CO129-348 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [7-10] — Page 333

329

they should be presented, so that the Colonial Government can proceed with the preparation of the statistics as soon

as the exchange rate mentioned in paragraph 6 of despatch has been fixed by Resolution of the Legislative Council,

and ask for a separate report as to commutation of Chinese

widows pensions.

It will be seen (paragraph 3) that the contributors

ask that consideration should be given to four concessions which they suggest.

Of these (a) is unreasonable the contributor cannot

expect to contribute less and yet his widow get the same

pension.

(c) As regards bachelors contributions, we have just

made a considerable concession by allowing 50% of the

contributions of a bachelor dying in the service to be

paid to his representatives. The following quotation from a report by Mr Young on the Malta Police Fund is to the point here .

"It is often supposed in Widows' and Orphans' Pen-

sion funds that the subscriptions of Bachelors who enter and terminate their membership as Bachelors constitute a pure gain and may thus supplement any deficiencies in the rates generally. This is not the case: for though any individual Bachelor may not marry and thus fail to entail an obligation on the fund, other bachelors will marry and the subscriptions of the former are requisite to provide partly for the latter contingencies. All subscriptions

are average amounts and apply to the entire risks."

*

(d) is also unsound Really a widower without pensionable children has been placed upon the same foot- ing as a bachelor, but what they want is that half of all

his

20712

This 8t

1/1898

14147/99

Despatch 157 June '00 (14147/99

to

he

his contributions should be returned. Now while

was married or had pensionable children, he imposed a real liability on the Fund or Government. He was

in fact insured and the accident that the Fund or

Government did not have to pay a pension to his widow or orphans is no more reason why part of the contribu- tions which he paid during the period in which he was so protected by insurance should be repaid than the

fact that you didn't happen to have a fire on your

premises is a reason for expecting a fire insurance

company to repay you part of your fire insurance pre-

mium.

Moreover these concessions if allowed in

Hong Kong would also have to be granted elsewhere.

There is however one point in which a con-

cession might be made which would in part meet request

(b) that the pensions of orphans might be increased.

Under the Hong Kong Ordinance Section 19(4) if there

are 1, 2, or 3 orphans entitled to pension each gets

only one fourth of the pension of the widow. In

Ceylon and the Straits however, where this provision was originally in force, the law has been altered

so that the whole of the widow's pension goes to the orphans among whom it is equally divided.

The history of the provision in Hong Kong is somewhat curicus. Ceylon first in 1898 provided

for the division of the whole of the pension. In 1899, Hong Kong sent home a draft ordinance contain- ing a similar provision, and was told that the original clause was still in force in Ceylon, Mauritius and the Straits and should be reinstated in the draft

Hong Kong