711041-1867-VOTES-AND-PROCEEDINGS-OF-THE-LEGISLATIVE-COUNCIL-OF-HONGKONG-NO-13-OF-1866-WEDNESDAY-5TH-SEPTEMBER-1866 — Page 1

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SOIT

LUI MAL

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No. 9.

MON

THE HONGKONG

Government Gazette

Published by Authority.

VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 2ND MARCH, 1867.

VOL. XIII.

VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF HONGKONG.

No. 13 of 1866.

WEDNESDAY, 5TH SEPTEMBER, 1866.

PRESENT:

His Excellency Governor SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B. The Honorable the Acting Chief Justice (HENRY JOHN BALL.) The Honorable the Acting Colonial Secretary (W. H. RENNIE.) The Honorable the Attorney General (JULIAN Pauncefote.) The Honorable the Colonial Treasurer (F. H. A. FORTH.) The Honorable JAMES WHITTALL.

The Honorable JOHN DENT.

The Honorable H. B. GIBB.

The Honorable W. T. MERCER, on leave.

ABSENT:

The Council meets this day at half past 3 o'clock, pursuant to postponement as ordered by His Excellency The Governor,--no Meeting having taken place on the 31st ultimo, or on the previous day to which the Council was originally adjourned.

The Minutes of the Council held on the 22nd ultimo, being read and confirmed,-

A Protest of the un-official Members of the Council against the Stamp Bill is brought forward; and

the same having been read, is ordered to be entered on the Minutes as follows; namely:-

PROTEST OF THE NON-OFFICIAL MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Under the privilege accorded to us by Rule 15 of the General Rules for the Legislative Council of Hongkong, We beg to protest against the Stamp Ordinance being passed, or promulgated, on the following grounds:

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1st. That the expenditure proposed in the Estimates for 1867 would be covered by the existing Revenue, were it not for the absorption of so large a portion of it by the Military Contribution; and as the latter amount has to be voted yearly, it is clearly open to consideration at each recurring period. This Contribution was originally exacted against the recommendation of the then Governor, the Protest of the Majority of the Legislative Council, and the unanimous remonstrance of the whole Community; and the two principal reasons for such a demand upon the Colony, were: 1stly, an apparent surplus Revenue which in fact never existed, and 2ndly., an expected profit from the Mint which expectation was equally groundless. Since the first exaction of this sum by the Imperial Government, the Military Establishment has been largely reduced in its staff, its materiel, and its numerical strength, and the Gun-boat borne upon the Estimates for 1867 is as much as the Colony can be expected to pay for in the face of the admitted fact of the sum of $866,270 (exclusive of Stamp Act) being insufficient to pay for what Government consider necessary expenditures in a Colony of the size and position of Hongkong. These are new reasons not previously urged against the exaction of this sum, but in our opinion when added to those formerly advanced, are unanswerable.