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would yield on the capital cost expended | berthing vessels to the satisfaction of all on the building about 4 per cent, net. Those quarters have not been built, and it is not proposed to proceed with them next year, but there will be a number of quarters six, I think to be occupied free of rent, which will be pro- ceeded with next year, because it is felt that the subordinate officers who occupy them are still in a position of some hard-There is a big demand for vessels in that ship owing to the high rent they have to pay in Hongkong. Others officers are occupying in some cates their Own houses and in other cases quarters which are fairly suitable, so there is not the same urgent necessity to put up quar- ters to be rented as there is to proceed with the quarters which are to be occupied free. There is nothing remunerative, as the hon. member remarked, in these quarters, except that we are assured that our officers, instead of occupying houses entirely unsuitable for Europeans, are occupying quarters in healthy positions, well-built, and sanitary.
Hox. MR. HEWETT That is the re- muneration.
HIS EXCELLENCY member
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The
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hon. Cham-
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that class,
concerned should prove of great advantage to the and the new arrangement trade of the Port." We have already, in pursuance of this policy, taken over able to provide moorings for vessels in a ten moorings and we have already been trade which is ill-provided with anchorage I refer to vessels in the rice trade. trade, and we cannot possibly satisfy that demand until we have control of all the moorings in the Harbour and are able to distribute them in a reason- able and businesslike fashion. I hope we shall be able to complete the resumption of the remaining mourings in which is C Class mentioned in my des- patch. I think there are about 13 still to be resumed. When we have done that we hope next year to proceed with the resumption of the other heavier moor- ings, and we are convinced that the fears of certain shipping interests that this scheme will prove a failure will not be justified, but, on the contrary, will prove a very great success. With regard to the charges that will we imposed, it is true that they will be heavier than the ridiculously small charges that the lessees of moorings now pay, but they will not be in excess of the rent which lessees of these moorings charge to those to whom they lend them. The hon. member who represents the Chaber of Commerce referred next to the abolition of bonus in lieu of leave in the Police Force, rendering the taking of annual leave compulsory. While that opens a very large question, the idea has a good deal to recommend it, but there is no doubt that it would involve very considerable additional expenditure, and you can well understand that any proposition which involves additional and permanent ex- penditure cannot be entertained at the present time. Two hon. members referred to the reduction of nursing sisters at the Government Civil Hospital. would like in the first place to point out that apparently there is a misapprehen- sion. The Estimates provide for eight such Sisters, two being at the Maternity Hospital and two being private nurses.
these The moorings Now will be assigned through the local pilots or by signal to incoming vessels by the Harbour Department. It will thus be possible to make full use of all the moorings and to avoid having many lying idle as at present during the absence of vessels of firms which own them. I anticipate ጦሳ
difficulty whatever in
who represents the ber of Commerce moved solution that the vote for the private moorings be deleted. Well, I am afraid that the Government cannot accept that resolution. The policy of resuming these private moorigns is fully set out in the Council Paper 17 of 1914. The existing arrangements in the Harbour can be described as nothing less than unbusinesslike. and highly inconvenient to all steamers, or owners or agents who are not lessees of moorings. I am in a position to state that the shipping which visits this port, taken as a whole, views this scheme with a good deal of satis- faction. It is quite obvious, to quote the words of my despatch to the Secretary of State, that it is necessary that the moorings should be distributed with due gard to the depth of water and to the requirements of trade, e.g., moorings for vessels engaged in the rice and coal trade will be placed in positions con- venient for such trades.
Now
four nurges are entirely outside the scheme of reduction. We do not propose to interfere with them at all. It is true that one nursing Sister, who was a private nursing Sister, has left the service during the last few months, but that has not deprived the public of the use of two private nurses. I have not got the figures here, but I am
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
If
in a position to state that this year there has been less demand for privat, nurses than in any recent year, and I d; not think that any application for a private nurse has been refused.
private nurse had been applied for it would hay been possible to supply one from the Government Civil Hospital r, I might better say, it would have been possible, if a nurse had been applied for, to have supplied one. As a matter of fact, I do not think two private nurses have been applied for at one and the same time, at any rate not for several months. We expect a candidate from New Zealand it is impossible to obtain a candidate from the Home Country at the present- and when she arrives she will be added to the private nursing staff. With regard to the supervision of vernacular schools, it is possible that additional supervision might be welcome. It is a sort of sub- ject on which one might indefinitely multiply the amount of supervision and still not make it sufficient, but at any rate we are in a far better position than we were before the new Ordinance came into force, when there was practically hardly any supervision at all. However, I will speak to the Director of Education on the subject and see whether there is any real cause for complaint. The hon. member who represents the Chamber of Commerce then went on to urge the linking up of the Kowloon-Canton Rail- way. Well, that is a subject which we have ourselves very much at heart. It is in the interests as the hon. member pointed out-of both railways, and we hope to sele the junction accom- plished in a reasonable space of time. Our Chinese friends, as you know, move very slowly, and the two lines being under different Administrations, an agreement is not easy of accomplishment. With regard to the German charities, which the hon. member says his colleagues would like to see taken over and run as Hong- kong charities, that. I would remind you. again opens up a very large question with which I cannot possibly attempt to deal The property is private proper y, and the wholesale taking over by the Government of the charities may involve questions of a delicate nature. There is also, of course, the question of expense to be con- sidered for with these institutions, as you know. the running cost is not a little. The hon member finally brought to my notice the names of certain gentlemen in connection with the cable and postal censorship. They have rendered very
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good service, and I can assure the hon. member that the services of all, whether Government servants or private indivi duals, who have assisted the Government in this crisis, will not be forgotten. have already made a note of their names, and many others besides. In connection with the railway, I think the hon. mem bor who represents the Chamber of Com- merce made a slight slip in his calculation o the percentage which the earnings bor to the capital expenditure, $15,000,000, which is roughly correct. The interest b quoted on the Wuchang loan of £1,100,000. was exclusive of that amount. As a matter of fact, it is an inclusive total.
HON. MR. HEWETT-What I said was that the capital expenditure of the railway was $15,000,000, and the net earnings lasi year were $110,000, which gives less than 1 per cent. on the $15,000.000 invested. and I did not take any notice of the interest paid on the £1,100.000, which ha、 been invested.
OTE
HIS EXCELLENCY-It is all sum. The interest is on $15,000.000, nut on $15,000,000 plus £1,100.000, As long as that is understood the matter is quite plain.
HIS EXCELLENCY -Reverting to the question of reduction of nurses. I find that I omitted to deal with the point of the reduction of the nursing staff in the Civil Hospita!. I had the impression that mom- bers feared that we contemplated an inrod upon the maternity staff and the private nursing staff. It is quite true that we are reducing the nursing staff generally by two, and I would like to remind all hon. members of one fact which
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think they have overlooked. The time of these highly-trained European nurses for a large part of the period is occupied by I won't say nursing, because they do! not do real nursing as we understand it as Home-the supervision of the nursing of a very large number of Chinese of quite the lower orders call them Chinese of the coolie class. Now I have the greatest respect for the Chinere coolie-he is quite a good man but in h's own Tung Wah Hospital, and in the hospitals in Canton and elsewhere he is not indulged in the luxury of nurses trained in institu- tions like the London Hospital. These nurses get a very considerable salary, and cost the Government a good deal in pass-
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