FINANCIAL STATEMENT
BY HIS EXCELLENCY MAJOR-GENERAL. WHITFEILD, Lieutenant-Governor of Hongkong.
170
11857
HONGKONG:
PRINTED BY NORONHA & SONS, Government Frinters,
1871.
September 1st, 1871.
1 have the honor to lay before you the Supplementary Estimates of 1870, and the Estimates of 1872, with the Ordinances by which it is proposed to give legal effect to them.
Owing to the disallowance by the Secretary of State of the Estimates of 1870 as originally sent home, and their rectification very many months later than eusto- mary, the Supplementary Estimates of that year are unusually light, amounting to the comparatively small sum of $7,460.73, and comprising, with exception of the item of Transport" which will be explained by the Colonial Secretary, but the moderate votes which have already received your assent.
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With reference to the Estimates of 1872, they are based to a great extent, as regards Ways and Means, on the actual results of 1870, and correspond very much in respect to charges with those of preceding years.
Apparently, as you will observe from the diminished Receipts estimated for 1872, as compared with those of the preceding year, there is in prospect a failure of some source or sources of Revenue.
Such is not the case, however, as although there has been a considerable diminution in the yield of the Stamp Ordinance during the first 7 months of 1872, still the Revenue has proved buoyant in other respects, and the great increase of the Receipts of 1870 is to be attributed to purely exceptional causes; viz:--the sale of the Mint Buildings, and the credit erroneously given to the Colony for interest on the Special Fund deposits.
On the whole, the Financial position of the Colony is highly satisfactory, as, independent of the Special Fund which amounted on the 31st December last to $394,323.86, there was at that date an excess of Assets over Liabilities of $154,117.19.
True, that a large portion of this has been already absorbed by the liberal grants made to the Widows of deceased Public Officers, and to the Cathedral and other Churches, as also by the completion of the Lock Hospital, the Police Stations at Showkewan and Causeway Bay, and other Works of importance; but nevertheless, even with an allowance of $100,000 for the Votes passed in anticipation of the Supplementary Estimates of 1871, you may rely upon a surplus of $56,122.39 at your disposal on the 31st of December next.
As the Colonial Secretary will be prepared to afford in Committee whatever explanations you may require relative to the charges upon the Revenue, it is unne- cessary for me to allude to them now. I cannot ouit, however, to draw your' special attention to the financial arrangements which have been made for the strengthening of the Police Force, as well by the enlistment of 10 trained men in England, as by an addition to the Chinese branch of the service in June 1872, when the engagements of very many Sikhs and Indians will expire.
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