CO129-623-4 Supplementary Expenditure- includes an annual report for the year ending March 1950 1-12-1950 - 30-11-1951 — Page 69

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Accounts. It is anticipated that in future the Colony's accounts will be presented together with the trading accounts of the Department of Supplies and Distribution, so as to in- dicate more clearly to what extent the Colony's surplus balances. have been employed in the holding of stocks of essential com- modities.

11. A comparison with the Statement of Assets & Liabilities at 31st March, 1949, will show that the accounts in respect of funds lodged with the Registrar, Supreme Court and the Registrar General have been removed from the public accounts of the Colony and no longer appear in the Statement of Assets & Liabilities. This step was taken after discussions between the Director of Audit, the Registrar General, the Accountant General and with the concurrence of the Registrar, Supreme Court. It was felt that as these funds were not public funds but private ones lodged with the Registrar General or the Registrar of the Supreme Court for safe custody, their inclu- sion in the public accounts was incorrect. Details of these funds will in future be incorporated in the Annual Reports of the Registrar General and the Registrar, Supreme Court, respectively.

LOANS TO LOCAL BODIES

12. Loans to local bodies made from the revenues of the Colony amounted to $1,771,000 at the 31st March, 1950, and of this total $1,613,300 remained outstanding at that date. A statement giving the details of these loans appears at Appendix XII from which it will be seen that all of them were granted to educational institutions and are mostly free of interest.

PUBLIC DEBT

13. A statement of the Colony's public debt appears in Appendix VIII. From this it will be seen that the amount outstanding on the 31st March 1950 was $67,434,000. Sinking Funds exist for the redemption of two out of the four loans issued, the value of these funds at the 31st March 1950 being $9,144,050. The other two loans are redeemed by annual drawings. Of the total outstanding $49,450,000 was in respect of the Colony's 31% Rehabilitation Loan of 1947. Expendi- ture in excess of the amount raised by the latter has, as has been mentioned elsewhere in this report, been charged to an advance account pending the raising of further funds. It amounts to $59,434,977,

CURRENCY FUNDS

14. Appendix XIII gives details of these funds. The Hong Kong Government issues only $1 notes and subsidiary notes and coins. Currency issues of higher denomination are made by the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China and the Mercantile Bank of India, Ltd. The currency transactions of these banks are governed generally by the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee of which the Financial Secretary is Chairman and which includes representatives of each of the banks concerned.

STAFF

15. During the course of the year the staff of the Treasury have worked extremely well. There has been much extra work in dealing with the various problems that arose out of the Occupation Period and the subsequent Military Administration. Some of them are still outstanding though a financial settle- ment with His Majesty's Government which took place shortly after the close of the year disposed of several.

16. Although the retirement of Mr. A. J. Collins-Taylor, Assistant Accountant General, did not become effective until March 1950, Mr. J. Hargreaves was appointed to the position in November 1949 in view of the length of leave granted to Mr. Collins-Taylor. Mr. H. R. Hirst, Accountant General, left the Colony in February on transfer to Nigeria and was suc- ceeded by Mr. R. C. Lemmon who had previously served in Malaya.

9th December, 1950.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

R. C. LEMMON,

Accountant General.

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