CO129-576-10 Estimates 1940 6-10-1939 - 22-10-1940 — Page 20

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property tax, profits on private businesses and

X corporations taxes and salaries taxes. The other

chief line of emergency taxation, viz. increase of

liquor and petrol duties, was put into operation

last October.

On the expenditure side, the chief

increases are under the heading of Air Raid

Precautions, increased Police Staff, increased grants

of various sorts connected with the Refugee problem

and Public Works Extraordinary, the last a

miscellaneous collection, of which important road

improvements in Kowloon will cost 1⁄2 million dollars, the new Teachers Training College nearly million

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dollars, and new Public Health and hospital

accommodation about 1 million dollars. The new

expenditure proposed to be met on loan account is

almost entirely Water Works expenditure, which is

an ever-pressing problem in Hong Kong. The total

of this exceeds 11⁄2 million dollars. Another

interesting but relatively small amount to be

charged to loan account concerns the preliminary

investigations into a very important scheme for

extending the air-port, mostly by the reclamation

of the sea-shore. Hong Kong has achieved

considerable importance as an international air

junction for air lines to China, Europe and the

United States and with the ever-increasing

performance of modern commercial aircraft and the

absence of any alternative site in Hong Kong for a

large scale aerodrome, one cannot doubt the wisdom

of the investigations now to be undertaken.

The two resolutions for loan expenditure

and expenditure out of the Water Works Renewals Fund,

which are set out in enclosure 3 in No.2, should be

approved, together with the estimates and I see no

reason

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