FUBLIC
[ ༄། ། ། ། ༅།
RECORD OFFICE
Reference
C.O.882/12
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOI TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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with pensionable rights. Apart from this the immediate degree of reduction possible without disorganization of essential services is obviously limited. Your Lordship issued instructions that a memor- andum of possible economies in existing expenditure should be prepared for my examination on arrival here. This has been done but the total of the suggested economies is far from being sufficient to bring about a balance between revenue and expenditure. The total suggested by Departments amounted to only about Rs.50,000 and the list submitted by the Colonial Secretary amounted to Rs.82,375 made up as follows :—
Head 3.-Government House.
of Grounds
Head 4. Travelling of Officers on Railway Head 5.-Treasury. Duty allowance to Officer
in charge House Tax
Reduction.
R3.
Maintenance
1,500 25,000
2,000
Head 12.-Law and Justice. B Procureur- General 2nd Additional Substitute Procureur- General
10,750
Head 21.-Military Expenditure. B Volunteer
Force
Head 22.-Miscellaneous.
8,125
**35,000
Rs.82,375
Contribution towards cost of passages of officers going on leave
It will be noted that the most substantial of these economies involves the withdrawal of the privilege of assisted passages for officials pro- ceeding on leave, a course which I should be very reluctant to adopt in a Colony where leave involves such a lengthy and expensive journey, though I fear it may prove inevitable. The reduction of Rs.25,000 under the head "Travelling" involves the withdrawal of privileged rates on the Railway to Government clerks, which I fear would result in a considerable loss of traffic to the Railway and an accretion to the revenue of the motor buses.
7. The economies suggested above taken together with the possible increase in revenue mentioned in paragraphs 3 and 4 will by no means suffice to balance the budget. To achieve this it would. be necessary I fear, to curtail what would ordinarily be regarded as essential services. There are certain of these which I do not think could be encroached upon except as a last and desperate resource. The medical and poor law services are subject, under present conditions, to especially heavy demands which render any substantial reduction in these directions scarcely to be con- templated: indeed the demands are such that without positive inhumanity it may be difficult to resist appeals for additional funds.
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The prison services cannot well be touched and in the present con- ditions any encroachment on the Customs and Revenue services would be particularly damaging. The Police services should not in my view be in any circumstances curtailed or the force reduced in strength above all under present conditions. Apart from an en- forced general reduction in salaries applicable to all Government officers, which I submit should be avoided if at all possible, there remain only:
Services (Public Works
--
Public Works
Recurrent);
Post Office;
Education;
Agriculture; and
Forestry.
Maintenance
None of these can yield substantial economies without curtailment of services to an extent which would be both uneconomic in the long run and damaging to the public interest. The objections under present conditions to the reduction of Agricultural and Forestry services are manifest. The suns allowed for maintenance of public roads and buildings are barely sufficient though they could of course It may be be temporarily reduced as an emergency measure. noted however that expenditure under Public Works Recurrent has been reduced from Rs.1,500,000 in 1925-26 to Rs.721,500 in Immediate reduction in Educational the current Estimates. services would involve the closing of schools and serious hard- ship both on children and teachers. Rural Post Offices could be closed but unless this were carried to an extreme degree involving grave inconvenience to the public, the resulting economy would not be large (the Colonial Postmaster's own suggestions contemplated only the closing of one rural office with a saving of Rs.540 annually). I do not suggest that no savings can be achieved in these services but that the saving of any amounts proportionate to the sum re- quired to balance the budget would involve serious disorganization and hardship to the public.
8. In these circumstances I feel bound to draw attention to two sources of expenditure which in the conditions which I have endeavoured to explain seem to me to bear unduly hardly on the public Treasury. These are :-
(i) the Military contribution of Rs.748,000 per annum, and (ii) the payment for interest on the Widows' and Orphans' Fund amounting to Rs.353,000.
9. The history of the Military contribution which is fixed at 5k per cent. of assessable revenue is known to Your Lordship's advisers and need not be recapitulated. It was fixed at the present rate by Ordinance No. 33 of 1897. I do not wish to ask for con- sideration of the general question as to how far a Colony such as
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