2.
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Hospital on the Peak simultaneously with the opening of the
Queen Mary, so that the new hospital will replace two hospitals
(the Government Civil Hospital and the Victoria) and our medical
work on the Island will be centralised in a single up-to-date
comprehensive institution. Similarly both the existing male
prisons will be closed on the opening of Stanley Gaol, except
for a very small portion of Victoria Gaol which will be used as
the urban terminus of the prison and supply vans journeying
between the town and Stanley, thus becoming a sort of gaol
clearing house. Nevertheless, in spite of every economy
achievable by means of careful organisation and avoidance of
duplication, these three fine new Institutions cannot but add
to our annual expenditure.
3.
The development of Hong Kong as an Air Port also
entails many new liabilities that cannot be escaped.
4..
When I arrived here last December it was represented
to me in an Address of Welcome, and it was subsequently repeated
to me ad nauseam, that the Colony could stand no extra taxation.
The Court returns for mendicancy and petty larcenies were warning
enough against imposing any extra burden that could possibly be
passed on to the shoulders of the poorer classes, but I could see
no reason why the better off should not be taxed more
commensurably with the tariff in other Colonies. I therefore
proceeded with the support and assistance of my Councillors,
official and unofficial, to peg up what might be called luxury
taxes to the level at which a maximum return was estimated.
liquor, tobacco and petrol duties have been dealt with in this
manner, also the postage rates and the scales of estate duty.
There have also been increases in the fees for dog licences,
marine surveys and (with the consent of the Urban Council)
slaughter-house charges. The basis of taxation in a free port is a very narrow one, if the impracticability of an income tax
is conceded; and (although I am considering certain proposed
The