324
IG
Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PRESENT STATE
financial statement I have received instructions from your Lordship greatly limiting the amount to which the special licence fund is available for improving the Police Force.
On the whole I see reason for congratulation that during a period of unexampled commercial depression in China, this Colony has managed, so far as its public finances are concerned, to emerge from a state of insolvency to one of assured stability, without leaving a single claim unsatisfied or borrowing a fraction from the proceeds unavoidably accruing from the Gaming Licences.
The Police Force has greatly improved; crime has diminished, and the health of the military and civilians during 1868 and 1869 has been excellent, whilst the total shipping entered and cleared amounting to 67,219 vessels, of nearly five millions and a-half tons, manned by 918,000 seamen, still attests satisfactorily the importance of Hong Kong as the great emporium of Eastern commerce.
I have, &c., (Signed)
The Earl Granville, K.G.,
&c. &c. &c.
RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL,
Governor.
Enclosure in No. 2.
FINANCIAL STATEMENT, 1869, by His Excellency SIR Richard Graves MacDonnell, C.B.
September 17, 1869.
1. Various circumstances, but principally the illness and subsequent departure of the Auditor-General, Mr. Rennie, caused the supplemental estimates for last year to be so long delayed, that I find myself now laying them before you simultaneously with the estimates for 1870. Probably no immediate disadvantage attends this exceptional delay for once.
On the contrary, you may perhaps feel enabled thereby to take a more complete survey of the whole financial position of the Colony by noting at the same time the actual results of the previous year's expenditure, and the provision necessary for the requirements of the ensuing year.
2. The supplemental sum actually required to defray the Government expenses during 1868 is only $37,191. Of that sum several items, such as the cost of the fire brigade and the passage allowances of the mint officials, had their origin in necessities wholly arising subsequent to framing the estimates for 1868, and when it was not possible, or at least would have been very inconvenient, to have summoned you to meet merely to pass a vote for expenses as to which there could be no difference of opinion.
3. On the other hand you will find that there was a large saving of $77,985 in the actual total expenditure of 1868, including the $37,000 now to be voted, because that expenditure was only $991,310, whereas it had been estimated to amount to $1,069,296. You must remember, however, that the sums received from gaming licences in 1868 appeared on the estimates of that year. That is no longer the case now, and therefore the estimated receipts and expenditure of 1868 were proportionally increased.
4. I have further to call your attention to the fact that recent alterations in previous instructions enable me to present to you supplementary estimates which ask simply a vote for the sums really expended in excess of your authority. Formerly none of the savings in the estimates for establishments were considered applicable to any items of service "exclusive of establishments." The complications caused thereby belong now to the past, and I shall only illustrate the unintelligible basis on which supplemental estimates were formerly framed by stating that although $37,000 is the total excess for which I seek your authority, the Colonial Secretary computes that under the old system I should have been obliged to ask apparently for $280,049 to cover that excess. Now, however, the savings under the different votes are made applicable to the general purposes of the particular head of service under which such items were classified, and the excess alone of an entire department, in all its branches, is placed on the supplementary estimates. At the same time, in the Table which accompanies these estimates, is afforded full explanation of the savings accrued in each case, and also of the manner in which they have been applied.
5. Turning now to the estimates for 1870, you will find that although they propose nothing very remarkable, or which appears to invite special attention, they possess unusual interest as showing that, after many difficulties, a tolerably sound financial state has been attained, because it is one which gives fair promise of permanence. No fleeting surplus is shown by disposal of the Colony's capital, viz., its land—the receipts from