CO129-228 - Acting Governor Marsh - 1886 [7-9] — Page 219

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members, or, in important cases are revised at a special meeting held for the purpose. The minutes are then read at the next meeting of Council, and on the motion for their adoption, any Member discuss them, and they may be rejected, as I have seen done in Mauritius. 4. One very important reason why the Finance Committee meetings should not be public is that the Government would be wholly precluded in that case from communicating information of a confidential nature. As a rule, most of the Secretary of State's Despatches containing instructions can be communicated, when necessary, confidentially to the Finance Committee; though the Governor cannot publish them by laying them before a meeting when reporters are present (See Col. Rule 188).

5. Sir JOHN POPE HENNESSY informed the Council in 1878 that he was considering whether or not he should allow reporters to be present at future meetings of the Finance Committee, but the Secretary of State, to whom he referred the question, thought it undesirable that the practice of the Finance Committee should be altered.

6. It must be evident to Honourable Members that, if Sir JoHN POPE HENNESSY did not feel justified in making the innovation which he recommended, without previously asking for the sanction of the Secretary of State, I cannot take upon myself that responsibility, especially when the Secretary of State did not approve of the recommendation of Sir JOHN POPE HENNESSY. There is therefore no advantage to be gained by convening a special meeting of the Legislative Council, since the resolution, if passed, must be referred home. The motion can be made, if the Honourable Members still think it desirable, at the next meeting of Council, which must be held in the early part of September, if not before, to discuss the Estimates; and, if carried, I will forward it to the Secretary of State at once.

7. If the public are to be admitted to meetings of the Finance Committee, the raison d'etre of such Committees seems to me to disappear, and all votes for money might as well be discussed in Council, without the preliminary examination of details, which has hitherto proved so convenient both in this and in other Crown Colonies.

8. I cannot help thinking that the Honourable Member who proposed this resolution must have been under the impression, at the time, that the functions of the Finance Com- mittee were more important and more conclusive than they really are.

9. I assure Honourable Members that it is my wish that the fullest information should be given by the Government in all matters connected with the expenditure of public moneys, and that I shall at all times be ready to entertain any suggestions that are of undoubted advantage, and that I feel that I am authorized in acceding to.

Government House, Hongkong, 17th July, 1886.

Considerable discussion ensues, when the Acting Attorney General proposes, and Mr. McEwe seconds, the following resolution:-

"That this Committee, having heard read certain Despatches and the explanations of the Chairman, withdraw the resolution of the 15th instant, and resolve that the Meetings of the Committee be carried on as heretofore, until the question of admitting the public to the meetings be considered at the first meeting of the Legislative Council.”

Carried unanimously.

(2.) Read a Confidential Report by the Commanding Royal Engineer, (Col. Walker, R.E.), on the progress of the Defence Works,

2 of 1886,

COD Read also the Despatch from the War Office to the Colonial Office, dated the 19th September, 1885 (Hongkong)

***), which had been previously circulated and perused by the Members, giving a detailed description of the Armaments for the Hongkong Forts, and shewing the number of Breech-loading and Muzzle-loading guns to be used for the fortifications.

2181,

The Committee then adjourn to Thursday, the 22nd instant, at 4 PM., for the despatch of regular business.

Read and confirmed this 22nd day of July, 1886,

ARATHOON SETH.

Clerk of Councila.

FREDERICK STEWART,

Chairman.

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Mr. Wingfield.

Mr. Bramston.

Mr. Meade.

Sir R. Herbert.

Lord Dunraven.

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Mr. Stanhope.

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