6
76
Police Force
Medical Department
Stores Department
Public Debt
Pensions
12,633,722 12,806,353 + 172,631
―
12,749,022 11,675,099
1,073,923
6,591,432 9,826,119 + 3,234,687
5,486,841 8,989,385 + 3,502,544
6,720,000 7,347,902 + 627,902
ASSETS & LIABILITIES
10. The statement of the Colony's assets and liabilities as at the 31st March, 1950, is shown at Appendix V. Comments on this statement are as follows:
$ 21,289,584
$ 50,731,807
$ 2,736,661
$154,152,843
$228,910,895
$137,549,295
Liabilities
Deposits. This sum is the total of deposits made by or sums due to His Majesty's Govern- ment, other administrations, contractors, Government officials etc.
Suspense. This figure consists mainly of the credit balances in the Treasury books resulting from the trading activities of the Department of Supplies & Distribution. These balances are partially offset by debit balances appearing on the assets side of the statement, but will require substantial adjustments on the com- pletion of the Department's trading accounts.
Special Funds. A small number of special funds are maintained by Government for various purposes, the investments on account of these funds being shown on the assets side of the statement.
General Revenue Balance. Without taking into account expenditure charged to advances pend- ing raising of loan, this represents the Colony's accumulated surplus.
Assets
Cash. Of this, $34,348,404 was held locally on current account or in cash and $50,000,000 was in a fixed deposit account with the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation.
367
$ 23,332,078
62,191,410
$ 5,837,745
$228,910,895
$53,200,891 was in the hands of the Crown Agents of which $53,200,000 was invested at interest on a short term basis in the Joint Colonial Fund.
Imprests. A small sum in respect of imprests had not been retired at the end of the year.
Suspense. These debit balances are mainly on account of the trading activities of the Depart- ment of Supplies & Distribution and are offset by credit balances appearing on the liabilities side of the statement.
Advances. The biggest debit balance under this heading is on account of $59,434,977 expended on loan works in excess of the amount of $50,000,000 raised by public sub- scription under the Rehabilitation Loan Ordin- ance of 1947. This matter is referred to in paragraph 2 above. The figure also includes amounts due by other Administrations, Cur- rency Funds, Government servants and others.
Investments. Part of the Colony's surplus funds are represented by а holding of $3,661,020 in the Hong Kong Government 31% Loan 1940. The balance of $2,176,725 is the total value of investments on account of the Special Funds already referred to in the remarks on the liabilities side of the statement. A statement of the Special Funds will be found at Appendix IX and details of the investments on account of these Funds are in Appendices Nos. 1 to 8.
S.T. & I. Suspense Accounts
During the financial year, trading activities continued to be financed from the Colony's surplus balances, and the debit and credit balances on the Suspense Accounts in respect of the various sections record the excesses of payments or receipts to date in respect of these transactions. On the completion of the Department's trading accounts the surpluses which have accrued will be transferred to the debit of the Suspense
77