430
*
16
HEAD 30. PUBLIC WORKS EXTRAORDINARY.
See separate memorandum.
HEAD 31. FISHERIES RESEARCH STATION.
Following an application from this Government in December, 1938, to the Colonial Development Advisory Committee, a grant of £10,000 from the Colonial Development Fund to cover the capital cost of the station was approved. Running expenses would be provided from Hong Kong Government funds: these are estimated to amount to less than $20,000 per annum.
The objects of the station would be to promote scientific knowledge of local fisheries with a view to increasing the production of this important local industry, and to diffuse among the public a general knowledge of the value or otherwise of various species of fish as articles of diet. In addition the recreational attractions of the aquarium, particularly for tourists, would not be overlooked, and a part of the running expenses would, it is hoped, be recovered from admission. fees.
Appendix VII. Water Accounts.
Attention is drawn to a change in the method of reckoning revenue to be credited to the water undertaking. It was formerly the practice to credit to that a part (2%) of the rates. As explained in the Memorandum on water charges etc. by the Financial Secretary of April 1938 (Sessional Paper No. 4 of 1938) the continuance of this was justified in part by the necessity of charging the water undertaking with its own share of the Military Contribution then equal to 20% on gross revenue. Now that Military Contribution is no longer paid as a percentage of revenue it is not necessary to charge the Water undertaking with any part of it; on the other hand revenue has still to be found to meet the fixed contribution
which remains a charge on general, i.e. non-water, revenue. Adjustment has therefore been made by reducing the amount credited to water on account of rates to 1% and deleting any debit in respect of military contribution; the net effect on the water revenue is practically nil, but it represents a much more convenient accounting arrangement.
As the result of a review of the salaries of officers in senior grades which was commenced in 1937, new scales of salary have now been approved by the Secretary of State, which are set out in detail in an Appendix to this Memorandum. Officers on these scales receive while in the Colony, but not while on long leave, residential allowance at the rate of 10% of the first £400 of salary, 5% of the next £400, and 24% of the third £400, but these residential allowances are not payable to officers occupying senior super-scale posts, i.e. those listed in para. 1 of the Appendix. Officers on these new scales, excluding the holders of the senior super-scale posts and certain other special cases, pay rent for Government quarters at the rate of 12% of their salaries instead of 6% as formerly and are eligible for a correspondingly reduced rent allowance if not in occupation of Government quarters. They receive no addition to pensionable emoluments in respect of the value of their quarters, whereas officers on the old terms benefit by an addition of of their pensionable emoluments.
In the course of this review certain anomalies have been corrected and the salaries of some grades have been increased, but the net effect is a reduction in actual salaries and a very considerable reduction in pension liability in respect of these senior grades.
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