224
16.
Not exceeding 15 cwts.
$24
at 1/3 d.
£1. lls. Od.
in weight unladen.
Exceeding 15cwts. but
$36
£2.
6.
6.
not exceeding 30 cwts.. in weight unladen. ́
Exceeding 30 cwts.
$72
£4. 13. Od.
So that an Austin Seven which would be taxed at £5. 5s. Od. in
England pays £1. 11s. Od. and a Ford V 8 which would be taxed
at £22. 10. Od. pays £2. 6s. 6d. in Hong Kong.
Incidentally it may be recorded that during the recent
depression the number of privately owned motor cars registered
has increased from 2605 in 1933 to 2846 in 1934 and to 3078 in
1935, so that it is a pressing problem to provide adequate
parking spaces conveniently near the business centre of the town.
In addition to the foregoing suggestions for the increase of
revenue Your Petitioners suggest that a more careful regard should
be given to the expenditure of public money in unnecessary ways.
They crave leave to cite the following recent instances of
unnecessary expenditure:-
(1) The erection of a very expensive week-end bungalow in the
New Territories for the use of the Governor, who already had the
use of Government House and Mountain Lodge.
The cost of this bungalow up to August, 1934, amounted to
$149,229 and the finished cost is believed to have been approx-
imately $200,000.
(ii) The purchase of the Albany Site, now lying idle but intended
to be added to the Botanical Gardens, at a cost of $187,775.
(iii) The resumption of an area at Little Hong Kong, for anti-
malarial works which have not been carried out, at a cost of
$57,000.
(1V) The building of an Approach Road at an estimated cost of
$120,000 ($107,859 already spent) to a non-existent Government
House and the resumption at a cost of $271,439 of old property
in Ice House Street which the owners, the Hong Kong Land Investment
& Agency Co., Ltd., proposed to rebuild. Both these items of
expenditure were charged against the Government House & City
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