HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
53
Chinese Member of this Council, that the Colony "is already taxed to capacity, if not beyond it, and any new tax-burdens may be the last straw." I therefore take the figure of $26,671,845 as represent- ing the normal revenue for 1936, and the figure of just over twenty- nine and a half million dollars as estimated expenditure for 1936.
The total expenditure includes the items for Military Contribution amounting to $4,366,901.00, and for Interest on Public Debt amount- ing to $1,390,831.00, making a total of $5,757,732.00. Subtracting this sum from the total expenditure there will remain the sum of $23,840,416.00 available for all other purposes, and it will be rather illuminating to see how much of this available surplus-which, in order to avoid undue repetition, I have called the "available expenditure"-has been absorbed by salaries. I may incidentally mention that of this available expenditure no less than $3,207,560.00 has been earmarked for Public Works Extraordinary.
I have added the totals of all personal emoluments set out in the Estimates for 1936, and I find that the total comes to the sum of $11,457,821.00. In order to get a correct picture of the amount spent on salaries in the Civil Service in relation to income one has to add at least three important items to the above sum which, staggering as it is, is not the full bill which the Colony has to pay. To begin with it must be remembered that the figures given in the 1936 Estimates are based, so far as sterling salaries are concerned, on a 1s. 8d. dollar. The Acting Colonial Secretary stated in his speech, above referred to, that in terms of sterling the amount budgeted for as representing Salaries, Purchases from Crown Agents, Pensions, etc., comes to just over £750,000, and all the salary figures must be very substantially increased when the sterling commitment is calculated at the prevailing rate of exchange, namely, round about a 1s. 32d. dollar. Moreover, the salary figure of nearly eleven and a half million does not include pensions, rent allowances or transport. It must of course be conceded that rent allowances and transport must be included. And I submit that this applies equally to pensions, for it is now generally accepted that a pension is in truth not a reward or gift, but rather a deferred wage, or a compensation paid to the employee for the gradual destruction of his wage-earning capacity in the course of his work. The figures for the three items mentioned above are as follows:
Pensions
$1,810,000.00
Miscellaneous Services.
Rent Allowances:
Senior Officers
Asiatic Officers
$ 128,000.00
European Subordinate Officers
•
•
Transport
Total
110,000.00 120,000.00 475,000.00
$2,643,000.00
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