No. 304.
Sir,
196
ausd q 19.
6
147
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG, 26th May,1933.
I have the honour to forward draft Estimates of
Supplementary Expenditure under Heads 32, 33 and 34 Public
Works Department, Public Works Recurrent and Public Works
Extraordinary respectively and to request your authority to
place them before Legislative Council for formal approval.
They have already been considered and unanimously agreed
to by the Finance Committee of the Council.
2.
The Estimates for 1933 were framed with the
definite object of preserving a surplus balance of not less
than $10,000,000 and it was anticipated at the time that the
year 1933 would commence with a surplus of $11,812,803 and
that this would be reduced to $10,616,131 by 31st December,
1933. Actually however the surplus on 1st January amounted
to $12,847,062 or $1,034,259 more than was expected.
It is
too early to be able to predict how the present year will
work out financially. Up to date some he ads of revenue are
proportionately below the estimate for the whole year whilst
others are above it. On the expenditure side there have
been savings on the Colony's sterling commitments on account
of the rate of exchange having been consistently higher than
臂
that on which the Estimates were based, but it might equally
well go the other way in the last half of the year.
Generally speaking however there is every hope that the
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
SIR P.CUNLIFFE-LISTER, G.B.E., M.C., M.P.
Budget