210
3
been plentiful, building is going on all over the Colony, particularly in Kowloon and on the Praya East, and the Stock
I know that it Exchange has been almost unhealthily active.
is not possible to judge of prosperity from outside appearances, but we manage to make a brave show in Hong Kong in spite of our difficulties and we do undoubtedly impress visitors with our appearance of prosperity compared with other and less fortunate places. Our trade returns show a reasonably healthy volume of business, though admittedly the business has to be done with a lower margin of profit than was the case in years gone by. But for the renewal of civil war in China and the events of the last few weeks, we should have looked forward to the year 1932 with more confidence than we have felt for some years past.
As it is, however, the disturbing elements are so much in evidence that we are at the moment forced to be cautious in our estimate
of the outlook for the immediate future.
My task this year in presenting the Budget has been considerably lightened by the Memorandum of the Colonial Treasurer which deals fully with the financial position of the Colony and with Government's proposals for financing loan works. I shall therefore confine my remarks for the most part to matters of policy and to the more outstanding matters in connection with the Estimates of Expenditure for next year.
When the last Budget was presented to this Council,
it was anticipated that there would be a deficit of over 24 millions at the end of the present year. The revised estimate shows that revenue and expenditure for the year are expected to show a surplus of about $50,000.
This is the more remarkable
as the estimates were based on a 1/4d dollar, whereas actually
the