186
[2]
Wo Fund, as for brevity it may be styled. I am, therefore, sorry I cannot publish it as its details are still under consideration of H. M.'s Government. Full information, however, on the subject is accessible to individual members of Council. You will find, however, from the Estimate of the Colony's Liabilities at the end of 1868, (Supplementary Estimates, Page 3) that amongst the Liabilities of the Colony is inserted an amount due to the Special Fund of $163,718. At the end of the current year there will probably be an amount due to it of $140,000. The difference, therefore, between the latter sum and the $317,807, estimated total receipts of the Licenses from September 1867 to the end of this year, would be the amount appropriated from that fund during more than two years and a quarter, and that amount is $177,807.
Let us, however, inquire how that money has been expended. You will not find it appropriated to any selfish outlay on objects calculated to diminish the burthens or promote the convenience of the Foreign Residents. Expenses which should be borne by the ordinary Revenue of the Colony continue to be so borne, and I may inform you that it is not merely the wish, but the positive order of H. M.'s Government that no part of the Special Fund be expended in relieving you of the taxation entailed by duties which every civilized Community is bound to discharge.
The appropriation of merely a part of that Fund has therefore been limited: 1st—to purposes auxiliary to the Police object for which the Licensing system was instituted, and which alone could justify such an experiment, viz: the suppression of crime and more especially crime such as was formerly generated by frequent contact of the ignorant and needy with the criminals of the Colony in illegal gambling haunts, where the former were tempted to join in schemes for Piracies, Burglaries, and Theft. It has, therefore, been suggested that improvements in the constitution of the Police, whether by land or water, and in all appliances for detection of crime, which could not have been undertaken by the unaided ordinary Revenue of the Colony, might on that principle be temporarily borne by the Special Fund. Thus the cost of the Colonial vessels, which patrol the waters of the Colony, and whose utility becomes more apparent by every day's experience, is at present borne by the Special Fund. The erection of a Telegraph round the Island, and of additional Police and Telegraph stations to complete the guarded circuit so effectually as to render improbable future landings of such parties, as attacked Sowkewan on the 18th of April last, may be similarly regarded as a reasonable charge on the Fund for suppression of crime. Nevertheless, to prevent any diminution of the Police Rates being effected by an unfair resort to the Special Fund, it has also been suggested that the Colony should always provide from its ordinary Revenue the means of defraying the highest Expenditure on its Police incurred in any year preceding the License system. That year was 1866 and the actual expenditure then on the Colonial Police was in round numbers $120,000, an amount ascertained after deducting from the sum charged against Police, several items improperly entered under that head—as Lighting Street Lamps, $20,000 an item now placed under "Miscellaneous."
Therefore $120,000 is the least which the Colony is bound to find from its own resources. At the same time to promote Police protection and prevent an unmeaning and inconvenient accumulation of the License Fund, Police expenditure in excess of that amount, if approved by the Secretary of State, may be temporarily borne by the Special Fund.
2ndly. You may assume that no application of the License Fund for any but the Police purposes, already explained, will be permitted unless for the special benefit and improvement physically or morally of the Chinese population. The Council is aware that none but persons of Chinese or Malay origin, and that ...
186
[2]
Wo
Fund, as for brevity it may be styled. I am, therefore, sorry I cannot publish it as its details are still under consideration of H. M.'s Government. Full informa- tion, however, on the subject is accessible to individual members of Council. You will find, however, from the Estimate of the Colony's Liabilities at the end of 1868, (Supplementary Estimates, Page 3) that amongst the Liabilities of the Colony is inserted an amount due to the Special Fund of $163,718, At the end of the current year there will probably be an amount due to it of $140,000. The difference, therefore, between the latter sum and the $317.807, estimated 449.1 total receipts of the Licenses from September 1867 to the end of this year, would be the amount appropriated from that fund during more than two years and a quarter, and that amount is $177,807.
Let us, however, inquire how that money has been expended. You will not find it appropriated to any selfish outlay on objects calculated to diminish the burthens or promote the convenience of the Foreign Residents. Expenses which should be borne by the ordinary Revenue of the Colony continue to be so borne, and I may inform you that it is not merely the wish, but the positive order of H. '; M.'s Government that no part of the Special Fund be expended in relieving you of the taxation entailed by duties which every civilized Community is bound to discharge.
The appropriation of merely a part of that Fund has therefore been limited: 1st--to purposes auxiliary to the Police object for which the Licensing system was instituted, and which alone could justify such an experiment, viz: the suppression of crime and more especially crime such as was formerly generated by frequent contact of the ignorant and needy with the criminals of the Colony in illegal gambling haunts, where the former were tempted to join in schemes for Piracies, Burglaries, and Theft. It has, therefore, been suggested that improvements in the constitution of the Police, whether by land or water, and in all appliances for detection of crime, which could not have been undertaken by the unaided ordinary Revenue of the Colony, might on that principle be tem- porarily borne by the Special Fund. Thus the cost of the Colonial vessels, which patrol the waters of the Colony, and whose utility becomes more apparent by every day's experience, is at present borne by the Special Fund. The erection of a Telegraph round the Island, and of additional Police and Telegraph stations to complete the guarded circuit so effectually as to render improbable future landings of such parties, as attacked Sowkewan on the 18th of April last, may be similarly regarded as a reasonable charge on the Fund for suppression of crime. Nevertheless, to prevent any diminution of the Police Rates being effected by an unfair resort to the Spécial Fund, it has also been suggested that the Colony should always provide from its ordinary Revenue the means of defraying the highest Expenditure on its Police incurred in any year preceding the License system. That year was 1866 and the actual expenditure then on the Colonial Police was in round numbers $120,000, an amount ascertained after deducting from the sum charged against Police, several items improperly entered under that head- —as Lighting Street Lamps, $20,000 an item
neous.'
around Help now placed under "Miscella- Therefore $120,000 is the least which the Colony is bound to find greatest from its own resources. At the same time to promote Police protection and prevent accrding
an unmeaning and inconvenient accumulation of the License Fund, Police expen-fractice diture in excess of that amount, if approved by the Secretary of State, may
be temporarily borne by the Special Fund.
2ndly. You may assume that no application of the License Fund for any but the Police purposes, already explained, will be permitted unless for the special benefit and improvement physically or morally of the Chinese population. The Council is aware that none but persons of Chinese or Malay origin, and that
ILL
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.