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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
reclamation. We have done much drainage and harbour dredging work. We have built the Wireless Station at Cape d'Aguilar, the Blake Pier and the Queen's Pier. We have also erected a large number of excellent and spacious buildings, chief among which are the Supreme Court, the Post Office Building with the Government Offices therein, the Fire Brigade Station with the Government Offices therein, the King's College, the Victoria Hospital extension, the Bacteriological Institute, the Central Police Station, the new Magis- tracy, the Harbour Office and the Western Market. The donation of £250,000 towards the cost of the Imperial Naval Base at Singapore was also made without recourse to borrowing.
The present position with regard to the Colony's loans is satisfac- tory and can be summarized in a few words.
(a) In 1887 the Hong Kong Government raised a 4 per cent. loan of £200,000 for the purpose of constructing various public works. Of this loan a sum of £60,000 had been repaid by 1893 and the balance, namely £140,000, was in that year converted into 3 per cent. inscribed stock and amalgamated with the additional loan of £200,000 then raised. When, in 1906, the Hong Kong Government floated a further 3 per cent. loan for the construction of the British Section of Kowloon-Canton Railway, this loan also was amalgamated with the Colony's previous loan. The total of the consolidated 3 per cent. loans thus became £1,485,733; and with a view to repayment, annual contributions of 1 per cent. are made to a sinking fund, which at the close of last year amounted to £533,787. This loan is due to be paid off in April, 1943.
(b) During the Great War a local loan of $3,000,000 was raised by the Hong Kong Government as a contribution to the Imperial Government on account of the mother country's war expenditure. This loan bears interest at 6 per cent. per annum and is in process of liquidation. By the 1st May this year $2,100,000 had been repaid and arrangements have been made to repay the outstanding $900,000 on the 1st November next. No call will be made on the current year's revenue for this purpose, as the sinking fund will more than suffice. This liability will, therefore, soon disappear.
(c) The only other loan now outstanding is the Trade Loan, raised in 1925 to alleviate commercial difficulties due to the anti-British boycott. Sums totalling $15,624,688 were granted under this scheme and nearly a third of this total has already been repaid. The amount now outstanding is $10,936,958, We have thus been able to repay £680,000 of the original loan of £1,800,000, which was floated in London to finance the scheme; and, as we recover money from local borrowers, it is applied to reduction of our sterling liability. The interest paid by local borrowers more than covers the interest due by this Govern- ment in respect of the loan, which therefore throws no burden on the general taxpayer.
At the opening of this year, inspite of heavy expenditure on extraordinary public works and notwithstanding the anti-British
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