7. At present the Colony, independent of any subsidiary coinage, an item which exceeds $60,000, holds here in Cash $190,135, and has also a respectable Balance of about $40,000 in the hands of the Crown Agents to meet its frequent Liabilities in England, a result which in a mere financial point of view is highly satisfactory.
8. Perhaps some, who remember the difficulties of the local Treasury in 1866, may hence infer that it is easy by a touch of the helm to turn the vessel of the state like other vessels from the breakers on which a slight mistake might so easily place her, yet the effort may be more arduous than appears, there are so many currents which tend to drive her in the direction where she has once been steered.
I can vouch that the production of our present financial safety and prosperity required much rigid economy and the strictest supervision, exercised even with severity, over all the Departments for the purpose of getting the Colony clear of the reef of Bankruptcy to which I found her drifting and which she may be said to have touched. It is nevertheless evident that the large balance now in hand is mainly attributable to no economy possible for any Governor, but is principally the result of two new sources of Revenue, viz., the Stamp Ordinance and Fees from the Licensed Gaming Houses which this Government established last Year in default of any better means of controlling certain dangerous classes of the community.
9. All these causes have so changed the financial position of the Government from that in which I found it on my arrival, that although the Liabilities of those days have been discharged, and although in 1869 it is contemplated to raise by Rates for Police, Water and Lighting, $34,000 less than the sum estimated for the current year, I am now enabled to lay before you an estimated Expenditure exceeding One Million of Dollars with every prospect that nevertheless there will remain a surplus of $230,000 on the 31st December, 1869, reduced by unavailable coinage to $170,000 and liable practically to some further diminution, if the Supplementary Estimates should obtain a greater development than has been allowed for in the calculations now submitted. That is a contingency always possible, as for example, it is not improbable that owing to original defective construction and the sinking of the earth in its neighbourhood, the necessity may arise for rebuilding the Harbor Master's Office, which is already in a dangerous state.
10. I last year stated that the possibility of such Contingencies occurring proves that this Colony, like any other large Firm or business, should always retain an easily available surplus, over and above Assets in the form of Rent and Taxes due. Such surplus should not be less than from $100,000 to $130,000, and I must again impress on you that although the Estimates now before you, shew a surplus probably exceeding the above sum at the end of 1869, even allowing liberally for the demands of the Supplementary Estimates, I can regard such result as merely amounting to a return to a sound financial status, such as should never be departed from, especially as amongst the items forming the Revenue for 1869, is one which cannot recur, namely, $60,000 for the Plant and Machinery of the Mint.
11. Hence, although the finances of the Colony are at last in a satisfactory state, it cannot now be said, that they will not require constant care and vigilance to preserve them in that condition.
12. Before concluding the subject of Revenue I call attention to the fact that the fees from the Licensed Gaming Houses are now withdrawn from the heading of unavailable deposits. I lay before you the despatch of the Secretary of State authorising application of that Revenue to certain Colonial purposes—and till some means of obtaining equal control over the classes addicted to illegal Gaming with all its evil consequences to the community can be devised, it certainly seems wise to use it for the improvement of a force which in a great measure is required to repress irregularities and crime, originating in or fostered by Gambling. It is at least wiser to devote it to that or other useful public objects than to throw it into the sea or get rid of it in some more objectionable manner on the plea that no Revenue should accrue from such a source.
13. My creed on such matters is a very simple one. I hold that a Government is bound to do as much good and suppress as much evil as it can. I have therefore not hesitated to advance straight forward towards that object. I have never been deterred by the secondary consideration that a Revenue was unavoidably created thereby, whether I liked or disliked that result, nor have I been persuaded by the reasoning, if I may use such a term, of some estimable persons who appear comparatively indifferent to the existence of a Public evil, provided their own theory that we should leave sin and vice alone prevails.
