CO129-258 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1893 [1-4] — Page 192

We, the undersigned Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council of Hongkong, both nominated and elected, beg to approach your Lordship on matters of grave importance to the Colony, and to request that you will be pleased to give them your serious consideration.

There is no difference of opinion amongst us as to the necessity for retrenchment in the public expenditure of Hongkong, and we are unanimously of opinion that the present is a fitting opportunity for a searching and independent inquiry into the cost of the administration of the Colony.

On the question of official salaries, there is no division of opinion as to the necessity for a reduction in the cost of administration, and for economising generally by the amalgamation of certain offices, as well as for a reformation in the constitution of the Legislative Council, and as to the uselessness in the Council as at present constituted of the presence of an unofficial element which is habitually overruled by the Official vote.

We further beg to ask your Lordship's special reference to the proceedings in the Council as reported in the Hongkong Daily Press of 8th and 22nd December ultimo, and posted herewith.

We ask that an independent Commission, i.e., one consisting of the Members of the Community unconnected with Government or at least of a majority of such persons, should be appointed with full power to investigate and report on the cost of the Administration.

We venture to hope that your Lordship will reply to this letter direct to the Unofficial Members or to their doyen. We had occasion within the last year or two to address several letters to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies and have received neither acknowledgment nor reply. It was only in answer to questions in Council that we learned that there had been any communication at all on the subject of our letters.

We have the honour to be,

My Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient

humble Servants,

C.P. Chater

H. Whitehead

E.R. Belilios

A. McKenzie

We, the undersigned Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council of Hongkong, both nominated and elected, desire to place on record our unanimous protest against the Appropriation Ordinance for 1893, entitled-

An Ordinance enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, to apply a sum not exceeding Two millions Two hundred and Fifty-six thousand Three hundred and Seventy-five Dollars to the Public Service of the Year 1893,

numbered 12 of 1892 and published in the Hongkong Government Gazette of the 3rd instant as having been passed by this Honourable Council on the 30th day of November, 1892, and as having been assented to by His Excellency the Governor, in the name and on behalf of the Queen, on the 3rd day of December instant.

We protest against the inclusion in that Ordinance, contrary to the unanimous votes and opinions of all the Unofficial Members of the Council in the Finance Committee and in the Committee of the Council, of large sums for the salaries of the Civil Servants of the Colony in excess of the amounts voted and approved by all the Unofficial Members in the Finance Committee and reported to the Council, and far in excess of what, in our opinion, are necessary or the Colony can reasonably afford to pay.

We protest against the Colonial Secretary and the Official Members of Council voting in Committee of Council, and in Council on the third reading of the Bill, in support of votes for their own salaries in excess of the amounts approved by us in the Finance Committee as reported.

Members of Council are legally incapable of voting on questions in which they are directly pecuniarily interested. They are disqualified on principle and by the law of Parliament formally declared in a recent case in England, and we protest and declare that the votes of the Official Members of Council on the Appropriation Bill, so far as the question of official salaries was concerned, were null and void and of no effect.

We claim that the amendments proposed in Committee of Council for the reduction of official salaries to the scale force in 1890 were duly carried by a majority of legal votes; that the votes recorded against the amendments were null and void and ought not to have been counted and that the Appropriation Bill ought to have been reported and passed with these amendments.

For the reasons above given we formally and unanimously protest against the so-called Appropriation Ordinance for 1893 as published, and declare it not to have been duly passed by this Honourable Council and not to be law.

Dated Hongkong, this 13th day of December, 1892.

(Signed)

C.P. Chater

Ho Kai

T.H. Whitehead

E.R. Belilios