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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 26TH NOVEMBER, 1892.
current year. $20,000 has also been received from the Military Authorities for the Lazaretto. These sums, the latter being purely a casual receipt, cannot be regarded as Actual Revenue, though they come within the year's receipts. The same may also be said of the deferred payments of the Opium Farmer; but deducting the two first items from the $2,067,216 before mentioned, we find that the true Revenue of 1892 will be $1,997,216, approximately, or $33,000 less than was estimated by me on the 25th January last.
The Estimate of Expenditure for 1892 was as follows:---
Ordinary Expenditure $1,773,918, Public Works Extraordinary $680,078, making a total of $2,453,996.
The Ordinary Expenditure will be about $1,782,000 and Public Works Extraordinary $583,000, making a total of $2,365,000. Supposing $2,067,216 to be the actual receipts of 1892 and $2,365,000 the total Expenditure, Ordinary and Extraordinary, we have a deficit on the year's transactions of $297,784. On the other hand, allowing that, the Ordinary Revenue, as distinct from Receipts, is $1,997,216 and the Ordinary Expenditure $1,782,000, we find that there is an excess of $215,216 of Ordinary Revenue over Ordinary Expenditure. This surplus unfortunately, however, is subject to further reduction for the following reasons.
A practice has been in force here for many years past in dealing with the public funds, which without full explanation must always have rendered the annual statement of the financial position of the Colony more or less unintelligible, if not misleading, to Honourable Members.
It has been usual to pay the charges for Establishments for the month of December and other Expenditure incurred towards the close of the year from the respective votes for the following year. As regards the charges for Establishments the amount does not probably vary much from year to year, but the "Other Expenditure" always varies. The result has been, as you will easily understand, that the position of the Colony in regard to its finances has never in recent years been as correctly presented to Honourable Members as it might have been.
In the accounts which will be laid before you in future you will find that the Expend- iture will, as far as possible, be brought to account against the votes of the year in which it was incurred.
The adjustment will increase the Ordinary Expenditure of the current year by an amount which is estimated at $100,000, and the estimated surplus of Revenue over Ordinary Expenditure will be accordingly reduced from $215,216 to $115,216. If, as might fairly be done, the opium arrears were deducted from Revenue and dealt with as a casual receipt, the estimated surplus would be still further reduced from $115,216 to $65,216.
I now lay on the table the Estimates for 1893. They have been very carefully prepared. The Estimate of Revenue is $1,906,396, and the Estimate of Expenditure, i.e. Ordinary Expenditure, $1,899,611, leaving a possible surplus of $6,785. This Expenditure, however, includes a new item of $40,000 to which I will presently refer.
It is evident from these figures that as I premised in January, a Loan has become an absolute necessity. In the absence of such assistance, the only alternative will be to stop all further execution of Extraordinary Public Works.
Many of them are in progress and when completed will prove directly remunerative. Some will tend to develop the Colony and thus indirectly augment the revenue.
Others are works of necessity. None can be suspended without entailing additional expenditure whenever they are resumed, as ultimately they must be. For these reasons the idea of their temporary abandonment should not for a moment be seriously entertained. This opinion will, I anticipate, be concurred in by Honourable Members, for on the 13th October, 1890, it was authoritatively stated by an influential Councillor that it was the "unanimous wish" of the taxpayers and ratepayers that a Loan should be raised to meet the cost of Public Works Extraordinary. Shortly after my arrival I referred the matter to a Committee of this Council. They reported, and apparently overlooking the "unanimous wish" of the taxpayers, suggested that instead of raising a Loan the Government should obtain the funds it might require from time to time by overdrawing its account at the Bank. This course did not recommend itself to me, as it would certainly be a most extravagant one, seeing that Government could borrow money in London at a much lower rate than it would have to pay for overdrafts.
The existence of available assets in the shape of Crown Lands was also mentioned as a reason against raising a Loan. But, whilst I can quite understand the natural hesitation of Honourable Members to increase the indebtedness of the Colony, it must be evident that the existing commercial depression entirely precludes the realization of large assets by the sale of
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