CO129-250 - Acting Governor Barker - 1891 [6-8] — Page 644

$

639

(in other deptar

Harbow Deft)

well as in them

applies to other officers who have free

Quarters, does not affect the question,

since the officer is saved rent which

is one of the specially heavy items of

expense at Hong Kong.

4. For this reason I am not pre-

pared to adopt the suggestion in para.

3 of your Despatch No.255 that the

salaries voted in the 1991 Estimates

for certain officers in the Harbour De-

partment should be sanctioned, since

those salaries are actually more than

35 (or 20) per cent in excess of the

1875 rates, so that the officers, though

saved Rent, would be put in a more fa-

vourable position than officers who

have to provide their own Quarters.

On the whole I consider that the fair-

est way to deal with all these cases

will be, in accordance with the sug-

gestion at end of your Despatch No.255,

to fix a new rate of increase, lower

than the 35 (or 20) per cent adopted

in the case of other officers, who are

not provided with Quarters; and the

rates which I have decided to adopt are

28 per cent for officers selected from this country, and 16 per cent for those

appointed in the Colony. In this way

the