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cash payments totalling 2343,725, with the right to purchese at an agreed valuation and paper stocks at cost. It is proposed to 2
take over the organization as from the 1st January next and to run it as a Government Printing Department. Considerable re- organization will be necessary, and it is hoped that the services of the Malayan Government Printer may be made available for a few weeks to advise on this. It is estimated that these steps may result in an annual saving of as much as $500,000 on printing, although the expenditure on the project in the current year may reach $1,000,000, which sun will have to be provided by supplementary vote.
9.
The process of consolidating the salaries of monthly-paid staff has been generally completed and staff on daily rates of pay will be brought into line before the end of the third quarter. It has been necessary to seek the approval of Finance Committee for a supplementary provision of $14,796,894 for revised basic salaries in all departments. of this amount $13,500,000 represents the re- allocation of cost of living allowances. The provision of £32,000,000 for cost of living allowances in the current estimates would actually have fallen short of requirements by about $3,500,000 and thus the total increase in expenditure not provided for in the current estimates is $4,796,894, of which about $3,500,000 represents the deficiency in the provision for "pre-consolidation" cost of living allowances and $1,296,894 represents the true cost of consolidation.
10.
Both the Trading Reserve Fund and the Tevelopment Fund were established by resolutions of the Legislative Council in September 1951. A sum of $30,000,000 was appropriated to the Trading Reserve Fund and the balance of about $37,750,000 became available for the Development Fund. The accounts of the Supplies Division of the Commerce and Industry Department for the year ended 31st March 1951 are now available, and show that the trading and financing activities of Government produced a net profit of $21,670,467.44. This sum will be credited to the Development Fund which, together with the previous figure of $37,750,000 will bring the assets of the fund to a little short of $50,000,000. Allocations from the Development Fund approved up to date are a grant of $40,000,000 for the Tai Lam Chung Scheme and a loan of up to $15,000,000 for the construction of blocks of small flats for workers. No other projects are at present under consideration.
11.
The inflation referred to in the last summary showed signs at one time of becoming acute, but the position appears to have eased somewhat and money is now rather less easy. The situation appears to have arisen from the release, following on the imposition of strategic controls, of a large volume of money tied up in goods, coupled with the shortage of goods resulting from the same cause. There was a very steep rise in the prices paid for property and land, and something of a "boom" on the local share market, but recently conditions have tended to become more stable. It was noteworthy that the introduction of compulsory service did not, contrary to expectations, have any adverse effect. The conditions referred to above have had their effect on revenue, the most immediate being on Stamp Duty, where receipts for the first fifteen weeks averaged $245,000 as against the estimate of $221,000. Over the first twenty- five weeks the average was $241,000, a drop which possibly indicates more stable conditions. The unemployment situation in established industries is not such as to give cause for serious concern, but it is thought that the severe restrictions imposed on the Colony's trade both from within and without have had a serious impact on the small trader and his associates, the outcome of which it is as yet impossible to forecast.
12.
Despite the heavy bills expected, the present financial
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