13
REVENUE.
Duties
Licences and Internal
Revenue
+
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
APP. EST. 1938 AND
1939 EST.
$ 1,550,000
953,651
Fees of Court and
Re-imbursements
281,550
Post Office
489,950
Kowloon Canton Railway +
739,100
Land Sales
+
395,000
(See page 133 of Leg.Co's debates. 5 to 4).
Enc.
Most Heads of Revenue approximate to the
revised estimates for 1938 and the estimated increases
are largely due to the same causes that produced the
increases in the Revenue for the current year. In
some cases the estimated revenue is less than the
revised estimate for 1939, notably in the case of the
Kowloon
-
Canton Railway, receipts from which are
estimated to be $100,000 odd less. As the main
bridges on the Railway have been blown up and there
are as yet no signs of it being put into working order
even this estimate may be optimistic.
Revenue in Hong Kong depends in the main
upon the extent of the population, rather than upon
business activity, owing to the sources from which Hong
Kong's revenue is obtained. As the Japanese occupation
of Kuangtung has resulted in a large influx of
refugees into Hong Kong the immediate financial future
need not be regarded too gloomily. It seems likely,
however, that the refugee population will eventually
return to Kuangtung or move elsewhere and, in the
long run, Japanese control of Canton would appear
likely to result in diminution of business activity m
and eventually therefore in the size of the population.
There seems therefore to be need for a somewhat
Hany Kong
higher