CO129-115 - Sir MacDonnell - 1866 [9-10] — Page 61

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To His Excellency SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, Knight, C.B.,

Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Hongkong.

The Memorial of the Undersigned, Inhabitants of the Colony- Humbly Sheweth:

THAT at a Public Meeting held at the Supreme Court House, Hongkong, on the 28th Day of August instant, attended by a very large number of the Residents of the Colony, certain resolutions were carried, Copies of which are attached hereto and to which we beg Your Excellency's attention.

THAT in accordance with the fourth resolution, Your Mettorialists now proceed to address Your Excellency on the subject of the proposed Stamp Ordinance.

In the first place they beg to refer to the items of Expenditure in the Estimates of 1867 in respect of which the alleged deficit in the Revenue is expected to arise, being Five in number and atmounting to $114,000 and, looking at their nature and character, they beg to lay before Your Excellency their opinion, that, in respect of these items--

Firstly.There is no necessity for any new method of taxation of a permanent character.

Secondly--Even if there is a present necessity for more money that the ordinary Revenue of the Colony will supply, the best mode of raising the required sum is by direct taxation, in the manner always hitherto pursued in the Colony, which can be done, without any difficulty, by wi increase of the existing taxes, or by the imposition of a special rate of a similar or analogous character.

Thirdly. While your Memorialists fully Agree in the proposition that all Public Works, necessary for the advancement of the Colony, in either a sanitary, or social, point of view, should be proceeded with, they respectfully urge that the three items of proposed expenditure alluded to in the third resolution are not of such a character ne to necessitate their being carried out, until the future financial position of the Colony, as depending, in a great incasure, upon the maintenance or abandonment, of the Mint, is determined, or until the Ordinary Revenue of the Colony will admit of the expenditure. Fourthly-If Your Excellency should coincide with Your Memorialists in their lastly expressed opinion, the iteras of expenditure calling for consideration are two: one, the $26,000 towards maintenance of the Gun-boat, the other $50,000 for part construction of a reservoir. With regard to the latter item, Your Memorialists, representing, as they do, all sections or interests of the Community, beg that Your Excellency will provide for this sum by a special rate for a fixed period, either added to the present Water Rate, or imposed on the assessed Rental of the Colony as a "Reservoir Rate," or, what is perhaps a more desirable plan, by borrowing this money ou Debenture, securing the holder by a charge on a Water Rate, to he levied for the purpose over a longer period.

With regard to the former item, for the Gun-boat, Your Memorialists feel assured that the proper way to pay for this is to class it us Police Expenditure, and levy for it an additional Police Rate, which will be readily borne by all classes of the Community, who all, without exception, will benefit by its maintenance.

Having thus respectfully laid before Your Excellency the deliberate conviction at which they have arrived, Firstly, with regard to the character and necessity of the proposed expenditure, and, Secondly, as to the mode in which the necessity for more money, if it exists, should be met, they now proceed to entreat Your Excellency's patient and favourable consideration of the feeling entertained by, they may say, the whole Colony, that a Stamp Act or tax to be passed for, or levied on, this Colony, is calculated to do serious and grievous prejudice to the interests of all classes of the residents, and is, in principle, inapplicable to the place and its circumstances, and this quite irrespectively of the amount to be raised by it, or the retention or abandonment of any items in the Schedule to the Ordinance as published.

Your Memorialists are emphatically of opinion that any Stamp Tax must be disastrous in its effects on the welfure and prosperity of the Colony. The trade which is now carried on in the Colony has grown gradually up, induced partly by the protection to property always to be had hers, and partly by its being a conveniently situated place for the producer to come to to meet the exporter on the one hand, and the consumer, or speculator upon consumption, to meet the importer, on the other. These undoubted advantages possessed by Hongkong however, did not suffice to bring the trade here, until it was largely favoured by outside influences, and fortaitous circumstances. The Establishment of heavy taxes and duties formerly at Macao, drove a good deal of native Commerce over here, and, though these taxes have now ceased to exist, this trade has remained here, because it has had nothing to gain by returning to Macao hitherto, and, though this is but a small element in the great whole, it is well worthy of consideration as embodying the principle for which Your Memorialists contend. Again, after the destruction of the Factories at Canton, in 1856, came what may be called a turning point in the fortunes of Hongkong; The Merchants had after the cessation of hostilities, to consider whether, in the utter absence of all taxation on trade here, it was necessary to incur the expense of building at Canton, and keeping separate Establishments there, to do business that could be done equally well here, and, finding, as they did, that the Chinese, on whom the trade depends, were willing to come here and settle, they have almost entirely abandoned Canton, as un Emporium or place of business. A wise und prudent course of legislation in the Colcuy, has kept the taxation necessary 10 raise the requisite amount of Revenue, in a purely local and direct channel, and, by carefully abstaining from producing any fear in the minds of people elsewhere, who send to the residents here to have their transactions carried out, that any, even indirect, taxation upon trade would ever be imposed, has maluly contributed to attract new trade hither and keep that already secured. The residents hero have always readily paid this local direct taxation, because it pays them to do so, by offering inducements, as there is no doubt it does, for business to be sent here, which might just as readily be transacted elsewhere, and Your Memorialists believe that any additional Revenue, necessary to be raised, would always gladly be paid by the residents here, who, oue and all, are dependent for their livelihood upon the influx of trade and commerce to the port, and to induce an increase of which, it is so vitally important that the previous character of the taxation here should not be altered in the smallest degree.

With all respect to the Opinions expressed by Your Excellency, in your letter to Mr. WarFTALI on the subject of this tax, there is one sentence in that letter which clearly indicates the danger of imposing it, and shews why a tax of this nature will cause dread in the minds of absent traders and speculators, and lead then to send their orders elsewhere. The sentence is this "I see in it a system capable of immediate contraction and expansion according to the Public exigencies." It is this expansive property that is the evil at the bottom of the whole proposition, as, passing a Stamp tax, avowedly as the future proper mode of meeting any "Public exigencies" that may arise, amounts to a declaration that, if money is needed for expenditure in the Colony, Trade must be taxed by new or altered Starp imposts to supply the amount. While on the subject of Your Excellency's letter your Memorialists would also point out, that though the proposed Stamp tax was originally given out to be merely a temporary measure to provide for the alleged deficit for 1867, it appears, from Your Excellency's avowal in the letter, that $120,000 is fixed as a "yearly addition to the Colonisi Revenue," to be derived from this source, and the introduction of this measure will be the more dreade 1, as its positively permanent character, and certain "expansion" if money be required, is thus announced us the Policy of the Colonial Government for the future. That the fact of the existence of the dread or apprehension to which they allude, and that its effect will be prejudicial to the welfare of the Colonists, are matters beyond doubt, and not mere baseless suppositions, Your Memorialists have already received substancial evidence in more ways than one. They submit to Your Excellency, that their unanimous feeling against both the principle, and effect, of any Stamp tax, is worthy of serious attention from the fact, that all previous legislation here, has been in accordance with their present convictions, and also because it is not on their part, a captious objection to the expenditure of money, but an anxious protest against its being paid for in this way, coupled with an offer of readiness to be taxed, to any necessary amount, year by year, as real occasion arises, in the mode suggested by them, or in any other way not so likely to be productive of evil results to the Community.