14. Such persons, if they pursue their argument to its legitimate conclusion, must be prepared to see our Navy and Army decimated by a disease which Legislation can mitigate, sooner than meddle officially with what they call sin in the one case, or vice in the other, and thus they would leave both to mature and fructify—the pestilence to spread and this City to be infested by illegal Gaming haunts frequented by the criminal classes with the usual results to society of such assemblages. Moreover they seem to apply their theories to all parts of the world and to all populations alike. They would govern the Saxon race of Kent and the Chinese on the same principles, and would think it wrong to meet the exigencies of each separate community with Legislation adapted to its local requirements.
15. I need scarcely say that no such policy has been countenanced by this Government. On the contrary, I and my Executive Council have from the first felt it a positive duty to admit the existence of the two evils alluded to and to frankly acknowledge that we cannot suppress them. We feel, consequently, more especially bound to exert ourselves to obtain a practical control over evils which we have not the power to eradicate, and thereby at least try to alleviate the mischiefs inseparable from each. I am therefore gratified to report that not merely has the new system been successful in closing the old dens of iniquity and substituting for them Houses regulated by strict Government surveillance, but also that there is strong reason to infer, contrary to the prophecies not unnaturally indulged in at first, that the system has reacted beneficially on the parties more immediately reached by it.
16. Thus, contrary to general expectation, and far exceeding any hope of my own, you will find from the Return, which I now lay before you, that the crime which seemed most likely to have increased is that which has most diminished, namely, Larceny amongst servants. During the first quarter following the opening of the Licensed Houses the number of those cases brought before the Police Magistrates averaged the same as in the preceding Three years, viz., about 80, whereas during the first quarter of this year they had diminished 50 per cent, and during the second quarter 75 per cent.
17. Recently all Foreigners have been excluded from the Licensed Houses, because the argument that licensing a few Houses had been found essential to obtain control for Police purposes over a vice amongst the Chinese—which after the most vigorous efforts the Executive could not suppress—is not applicable to Foreigners, and therefore affords no justification for permitting them to use the Licensed Houses, because it is not Foreigners who constitute the criminal classes of the Colony. There is no risk therefore of their Gambling tendencies leading to the establishment of illegal haunts where Burglaries and Robberies may be planned by those who meet in such places in defiance of the Law.
Appendix B.
Appendix C.
3
556
7. At present the Colony, independent of any subsidiary coinage, an item which exceeds $60,000, holds here in Cash $190,135, and has also a respectable Balance of about $40,000 in the hands of the Crown Agents to meet its frequent Liabilities in England, a result which in a mere financial point of view is highly satisfactory.
8. Perhaps some, who remember the difficulties of the local Treasury în 1866, may hence infer that it is easy by a touch of the helm to turn the vessel of the state like other vessels from the breakers on which a slight mistake might so easily place her, yet the effort may be more arduous than appears, there are so many currents which tend to drive her in the direction where she has once been steered.
I can vouch that the production of our present financial safety and prosperity required much rigid economy and the strictest supervision, exercised even with severity, over all the Departments for the purpose of getting the Colony clear of the reef of Bankruptcy to which I found her drifting and which she may be said to have touched. It is nevertheless evident that the large balance now in hand is mainly attributable to no economy possible for any Governor, but is principally the result of two new sources of Revenue, viz., the Stamp Ordinance and Fees from the Licensed Gaming Houses which this Government established last Year in default of any better means of controlling certain dangerous classes of the community.
9. All these causes have so changed the financial position of the Government from that in which I found it on my arrival, that although the Liabilities of those days have been discharged, and although in 1869 it is contemplated to raise by Rates for Police, Water and Lighting, $34,000 less than the sum estimated for the current year, I am now enabled to lay before you an estimated Expenditure exceeding One Million of Dollars with every prospect that nevertheless there will remain a surplus of $230,000 on the 31st December, 1869, reduced by unavailable coinage to $170,000 and liable practically to some further diminution, if the Supplementary Estimates should obtain a greater development than has been allowed for in the calculations now submitted. That is a contingency always possible, as for example, it is not improbable that owing to original defective construction and the sinking of the earth in its neighbourhood, the necessity may arise for rebuilding the Harbor Master's Office, which is already in a dangerous state.
