646060-1894-Legislative-Council-No-10 — Page 2

1044

C. 0. Telegram

1894.

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 8TH DECEMBER, 1894.

WILLIAM ROBINSON.

The Governor recommends for the consideration of the Council the vote of a sum of of Eighty thousand Dollars, ($80,000), in respect of compensation for the fall in the Exchange. value of the dollar to Officers domiciled in the United Kingdom and other gold using countries.

Government House, Hongkong, 19th November, 1894.

C.S.O.

2755 of 1894.

C.S.O.

2200 of 1894.

WILLIAM ROBINSON,

The Governor recommends the Council to vote a sum of One thonsand Dollars ($1,000), to meet part of the expense of a new boiler for the Floating Fire Engine.. (Total estimated cost $1,550; balance will be paid out of surplus on vote for Repairs to Engines, &c.)

Government House, Hongkong, 2nd November, 1894.

WILLIAM ROBINSON.

The Governor recommends the Council to vote a sum of Six thousand Five hundred Dollars, ($6,500), to cover certain expenses in connection with the Gap Rock Lighthouse.

Government House, Hongkong, 27th September, 1894.

The Colonial Treasurer seconded.

Question-put and agreed to.

NOTICE OF QUESTION.-Mr. BELILIOS gave notice that at the next meeting of Council he would ask the following question:-

Have the Government, in view of the statements and recommendations contained in the recently received letter from Mr. Osbert Chadwick on the water supply of this Colony, decided to consider the expedience of putting meters in all the houses to which it is laid on for the purpose of pre- venting waste?

BILL ENTITLED "AN ORDINANCE TO SECURE, IN CERTAIN CASES, THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY IN TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGES.”—Mr. MCCONACHIE gave notice that at the next meeting of Council he would introduce and move the first reading of the Bill.

His Excellency then addressed the Council as follows:-

HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL,

I propose to lay the Estimates for 1895 and the Appropriation Bill before Council on the 3rd or 6th December which day may be most convenient to the Unofficial Members. As I am in a position to do so, I propose this afternoon to explain the financial position of the Colony, to you and to open the session of 1894-5 in the usual manner. If you will refer to. your 'Hansard" you will see that at the close of my speech to you on the 4th December last, I said "It is my earnest desire, in which you will all cordially join, that still brighter and happier times may, at no distant date, be in store for all classes of residents in this Colony." Well, the brighter and happier times which we all then hoped for have certainly not yet dawned upon the Colony or upon us. As a matter of fact the year 1894 is not likely to be soon forgotten by the community by reason of the disasters which occurred within it. It was ushered in by a rapid fall in the value of silver. From 2/4 the dollar fell to 1/11, a violent fluctuation which was most detrimental to business and which seriously affected the public revenue, which had been estimated on a 2/6 rate. No sooner had a certain amount of stability been established on a low basis of exchange than the Colony was visited with pestilence in the shape of the bubonic plague. The incidents connected with this calamity are so fresh in the minds of all that it is not necessary to do more than to refer to them cursorily. Besides carrying off over 2,500 victims in the island alone, this scourge caused an unparalleled exodus from our shores of some 50,000 or 60,000 Chinese. The effect was felt in every branch of business, and, as I have stated in another document on the subject, the loss to the public revenue, to bankers, merchants, traders, shipping companies, the owners of property, and the labouring classes can never accurately be determined. Hongkong was, as it were, "boycotted" in every direction. The quarantine restrictions imposed against us by some other ports were unnecessarily severe, due, no doubt, to exaggerated accounts of the plague, which, after all, was not proved to be highly infectious except in the case of those living in unhealthy sur- roundings. Vessels were by such means driven as it were from the harbour, and all concerned with shipping interests down to the humblest labourer must have suffered, at all events temporarily, considerable pecuniary loss.