HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL,
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as the cost of washing--a considerable one in a hospital-have more than doubled. Expenditure on preventive measures against infectious diseases has increased by $30,000 but it is unnecessary for me to enlarge on this as no one has forgotten the insanitary state of the Colony when re-occupied or the rats which are still with us though fortunately in reduced numbers. Anti-malarial measures were completely neglected by the Japanese with the result that it has been necessary to increase our expenditure as compared with 1941 by nearly $170,000.
Besides the provision for the cost of living allowance to a total of 17 million dollars, to which I have already referred, the Miscellaneous Vote contains a number of large items. They are all explained in the memorandum which will shortly be circulated to Honourable Members and I will only mention a few here.
12 million dollars has been provided for pre-occupation claims and 5 million dollars to meet the cost of ex gratia grants to officers who were not interned. Provision has also been made for the emoluments of the military personnel on loan and for the cost of operating the electricity companies up to the time when they returned to commercial operation.
Special expenditure to a total of half a million dollars has been provided under the Police Vote to purchase a new fleet of launches and the transport required to make the Force more mobile.
The sum of $5,158,000 has been provided under the Head "Public Debt" to bring the redemption position in respect of the 32% dollar loan up to date. No Public Debt provision is of course covered by the Appropriation Ordinance and it will be necessary to amend the Hong Kong Dollar Loan Ordinance in order to make it possible to arrange for a five years' drawing at one time. Authority to make such an amendment has been sought from the Secretary of State and if this is received a Bill will be introduced in this Honourable Council.
Under the Sanitary Head one million dollars has been provided to meet the cost of new scavenging vehicles, meat and water vehicles, etc. The Stores Vote includes 5 million dollars for unallocated stores and two million dollars for the manufacture of furniture for Government offices and quarters.
A total of $16,072,000 has been provided under Public Works Extraordinary. This includes 34 million dollars for the recon- struction of Government buildings and those in Government occupation. A further $550,000 is available for this purpose under Public Works Recurrent. This is only a beginning and later it will be necessary to commence a large building programme. The preliminaries will however take time and no considerable expendi- ture on new buildings could take place before 31st March.
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