HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
153
H.E. THE GOVERNOR.-Honourable Members of the Legislative Council, It falls to me to wind up a debate to which all of us have been looking forward for some time past not only with interest and expectation but also with a determination to try to do justice to the important subject with which we are dealing, and between us to represent the diverse views, while each one of us serves what he conceives to be the best interests, of the people of this Colony. And since it is very possibly the last debate, and almost certainly the last debate of importance, in which I shall participate in this Council, may I say that Hon. Members both official and unofficial who have taken part in this debate seem to me to have fulfilled most thoroughly the intentions which I have ascribed to them.
There are four fundamental questions which have had to be considered by the Government and which have to be considered by this Council in connection with the subject matter of this Bill. They
are:
In the first place, is the additional revenue which we seek to raise really required?
Secondly-If additional revenue is really required is this a fair and appropriate method of raising it?
Thirdly-If the method is in itself fair and appropriate is it in fact practicable?
Fourthly-If it is fair, appropriate and practicable is this the right time to introduce the measure?
On the first question, whether the revenue is necessary, I need not add much to what has already been said by others and by myself. We have set out in the Estimates of Expenditure to which this Council has assented the actual expenditure which it is agreed that the Colony requires to meet during this financial period; and it is perfectly clear from a study of the figures that in order to meet that estimated expenditure additional revenue is required. It is moreover clear-and this is a point which I have been glad to hear brought out in the course of this debate-that should the year's working prove favourable beyond our present expectation, so that an actual surplus accrues, our commitments and our great needs are such that this present Council will not need to fear the future reproaches either of an embarrassed Legislative Council of the coming days nor yet of an unnecessarily despoiled body of taxpayers.
And the second question is this:-Is the method which we are now proposing the fairest and the most appropriate method of raising the revenue? And of course when the first question has been answered in the affirmative, as I believe we are all agreed that it must be answered, this second question leads us into the fascinating field of enquiry, if the word fascinating may properly be used in connection with taxation, the enquiry into possible alternative methods of raising the money. It has been a large field with many well- backed entrants. One of the favourites has been the method which
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