is of the opinion that local residents, foreigners domiciled in China and Chinese should be appointed wherever possible, provided that they possess the necessary qualifications and experience for the position to be occupied, thus reducing the heavy costs of appointments from abroad."
I deem it pardonable for giving prominence to this recommenda- tion of the Shanghai Salaries Commission because there is so much excellent material obtainable in the Colony whose employment would mean a large saving in the cost of transport services alone. The Colony has founded and is maintaining a University of its own at some sacrifice. Why not find greater use for the products of our own seat of learning among the technical men whom the University is turning out in greater numbers each year? If the rumour is well founded that our graduates have to seek lucrative employment outside the Colony, then the truth of the saying is painfully forced upon one that "a prophet is not without honour save in his own
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