465
to transfer an officer from this service to any other, but
also the Colony is committed to the payment of pensions
and pay while on leave at a higher rate than formerly on the
ground that the cost of living in Hong Kong has increased.
This egregious non-sequitur and its consequences might be
remedied by the adoption for the purpose of pensions and
leave-pay (and for the purpose of Widows & Orphans con-
-tributions?) of a scale of salaries parallel to but lower
than that which an officer draws while in the Colony.
6. While I hold strongly that much of the agitation in
regard to the salaries of Government servants is an ill-in-
-formed newspaper 'stunt'
stunt', or based on misleading and incom-
-plete statements supplied by the newspapers; and while it
remains a fact that Hong Kong is much more lightly taxed for
Government salaries than is England, there is possible
justification for dissatisfaction with the incidence of
taxation as distinct from its mere amount. The following
suggestions are therefore put forward to remedy this
defect.
(a)
Some of our revenue might well be collected in
sterling or in some other staple unit; with regard
to the new Entertainment Tax this is roughly what
will be done, since cinema films, for instance, will
not decline in cost with the dollar, and admission
charges, and consequently the tax leviable, will
also increase, though in a smaller proportion.
It is not necessary to elaborate the application of
this principle to such charges as harbour buoy
rent or permits for Sunday working of cargo.
But there are also many charges for special
services, such as court fees and birth and death