THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 27TH MARCH, 1886.
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The Surveyor General replied that the permanent buildings for the Lazaretto were contracted to be ready on the 1st of July next; and that, pending the completion of the permanent buildings, suitable accommodation was being provided for the reception of the sick, should occasion require it, in temporary and provisional matsheds.
WITHDRAWAL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL GRANT. The Honourable T. JACKSON gave notice that at the next meeting he would move the following resolutions, and introduce a Cathedral Bill:-
1. That the Secretary of State for the Colonies be invited to reconsider the decision which has been arrived at as to the withdrawal of ecclesiastical grants in this Colony, with a view to the continuance of such grants, as in Singapore and in Mauritius.
2.-That the only expenditure which could be retrenched under the instructions received is a small salary, nominally of £800, but really of £640, paid to the Colonial Chaplain, and representing little more than remuneration for the necessary services of burying the dead, attendance at the gaol, at hospitals, &c.
3. That if this salary be withdrawn, the Colony will have to pay nearly if not quite as much in allowances for these services, thus substituting a precarious and unsatisfactory arrangement for one which works to the satisfaction of all concerned.
4. That the instructions to disestablish the Church on the first opportunity were not called for by any public demand, and that no public feeling exists in the Colony on the subject except such as is adverse to the course proposed.
5.---That the policy of disestablishment, still far from being generally accepted at home, has been, as far as the information of this Council goes, distasteful to every Colony on which it has been imposed; that it has been reversed in two Colonies, and in at least one more continues to be an offence and a public grievance to the Community.
6.—That a doubtful policy of this kind should not be, in ignorance of many of the essential circumstances of the case, needlessly forced upon an unwilling community which, administering its own revenue, is more interested in guarding against the misappropriation of that revenue than any external authority can be.
BILLS READ A SECOND TIME.-On the motion of the Acting Attorney General, seconded by the Acting Colonial Secretary, the following Bills were read a second time:-
(a.) A Bill entitled An Ordinance to amend the Law relating to Vagrants.
(b.) A Bill entitled An Ordinance to amend the Law as to Sales of Land by Public Auction. (c.) A Bill entitled An Ordinance for the Relief of Widows and Children of Intestates where
the personal estate is of small value.
The Acting Attorney General gave notice that at the next meeting of Council he would move that the Council go into Committee on these Bills.
POSTPONEMENT OF THE OTHER ORDERS OF THE DAY.-The Acting Attorney General moved that the other Orders of the Day be postponed.
ADJOURNMENT.—The Council then adjourned to Wednesday, the 24th instant, at 4 P.M.
Read and confirmed, this 24th day of March, 1886.
ARATHOON SETH,
Clerk of Councils.
W. H. MARSH, Administering the Government.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.-No. 102.
The following Bill, which was read a first time at a Meeting of the Legislative Council held this day, is published for general information.
ARATHOON SETH, Clerk of Councils.
Council Chamber, Hongkong, 24th March, 1886.
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