CO129-292 - Governor Sir Blake - 1899 [6-8] — Page 304

1895

1899.

Brought forward

66 cts.

98 cts.

· Sugar per lb.

7

9

Rice 挚爱

5

5

Eggs per doz

14

$0.85

$1.20

302

Average increase 41% Vegetables and fruit have increased in the same time 50%, washing 50%, Clothing 30% to 40%, Boots 25%, Schooling 11%. Wages of servants have increased from 25% to 40%..

I have examined the accounts of the Constables Mess, and find that in the above period the cost of it has risen 27% per man, and the scale of diet is the same.

I attach a table showing the sterling value of the pay of the European Police here and the average of the pay of the same ranks in the Dublin Metropolitan, Liverpool and London Metropolitan Police.

It will be seen at once that the difference is not sufficiently marked to tempt men to come out to a place in the tropics 10,000 miles from home which is known all over the world to be periodically visited by Plague.

Let me add that in home Forces the pensions are better than here, for a man, in the Liverpool Police Force, and I fancy the pension rules in the other two do not differ much would be entitled to a pension of 2/3 of the pay of his rank after 26 years service, whereas in this Force the maximum pension obtainable for the same service is 31/60. I attach another table showing the rates of pay in the outdoor staff of the Imperial Maritime Customs.

When those rates are compared with the pay of the Police, it will be easily understood why it is that we constantly lose

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