10. I last year stated that the possibility of such Contingencies occurring proves that this Colony, like any other large Firm or business, should always retain an easily available surplus, over and above Assets in the form of Rent and Taxes due. Such surplus should not be less than from $100,000 to $130,000, and I must again impress on you that although the Estimates now before you, shew a surplus probably exceeding the above sum at the end of 1869, even allowing liberally for the demands of the Supplementary Estimates, I can regard such result as merely amounting to a return to a sound financial status, such as should never be departed from, especially as amongst the items forming the Revenue for 1869, is one which cannot recur, namely, $60,000 for the Plant and Machinery of the Mint.
11. Hence, although the finances of the Colony are at last in a satisfactory state, it cannot now be said, that they will not require constant care and vigilance to preserve them in that condition.
12. Before concluding the subject of Revenue I call attention to the fact that the fees from the Licensed Gaming Houses are now withdrawn from the heading of unavailable deposits. I lay before you the despatch of the Secretary of State authorising application of that Revenue to certain Colonial purposes-and till some means of obtaining equal control over the classes addicted to illegal Gaining with
Appendix B.
Appendix C.
all its evil consequences to the community can be devised, it certainly seems wise to use it for the improvement of a force which in a great measure is required to repress irregularities and crime, originating in or fostered by Gambling. It is at least wiser to devote it to that or other useful public objects than to throw it into the sea or get rid of it in some more objectionable manner on the plea that no Revenue should accrue from such a source.
13. My creed on such matters is a very simple one. I hold that a Government is bound to do as much good and suppress as much evil as it can. I have therefore not hesitated to advance straight forward towards that object. I have never been deterred by the secondary consideration that a Revenue was unavoidably created thereby, whether I liked or disliked that result, nor have I been persuaded by the reasoning, if I may use such a term, of some estimable persons who appear com- paratively indifferent to the existence of a Public evil, provided their own theory that we should leave sin and vice alone prevails.
14. Such persons, if they pursue their argument to its legitimate conclusion, must be prepared to see our Navy and Army decimated by a disease which Legis- lation can mitigate, sooner than meddle officially with what they call sin in the one case, or vice in the other, and thus they would leave both to mature and fructify- the pestilence to spread and this City to be infested by illegal Gaming haunts frequented by the criminal classes with the usual results to society of such assem- blages. Moreover they seem to apply their theories to all parts of the world and to all populations alike. They would govern the Saxon race of Kent and the Chinese on the same principles, and would think it wrong to meet the exigencies of each separate community with Legislation adapted to its local requirements.
15. I need scarcely say that no such policy has been countenanced by this Gov- ernment. On the contrary, I and my Executive Council have from the first felt it a positive duty to admit the existence of the two evils alluded to and to frankly acknowledge that we cannot suppress them. We feel, consequently, more especially bound to exert ourselves to obtain a practical control over evils which we have not the power to eradicate, and thereby at least try to alleviate the mischiefs inseparable from each. I am therefore gratified to report that not merely has the new system been successful in closing the old dens of iniquity and substituting for them Houses regulated by strict Government surveillance, but also that there is strong reason to infer, contrary to the prophecies not unnaturally indulged in at first, that the system has reacted beneficially on the parties more immediately reached by it.
16. Thus, contrary to general expectation, and far exceeding any hope of my own, you will find from the Return, which I now lay before you, that the crime which seemed most likely to have increased is that which has most diminished, namely, Larceny amongst servants. During the first quarter following the opening of the Licensed Houses the number of those cases brought before the Police Magistrates averaged the same as in the preceding Three years, viz., about 80, whereas during the first quarter of this year they had diminished 50 per cent, and during the second quarter 75 per cent.
17. Recently all Foreigners have been excluded from the Licensed Houses, because the argument that licensing a few Houses had been found essential to obtain control for Police purposes over a vice amongst the Chinese--which after the most vigorous efforts the Executive could not suppress is not applicable to Foreigners, and therefore affords no justification for permitting them to use the Licensed Houses, because it is not Foreigners who constitute the criminal classes of the Colony. There is no risk therefore of their Gambling tendencies leading to the establishment of illegal haunts where Burglaries and Robberies may be planned by those who meet in such places in defiance of the Law.
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