March 27, 1936
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT
66
509
Over Fourteen Million Dollars For Salaries
prevail there viz. that the work shall be divided between the Govern- ment Medical Staff and the Govern- ment Consultants who are Professors in the University. The Government Staff then as now will consist of both European Medical Officers and Chinese Medical Officers.
14. The number of Chinese Medical Officers in the service already repre- sents 43 per cent. of the total number of qualified medical officers and this proportion will be increased.
15. I hope that the replies I have given will convince the Hon. Senior Unofficial Member that the small increase of Medical Officers from 8 to 10 is justified.
COLONIAL SECRETARY'S
REPLY
yet to hand. The Government is of opinion that a figure, which, it is hoped, represents the es- timated minimum revenue of the Colony at the nadir of a period of depression cannot be taken as the standard for future years.
Govern-
The Government again is unable to agree that the Colony cannot, at the appropriate time, stand the strain of extra taxation. This Colony is frequently compared with Singapore, although its municipal undertakings are under the direct control of the Colonial ment. Honourablę Members will remember that the assessed rate in Singapore is 22 + 2 per cent. a total of 24 per cent., in comparison with the 17 per cent. in force in this Colony, and in Singapore there is no free water allowance. The Government cannot agree that a as Hong Kong, in which there is little direct taxa- tion, where there is no Income Tax, where the duty on whisky and gin is one-sixth of the duty in the United Kingdom, and the duty on cigarettes proportionately even less, "is already taxed to capacity, if not beyond it."
Sir, I should likę in the first place to congratulate the Honour- able Member on both the manner and the matter of his maiden | Colony, such speech in this Council. It was said, I think by Disraeli, that no Government can last without a strong opposition, and this Gov- ernment welcomes criticism of a constructive nature, such as has been advanced in the speech to which we have just listened.
Mr. Lo's case, expressed succinct- ly in his own words, is "that the Colony cannot afford to maintain the existing Civil Service" and that it must "cut its coat according to its cloth." The Government would be inclined to concur, if the mover would add the proviso "in present circumstances." One is apt to be misled by metaphors and the Hon- ourable Member seems to contem- plate a static Colony, which has reached the end of its growth. It is doubtful if Mr. Lo consciously intends to put forward this view, but the view is implicit in his argu- ments. With this implicaton the Government cannot agree.
The Honourable Member takes the figure of the estimated revenue for 1936, namely $26,671,845, which was calculated with the rate of exchange taken at 1/8d to the dollar, which revenue will, if the dollar remains at about 1/3, be increased by a sum estimated at $1,170,000, representing the in- creased yield of the taxes based on the conventional dollar, and as- serts without any explanation in support that a revenue of just over $26 million must be regarded as normal, or, as he says, as repre- senting the cloth according to which the Government must cut its coat. It will be remembered that the revenue in 1931 was $33,- 146,724, in 1932 $33,549,716 in 1933 $32,099,278 and in 1934 $29,574,286. The final figures for 1935 are not
lion dollars on the whole of the civil administration including so- cial services. No such contrast in fact exists. The Honourable Mem- ber seems to imply that there is nothing to show for the large sum spent on salaries, but the salaries for the most part represent the cost of the civil administration and of the social services to which the Honourable Member refers. Take for example the legal departments the cost of which goes almost en- tirely in salaries-what are these but part of the cost of civil ad- ministration? Or take the Medical Department, the personal emolu- ments of which amount to roughly eleven out of sixteen lakhs dollars, or the Education Depart- ment with fourteen lakhs for per- sonal emoluments out of just under nineteen lakhs. What are these but two of the social services of the Colony? Does he include Roads under items of essential Public Expenditure? It has been asserted that under certain modern methods of road making 85 per cent., of the cost goes in wages.
A COMPLETE “NON SEQUITUR”
of
The conclusion drawn by the Honcurable member from his pre- mises is a complete "non sequitur. A far better analysis of Public Ex- penditure is to be found in a pub- lication entitled "An Economic Survey of the Colonial Empire (1932)" published by His Majesty's Stationery Office in 1934. The figures there given in respect several Colonies are as follows:
A FUNDAMENTAL FALLACY The Honourable Member has de- voted a considerable part of his speech to an attempt to prove that because 60 per cent. of the Colony's revenue is spent on what he calls "salaries" leaving only $9,500,000, 1 quote his words, "to cover the whole cost of Civil Administration including social services and the thousand and one items of es- sential public expenditure" there- fore the existing Civil Service is too costly for the Colony to bear. Now I venture to assert that there is a fundamental fallacy in the Hon- ourable Member's dramatic con- trast of $14,000,000 spent on salaries and nine and a half mil- | Adminis-
SUоH
Kong
F.M.S.
Settlements
Straits
Kenya
Nigeria
per per per per per
cent. cent. cent. cent. cent.
Fair Spectators
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.