CO129-558-3 Levy on Salaries- petition from Chinese Civil Servants 3-1-1936 - 19-12-1936 — Page 222

Potential building land at Arsenal Street purchased from H.M.Navy

Albany site, lying waste.

Property at Pokfulam Road, purchased for use as Health Clinic, unused.

$2,000,000.

187,775.

89,700,

Land at Little Hong Kong resumed and now being let on permit to original leaseholders

57,000.

,334,475 -

12.

220

Furthermore, the financial position will inevitably be im-

proved by the valuable sites of the present Government Civil

Hospital, Victoria Gaol and Central British School becoming avail-

able for disposal when works now in hand are completed.

Your Petitioners are at a loss to understand why the surplus

balances of the Colony should be regarded as inviolate when the

question of the due payment of salaries is under consideration,

but should be regarded as available for expenditure on Public Works

or requirements of a similar nature, or should alternatively be

hoarded against the coming of some future rainy day when the wet

weather is alleged already to have set in.

13.

It is difficult for Your Petitioners to forecast with cer-

tainty the effect of a low dollar upon the commerce of the Colony

and its consequent effect upon revenue, but the views of the Un-

official Members of Council on this matter were expressed by the

Senior Unofficial Member in the course of the Budget debate when

he said:-

"We are convinced that a low exchange would much benefit our

local industries, and would also, by causing an influx of

capital for investment, tend to relieve the present abnormal

stagnation in business conditions.

Incidentally, too, a low

dollar would improve our tourist trade." (Hansard, 1935, p.184)

The Hon. Sir William Shenton in the course of the same debate

spoke of the stock market as a fair barometer of business

conditions (Hansard, 1935, p.186) and quoted the values of

certain shares on the day of his speech (3rd October,1935).