# LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, HONGKONG.
WEDNESDAY, 5TH SEPTEMBER, 1866.
# SPEECH OF H. E. SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B., IN REPLY TO A MEMORIAL AND A PROTEST AGAINST A PROPOSED ORDINANCE TO IMPOSE STAMP DUTIES.
I gladly find myself once more in a position to give this Council and the Community at large such explanations, as I hope may remove many misapprehensions connected with the measure submitted to you for placing your finances on a sounder footing.
I would have done so earlier, but felt it right to accede to the wishes of certain gentlemen, who asked for time to complete a Memorial against the proposed Stamp Bill. Accordingly I first adjourned the Council till last Friday, and on receipt of a further communication from the same gentlemen, adjourned the Meeting to this day.
To make the interval as useful as possible I published in the Government Gazette of the 1st instant the Schedule intended to be affixed to the Bill—a Schedule of that description and extent which from the first I had hoped, and which I should have preferred, to have framed in Council with your aid, after a careful sifting of the items in the Singapore Act. That Schedule has now been several days before the Public, and I am quite ready to amend it still further, if improvements can be suggested.
The Memorial transmitting resolutions against the Stamp Ordinance and presented to me this day has also been some time before the Public—whilst the Protest of three of the non-Official Members of Council, which you have just heard read, was laid before me by those gentlemen a week back. I have therefore the advantage of dealing with both instruments at once, and ascertaining whether either contains reasons that should stay the action of the Executive in this matter.
I must here remind you that a Public Meeting was held on the 28th ultimo to get up a Memorial against the imposition of any Stamp Duty, and that previously I had become aware that the intentions of Government were very generally misrepresented and ill understood.
I therefore took at once such measures as placed fully before the Public my intention of raising just as much and no more by the proposed Duty as might meet the probable annual deficit—assumed to be about $120,000. It was also stated that the published Schedule of the Singapore Act would be so modified as to meet the limited requirements of this Colony.
Very extensive circulation was given by the Press to those explanations, but nevertheless they were completely ignored subsequently, by the Meeting, and unnoticed in the Protest.
Vide page 1.
Vide page 15.
Page 47
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL,
HONGKONG.
WEDNESDAY, 5тн SEPTEMBER, 1866.
SPEECH OF H. E. SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B., IN REPLY TO A MEMORIAL AND A PROTEST AGAINST A
PROPOSED ORDINANCE TO IMPOSE STAMP DUTIES.
I gladly find myself once more in a position to give this Council and the Community at large such explanations, as I hope may remove many misapprehensions connected with the measure submitted to you for placing your finances on a sounder footing.
I would have done so earlier, but felt it right to accede to the wishes of certain gentlemen, who asked for time to complete a Memorial against the proposed Stamp Bill. Accordingly I first adjourned the Council till last Friday, and on receipt of a further communication from the same gentlemen, adjourned the Meeting to this day.
To make the interval as useful as possible I published in the Govern- ment Gazette of the 1st instant the Schedule intended to be affixed to the Billa Schedule of that description and extent which from the first I had hoped, and which I should have preferred, to have framed in Council with your aid, after a careful sifting of the items in the Singapore Act. That Schedule has now been several days before the Public, and I am quite ready to amend it still further, if improvements can be suggested.
The Memorial transmitting resolutions against the Stamp Ordinance and presented to me this day has also been some time before the Public--- whilst the Protest of three of the non-Official Members of Council, which you have just heard read, was laid before me by those gentlemen a week back. I have therefore the advantage of dealing with both instruments at once, and ascertaining whether either contains reasons that should stay the action of the Executive in this matter.
I must here remind you that a Public Meeting was held on the 28th ultimo to get up a Memorial against the imposition of any Stamp Duty, and that previously I had become aware that the intentions of Government were very generally misrepresented and ill understood.
I therefore took at once such measures as placed fully before the Public my intention of raising just as much and no more by the proposed Duty as might meet the probable annual deficit-assumed to be about $120,000. It was also stated that the published Schedule of the Sin- gapore Act would be so modified as to meet the limited requirements of this Colony,
Very extensive circulation was given by the Press to those explana- tions, but nevertheless they were completely ignored subsequently, by the Meeting, and unnoticed in the Protest.
Vide page 1.
Vide puge 15.
47
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