Appendix J.
REPORT ON THE NEW TERRITORIES FOR
THE YEAR 1937.
A.-NORTHERN DISTRICT.
EXPENDITURE AND REVENUE.
1. Appendices I and II show some comparative details of the expenditure and revenue from the District in 1936 and 1937. The drop in expenditure on "Local Public Works" was not due to a decrease in the demand. On the contrary, the devastation wrought by the great typhoon of September the 2nd caused requests for assistance far in excess of the sum allotted for the year, $1,500. Unfortunately none of the works of repair was complete before the end of the year, so that the vote lapsed. The decrease in expenditure on "Transport" was due to a change in accounting for the cost of railway travel by officers of the Department on duty, whereby the Railway, not the Department, bore this cost.
2. The decrease in revenue of over $5,000, as compared with 1936, was chiefly due to a drop in "Land Sales", which were lower than in any year since 1927. This is attributed partly to tightness in the money market owing to feelings of insecurity generated by present troubles in the Far East, and partly to the fact that nearly all the flat Crown Land in the District has now been sold, so that what remains needs more than ordinary capital to develop, as orchards or building sites.
The slight decrease in the Crown Rent collected is explained chiefly by loss of rent in respect of the land resumed for the Pat Heung Aerodrome and the road leading to it. In spite of a slight decrease in the number of "Chinese Wine and Spirit Licences", there was an increase in the revenue under this head, due to a discovery by the District Officer that the Restaurants had been paying $25 too little each. Building development at Tai Po and Yuen Long accounts for the increase in the Rates collected, and an increase of nearly 200 in the number of persons summarily convicted by the Magistrate accounts for the increase in the "Fines" paid. If the typhoon had not necessitated the grant of many free "Permits to cut earth, etc." a greater improvement would have been shown under this head.