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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
country in Europe, no useful comparison between the two places from the point of view of fiscal incidence can be fairly made, having regard to the radical differences in government, institutions, economic resources and social conditions.
In England the amount spent since the commencement of this century on Health, Education, Housing and Social Services—Unemploy- ment Benefits, Poor Law Relief, Old Age Pension, Industrial Insurances, etc.-amounts to astronomical figures. From the primary school to the university, thence to the highest post in the State, the path is open to the poorest lad with brains. Here is a pen-picture of post- war England by Professor H. A. L. Fisher, in his "History of Europe" (page 1210):-
"At this time the British people bore without repining a burden of taxation heavier than that of any European country. The annual service of the debt charge alone amounted to more than 300 million sterling. Fifteen years after the end of the war the State levied 4s. 6d. in the pound on the income of the tax payer irrespective of the supertax on incomes exceeding £2,000 a year. Yet it is characteristic of the democratic spirit which prevailed in the country that, despite bad trade and crushing taxation, the level of the social services, higher than that which prevailed in any other country and more expensive, was not seriously lowered. That the health, the education, and the housing of the people should be well cared for was common ground with all parties in the State."
We are naturally proud of the wonderful progress which the Colony has made under British Rule within the short space of a century. And yet what is its position to-day? Substantially a non- producing country, the Colony still depends mainly on its being an entrepot for its continued prosperity. Though there are undoubtedly known rich people, and also people whose riches are unknown because concealed, sheer poverty is general and widespread. On the question of prevalence of poverty I need hardly dwell, for it is a painful fact, well known to all social workers. Only at the beginning of this year the Honourable the Director of Medical Services, in his inaugural address before the newly reconstituted Nutrition Committee, pointed out that on account of malnutrition, which is a concomitant of poverty, more than one child out of every three died last year before attaining the age of one year, as compared with one in twenty in England. We have no hospitals for children. Indeed, our hospital accommodation is utterly inadequate, and the overcrowding in the Chinese hospitals is, though inevitable, a standing disgrace. The problems of compulsory education (and even of Government-provided primary education), and of juvenile deliquency, are still a long way from being solved. With thousands of deaths from tuberculosis we have as yet not been able to find the means to build a properly equipped sanitorium. For lack of funds we have not begun to tackle the problem of Slum-clearing. We have no Old Age Pension, no Poor Law. We have no Air Protec-
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