672
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 4TH SEPTEMBER, 1880.
Medical.
C... Chinese Clerk in Civil Hospital, increase of pay at $2 per month,.
No. 3281 of 1879.
No. 645.
(There has been a kind of engagement to pay this annual increase). Rent of quarters for the Apothecary of the Lock Hospital, at $15 per month,
from 1st April,..
.$ 24.00
120.00
$ 144.00.
Police.
C. S., Bedding,-Blankets, excess,
No. 1913.
No. 2 of
15th Jan.
Miscellaneous Services.
.$ 576.00
S.ofs. Desp. Grant to the Widow and Children of the late Revd. Mr. KIDD, Colonial
Chaplain, towards the expenses of passage to England, £100 at 3/9.......$ 533.00
Pensions and Gratuities.
C. O. No. 484.
c.s. Gratuity to Mr. MILES, late Postal Agent at Hiogo, on closing the Agency at
that port........
Works and Buildings.
No. 244. Temporary Small Pox Hospital ($1,507, Revote of 1879), Conversion of the Lock Hospital into a Civil Hospital,
$ 144.00
..$2,009.00 .15,000.00
$17,009.00
The Acting Colonial Treasurer, by direction of the Governor, lays on the table a Bill to authorize the appropriation of a Supplementary Sum of Fifty-one thousand Seven hundred and Seventy-seven Dollars and Ninety Cents to defray the charges of the Year 1879. The Bill is then read a first time.
The Governor moved for the first reading of the Appropriation Bill for the Year 1881, and in doing so, HIS EXCELLENCY made the following statement:-
Owing to the activity of my honourable friend Dr. STEWART, I am able to move the estimates for 1881 at a somewhat earlier period than usual. This, gentlemen, is the fourth occasion on which I have had the satisfaction of laying estimates before you. When I arrived in Hong- kong I had to consider carefully the state of the finances. At that time the revenue of the Colony which was laid before me in April, 1877, had reached $885,000. Included in that revenue was a considerable sum for land sales, and the first time that I had the honour of addressing you L I pointed to the fact that the sales of Crown land ought not to be treated as ordinary revenue. The. sale of Crown land, especially in a small Colony like this, is actually selling a portion of our capital. What we should consider as land revenue is the increment of increase in the value of land with the progressive prosperity of the Colony. In the statement for 1876 laid before me by Mr. GARDINER AUSTIN there was a considerable sum put down as premia on land sales; if I mistake not, a larger sum than that obtained in the land sales of the Colony for the last three years. However that may be, my attention was more particularly drawn to the fact that whilst the revenue was $885,000 the expenditure was $902,000; in other words, there was a deficit, and it became my duty to be extremely careful with respect to the finances of the Colony. You are, no doubt, aware that for the three years past, that is, 1877, 1878, and 1879, we have not had any deficits. On the contrary, I find that during these three years we have had a total surplus of $206,000 added to our balances from Colonial revenue, being an average on the three years of $68,000 a year.
With respect to the past year, 1879, the audited accounts of the revenue and expenditure of the Colony for that year were printed in the Gazette in April last. You will perceive from these that the revenue was stated by the auditor to have amounted to $964,000 and the expenditure to $926,000, leaving a surplus in round figures of $37,000. Now the $926,800 of expenditure included a considerable outlay upon the Police Force, the increase being $10,830. I am sure no gentleman in the Council now regrets having voted the requisite sum to enable me to lay out upon the Police Force of the Colony that additional amount. I find also there is an increase of about $4,000 for educational purposes, and that also, I think, no one would be disposed to regret. I have also sanctioned an increase in 1879, over the preceding year, for fire brigade, of $2,800. The cause for that every one is familiar with. In the office of the Surveyor-General and his establishment I have sanctioned an increase of $1,648 in the year 1879; and I may say, having mentioned that, that the roads, streets, and bridges in this Colony have been kept in the year 1879 in most admirable order, and whatever public works have been undertaken, I think have been done to our satisfaction. But this brings me to an item which is present perhaps to the minds of some of my friends but which does
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