1
t which is due to one of our merchant princes. I hope he will be proved wrong, and that as speedi- ly as possible, but I have no inten- tion of going in for prophecy my- se. All I shall say now is that I have not insured my pension and that I have no intention of doing so.
I trust he will forgive me if I do I not enter into an argument about the Medical Department either, but re- fer Honourable Members debate which took place in
to the Council on the 19th March of this this
year.
I have already spoken regarding the suggestion made by the Honour- able Mr. Hughes that revenue from petrol and motor taxation should be regarded as a special road Our expenditure on roads is already fund.
so great that a percentage of the tax would be altogether inadequate.
Footpath on Praya
The side channelling opposite the Hume Pipe Factory is to be improv- ed during the coming year. It is the policy of the Public Works Depart- ment to replace the old half round channels by a flat channel when practicable whenever repair or re- placement becomes necessary. It is thought that the provision of a wall or railing along the water front would cause too much incon- venience, but the possibility of con- structing a narrow footpath for pedestrians and to serve as a guide to traffic will be investigated.
Admittedly the $60,000 to be ex- pended on anti-malarial work will not go very far, but it represents a big increase on 1936 and is as much as we can afford at present.
I should not even so describe the fight as unequal. I believe that for example work done in the neigh- bourhood of the Queen Mary Hos- pital has had a beneficial effect over a very large area.
Ships Surveyed
The Honourable Mr. Johnson has confined his criticism to the cost of the Marine Surveyor's Department. In this connection the Harbour Master informs me that the tonnage figures on which his comparison with British ports was based were not the tonnage figures of vessels visiting the Port but those of vessels survey- ed. The actual figures for the year 1935 are (for vessels over 60 tons):
* No. of Surveyors engaged Ship surveying.
Tonnage surveyed per man.
15*
Hongkong
Singapore
United Kingdom
9* 187*
on
28,257+ 8,503+ 18,257†
If we allow for officers absent on leave at any given time the figures
are:
Hongkong Singapore
12* 7*
35,321+ 10,932+
United Kingdom 1652* 20,631+ There is also in Hongkong a phenomenal number of small craft which have to be surveyed once or twice a year.
Figures for the United Kingdom are not available but the number of surveys for 1935 in Hongkong and Singapore are:
Hongkong Singapore
747 121
Staff Not Excessive
On these figures the staff would seem to be far from excessive and it might well prove that any reduc- tion would involve delays which would involve the Shipping Com- munity in heavy costs in the form of demurrage.
Two additional surveyors were engaged in 1934 on the advice of the Board of Trade who considered that the application of the Conventions would involve some permanent addition to the work of the Depart-
11
increase
ment. The temporary asked for by the Harbour Master on that occasion was not granted as the Board of Trade advised the Govern- ment that they were dealing with the. first rush of work by working over- time, and considered that the same might be done in Hongkong.
BUDGET CHANGE
Governor Suggests New Procedure
CORONATION PLANS
H.E. the Governor said: Honourable Members, I confess to a sense of discomfiture in regard to this Budget for 1937, which does not arise solely from the fact that it is a slump budget and discloses, after every effort has been made to lop and to prune, a deficit of nearly $3,500,000. My feeling is partly due to a budget procedure which is un- familiar to me and which, so I gather from two of the eloquent speeches to which I have listened this afternoon, is not altogether to the liking of the Unofficial Members.
The procedure here is that all de- partmental proposals run the gaunt- let of an Estimates Committee con- sisting of the Colonial Secretary and the Colonial Treasurer with the Governor in the chair. I may re- mark in parenthesis that as regards this year, my first year in Hongkong, the presidency of that triumvirate has been a most valuable lesson to me, because there can be no better introduction to the problems of an Administration than to go through the estimates of its expenditure item by item.
Next, when the Estimates have emerged from this Committee they are printed and presented to Honour- able Members of this Council on the first reading of the Supply Bill. In the interval between the first and second reading the Unofficial Mem- bers examine them and, four or five days before the second reading, send copies of prepared speeches contain- ing their criticisms, comments and suggestions to the Colonial Secretary, who, as best he can in the time available, prepares a reply to all the points raised by them. Indeed in past years the Governor himself often wound up the debate by a long speech.
From the last three volumes of Hansard I find that in the Committee stage of the Bill no alteration was made, beyond correction of a figure, in three successive years.
Malayan Procedure
Now the procedure to which I be- came used in Malaya was very different. The formative Committee consisted of the Colonial Secretary and the Colonial Treasurer without the Governor. The Colonial Secre- tary kept the Governor constantly informed on the progress of the Estimates and ascertained his wishes on all important points; but the Governor stood outside the Com- mittee and any Head of Department who wished to appeal to him against the blue-pencilling of any proposal could do so, though such appeals were rare and seldom successful.
The Estimates when printed were placed in the hands of Unofficial Members at least ten days before their introduction in Council and at the first Budget session the Governor · prefaced the proceedings by an Annual Address in which he dealt broadly but concisely with current problems and reviewed in perspective the important events of the year.
L
77
The Colonial Secretary next moved a resolution that the Draft Estimates be adopted. There was no need for him to make a long speech because he had already laid on the table as a Council Paper a printed memoran- dum on the Estimates, fully descrip- tive and explanatory of all new items and of all changes in annually re- current provision.
The Unofficial Members followed him with speeches on major ques- tions involved in the Budget; there was no need for them to go into details, because the opportunity for I that came later in Select Committee. The Colonial Secretary then replied on points which he was ready to answer; on the remainder he could speak at either of two later sessions while the Budget was still before Council.
Select Committee
Lastly, the Treasurer moved that the subject matter of the motion be referred to a Select Committee con- sisting of the Colonial Secretary, the Unofficial Members and himself. The Select Committee met at con- venient times over a period of days and had up before it any Heads of Departments that it cared to summon. Its proceedings were unreported and informal; and I consider that the opportunities that it gave for the Unofficial Members to meet and question Executive officers of Govern- ment were invaluable from the point of view of both sides.
I am indeed a strong believer in the advantages of personal contact and round-table discussion. Pro- posals which had survived the Scylla of the Estimates Committee some- times foundered in the Charybdis of Select Committee.
Its Report was generally a docu- ment of two or three printed pages, and if its contents were all accepted by the Governor an amendment to the original resolution would be moved at the next session "that the draft Estimates be approved with the alterations and amendments advised in the Select Committee's report."
If not all of the recommendations were acceptable, then the motion of amendment would be that the draft Estimates be approved with the alterations and amendments advised in paragraphs (A, C, F, G) etc. of the Report of the Select Committee. When the Estimates had thus been debated and passed the Supply Bill was based on them and passed through all its stages generally with- out debate.
Enables Collaboration
Now I prefer this procedure, which is not peculiar to Malaya but re- presents, I understand, the practice of most British Colonies, because it enables detailed consultation and collaboration between the Unofficial Members and the Official Members who prepared the draft Estimates. It is, as far as I can see, within the four corners of the Standing Orders of this Council, but I do not wish to make a break in local tradition unless I am perfectly certain that it is desired by Honourable Members.
I shall therefore write to Singapore for copies of the Governor's Address this year, of the Colonial Secretary's Memorandum or the Estimates, of the Treasurer's Financial Statement, of the Report of the Select Com- mittee and of the. Hansard of the Straits Settlements Budget Debates.
These I will circulate to members of Executive Council and Finance Committee, and if they prefer the procedure which I have just endea- voured to outline and which will be fully exemplified in those documents from the Straits, then we can adopt it next year.