CO129-505-12 Estimates of expenditure 1928 1-9-1927 - 12-1-1928 — Page 65

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Stamp duties

Opium monopoly

D

Heads of Revenue.

Assessed taxes

1926.

1897.

3,636,668

429,136

2,928,339

252,216

2,831,305

286,000

Tobacco duties

1,835,345

Liquor duties

1,186,313

Postage

698,407

268,616

Crown rent of leased lands (includ-

ing the New Territories)..

664,105

241,798*

Railway

538,045

Water supply

471,679

110,047

Liquor licences

393,898

67,136

Land sales

286,342

224,500

Kowloon West Ferry licence.....

247,130

Carriage, chair, etc., licences......

240,156

43,323

Interest

237,444

4,576

Markets

232,594

70,519

Total

16,428,770

1,997,867

* Exclusive of New Territories.

In 1897 there was no railway, nor

was there a Kowloon West Ferry. Liquor duties were first imposed in 1909 and tobacco duties in 1916. So these four sources of revenue did not exist in 1897, Nevertheless the remaining eleven items produced 74.3 per cent. of that year's income and were, therefore, then as now, the principal foundations of the Colony's financial structure. A scrutiny of these heads of revenue shows that each one of them is sound. Objection might perhaps be taken in some quarters to the revenue derived by the Colony from opium, which is now 13.3 per cent. of our total income and was 10.6 per cent. of the total in 1897, thus showing at first sight a relative increase. But, whereas in 1897 the sale of opium in Hong Kong was farmed out by the Government to a Chinese syndicate, there has since 1914 been a Government Monopoly, which is run with a view to control of the traffic rather than to profit. Therefore, in order to arrive at a just comparison, it is necessary to deduct from last year's opium revenue the cost of manufacture, namely $690,913; and the remaining $2,140,392 can then properly be compared with the net revenue of $286,000 derived by this Govern- ment from opium in 1897. So it results that the Colony's opium revenue last year was 10.1 per cent. of our total income, while in 1897 it was 10.6 per cent., and the apparent relative increase vanishes. Moreover, this Government is very willing to prohibit the consumption of opium in the Colony and to forego its revenue from this source as soon as the production and consumption of opium in China are suppressed. Until then prohibition is not a practical proposition in Hong Kong, and all we can do is to keep the price high enough to make opium a luxury and yet not so high as further to encourage smuggling.

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