711959-1867-VOTES-AND-PROCEEDINGS-OF-THE-LEGISLATIVE-COUNCIL-OF-HONGKONG-NO-7-OF-1867-FRIDAY-30TH-AUGUST-1867- — Page 1

QUI

DIE

MON

ROIT

THE HONGKONG

Government Gazette.

No. 37.

Published by Authority.

VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 14TH SEPTEMBER, 1867.

VOL. XIII.

VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF HONGKONG.

No. 7 OF 1867.

FRIDAY, 30TH AUGUST, 1867.

PRESENT:

His Excellency Governor SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B. The Honorable the Chief Justice (JOHN SMALE.)

The Honorable the Acting Colonial Secretary (CECIL C. SMITH.) The Honorable the Acting Attorney General (HENRY JOHN BALL.) The Honorable the Colonial Treasurer (FREDERICK H. A. FORTH.) The Honorable PHINEAS RYRIE.

The Honorable FRANCIS PARRY.

ABSENT:

The Honorable the Auditor General (W. H. RENNIE), and

The Honorable JAMES WHITTALL, both absent on leave.

The Council meets this day at 3 P.M., by special Summons.

The Minutes of the Council held on the 23rd July, are read and confirmed.

Ordered, that the second reading of the Bill to extend the Powers of the Supreme Court for Suppression

of Piracy be postponed till the next Meeting of the Council.

Read a first time, a Bill for the more effectual Protection of Her Majesty's Naval and Victualling Stores,

and for the Regulation of Pawnbrokers' Licenses.

His Excellency brings forward a Bill to apply a Sum not exceeding Eight hundred and Ninety-five thousand Dollars to the Public Service of the Year 1868, and makes the following Statement:--

1. I now lay the Draught Bill for Appropriation of the Revenue of 1868, before the Council, and as there are many unusual and perplexing circumstances con- nected with the figures in that Draught Bill, I propose to give such general explanations as may render intelligible to the Council their position in reference to the sums, which I invite them to vote.

2. Beginning with the Balance struck of the Assets and Liabilities of the Colony Appendix 4. on the 1st Day of the current Year, as shown by the Return, which I now lay on the table, there was an apparent surplus of $24,106, available for the Expenditure of this Year. The Auditor General had estimated that the surplus would be nearly $85,000, but in my Financial Statement of the 25th July last Year, I warned you that I had received less favorable computations from others, and considered the Auditor General's views "as the extreme of the favorable aspect "of our affairs," which it would be prudent to adopt. His calculation no doubt was affected by the impossibility of offering for sale the Land which it had been intended to throw into the market at the close of 1866, but even so his estimate was too sanguine.