649300-1892-Legislative-Council-No-1 — Page 2

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 27TH FEBRUARY, 1892.

which have invariably been extended by this Council to a Governor who has, as I claim to have, the true interests of the community at heart. I shall always be ready to receive any advice and suggestions you may tender to me, and to weigh such advice most carefully and respectfully. Our relations will, I trust, be ever of the most harmonious character and the proceedings of the Council conducted with due dignity and decorum. Having only been in the Colony for six weeks I must claim your indulgence if I should appear in any way to fail to appreciate correctly the position of its affairs. The first public document which attracted my attention was naturally the address delivered in this chamber on the 15th of October last, and the Colonial Estimates for 1892 which had been sent home before my arrival.

I at once conveyed to the Secretary of State an expression of my opinion that, in one particular at all events, those estimates were framed in far too sanguine a spirit. The principal item which struck me as over-estimated was a most valuable portion of our revenue, namely, the yield of the Opium Farm. There may, of course, have been an object in over-estimating this amount. The figures, I understand, were arrived at in the following manner:-1892, January and February, at the reduced amount agreed upon in 1891, namely, $35,800 per month, equal to $71,600; ten months at the original amount of tender, $39,800 equal to $398,000, making $469,600; add 1891 ten months' arrears at $5,000 per month equal to $50,000, making a total of $519,600. The highest tender which has been received for the next three years is at the rate of $310,000 a year, and therefore the receipts for 1892 will be as follows:-1891, ten months' arrears, at $5,000 per month, $50,000; 1892, January and February at reduced amount, $35,800, $71,600; 1891, ten months' at $28,400 per month, $284,000, making a total of $405,600 and leaving a deficit on the estimated revenue for 1892 of $114,000 and a prospect of $340,800 only from the Opium Farm for 1893 and 1894. It is hardly possible at this moment to state what the actual revenue and expenditure of 1891 have been, but I am informed that the amount collected was $2,019,136 instead of $2,052,098 as estimated. The difference is owing to the fact that land sales realised only $55,325 out of an estimate of $100,000. The total expenditure of 1891 will be as nearly as possible $2,357,488 instead of $2,416,626 the estimated amount. The expenditure therefore for 1891 will have been $338,352 in excess of the revenue. You will of course notice that those figures do not agree with the revised estimates for 1891, which are embodied in the Colonial Estimates issued in October, but they are compiled from the latest returns in the Colonial Treasury. The balance of assets over liabilities on the 31st December was, it is said, about $150,000. This is not a very large sum and points to the necessity of economy in the future. It will be my duty to prevent any ordinary expenditure therefore which is not absolutely necessary. There are some satisfactory features in the returns for 1891. For example, stamps were estimated to yield $179,356; there have been collected $193,959, showing an excess over the estimate of $14,603. The revenue from this source in 1890 was $203,160, an excessive yield which can easily be explained. In the Registrar General's departinent there has been an increase of $7,138; in the Supreme Court a decrease of $4,000. In the returns of that Court there is one most gratifying feature, namely, a remarkable decrease in the number of criminal cases tried. They amounted in 1891 to only 32, whereas the average from 1882 to 1886 was 87, and the average from 1887 to 1890 73 per annum. There is only one other item to which I would call special attention, and that is the tonnage of shipping in and out during 1891. My predecessor in one of his able and elaborate speeches stated that the total tonnage in and out in 1890 was 13 million tons, and he regarded it as phenomenal; but it may surprise you to learn that notwithstanding a slight shrinkage in the foreign junk trade, which is principally owing to the river steamers having absorbed the carriage of kerosine and matches, the shipping in and out last year represented no less than 14,005,698 tons.

Some very interesting and lucid returns from the Acting Harbour Master in reference to this stupendous traffic will shortly be published. During the last six weeks I have visited nearly every public institution and every public department. No stranger coming to Hongkong can fail to be struck with the magnificent works which have been and are being carried out by the Public Works department; the water and drainage works, Bowen Road, the great Reclamation Scheme, and the Central Market are and will be lasting monu- ments of the energy and ability of that department as well as of the liberality of the Legislative Council. But there are other works which have been recently executed or are nearing completion which might, in view of diminishing assets, have fairly been postponed until more prosperous times. With regard to the future, it is evident that if the public works extraordinary described in pages 43 and 44 of the Estimates are to be carried out, and I assume for the moment that their necessity with perhaps very few exceptions is admitted, the revenue will not be able to bear the expenditure without a considerable increase of taxation. To my mind it is both unfair and illogical to tax the present generation for public improvements which will be of more benefit to posterity than they can be to existing taxpayers, and the only way of proceeding with these undertakings is by a loan, the Council having previously approved of the detailed estimates and designs as the case may be in respect of each of those works. I am sure that you will give me a patient hearing if I deal with this question at some length on the assumption that a loan must be contracted, and that with little delay.