1932-09-22 — Page 1

144 HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

22nd September, 1932.

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PRESENT:―

HIS EXCELLENCY THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT (HON. MR. W. T. SOUTHORN, C.M.G.).

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GENERAL OFFICER COMMANDING THE TROOPS (MAJOR-GENERAL J. W. SANDILANDS, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.).

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY (HON. MR. E. R. HALLIFAX, C.M.G., C.B.E.).

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (HON. MR. C. G. ALABASTER, K.C., O.B.E.).

THE SECRETARY FOR CHINESE AFFAIRS (HON. MR. A. E. WOOD).

THE COLONIAL TREASURER (HON. MR. E. TAYLOR).

HON. COMMANDER G. F. HOLE, R.N., (Retired) (Harbour Master).

HON. DR. A. R. WELLINGTON (Director of Medical and Sanitary Services). HON. MR. T. H. KING, (Inspector General of Police).

HON. MR. R. M. HENDERSON, (Director of Public Works).

HON. SIR HENRY POLLOCK, KT., K.C.

HON. MR. W. E. L. SHENTON.

HON. MR. R. H. KOTEWALL, C.M.G., LL.D.

HON. MR. J. P. BRAGA.

HON. MR. S. W. TS'O, O.B.E., LL.D.

HON. MR. J. J. PATERSON.

HON. MR. T. N. CHAU.

HON. MR. W. H. BELL.

MR. R. A. C. NORTH (Deputy Clerk of Councils).

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MINUTES.

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Council were confirmed.

PAPERS.

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of H.E. the Officer Administering the Government, laid upon the table the following papers:

By-laws Nos. 9 (d) and 9 (e) of the By-laws for the prevention and mitigation of epidemic, endemic, contagious or infectious disease made under the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, 1903.

Declaration under the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1899― declaring Dairen an infected place.

Resolution passed by the Legislative Council under section 39 of the Liquors Ordinance, 1931, on 18th August, 1932.

Certification and appointment made under section 3 of the Vagrancy Ordinance, 1897― Victoria Gaol, the Prison for Males at Lai Chi Kok and the Prison for Females at Lai Chi Kok to be Houses of Detention and the Superintendent of Prisons to be Superintendent of the said Houses of Detention.

Appointment made under section 11 of the Deportation Ordinance, 1917―Victoria Gaol, the Prison for Males at Lai Chi Kok and the Prison for Females at Lai Chi Kok to be Houses of Detention and the Superintendent of Prisons to be Superintendent of the said Houses of Detention.

Rescission of the Order of the 2nd August, 1932, published in the Gazette of the 5th August, 1932, as Government Notification No. 510 declaring Wuchow to be an infected place.

The Air Navigation Directions (Hong Kong), 1932.

Regulations made by the Governor in Council under the Public Places Regulation Ordinance, 1870, Ordinance No. 2 of 1870, for the maintenance of good order and for. preservation and better enjoyment of the various Recreation Grounds, on 28th August, 1932.

Order made by the Governor in Council under section 12 of the Rope Company's Tramway Ordinance, 1901, on 28th August, 1932.

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Prescription in lieu of Form No. 9 in the First Schedule of the Liquors Ordinance made under sections 33 and 88 of the Liquors Ordinance, 1931.

Declaration under the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1899― declaring Foochow and infected place.

Declaration under the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, 1899― declaring Kiungchow (Hoihow) an infected place.

Additional Regulation made under section 3 of the Post Office Ordinance, 1926. Report of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Magistrates' Courts for the year 1931. Medical and Sanitary Report for the year 1931.

Abstract showing the Differences between the Approved Estimates of Expenditure for 1932 and the Estimates of Expenditure for 1933. (Sessional Paper No. 5 of 1932).

FINANCE COMMITTEE'S REPORT.

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of H.E. the Officer Administering the Government, laid upon the table the report of the Finance Committee No. 9, of 18th August, 1932, and moved that it be adopted.

THE COLONIAL TREASURER seconded and this was agreed to.

THE BUDGET.

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.―I rise by Your Excellency's command to move the first reading of a Bill intituled "An Ordinance to apply a sum not exceeding $27,585,142 to the Public Service of the year 1933."

The very full memorandum from the Colonial Treasurer, which is already in the hands of hon. members, shows clearly the foundation on which the Estimates for 1933 have been built up, the essential elements of that foundation being, first an estimate of 1/2d. as the average value of the dollar, second the view that our surplus funds in these uncertain days should not be allowed to fall below the $10,000,000 mark; and thirdly the extreme desirability of avoiding additional taxation. To the best of the Government's information and judgment, 1/2d=$1 is a safe average value to accept for the whole year; but should the dollar unfortunately fall below that figure, we have reserved means as I will explain later of retrenching expenditure to meet losses (unless they are

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altogether abnormal) without disturbing the balance of the Budget as now before you. The surplus balance at the end of 1933, as far as Estimates go show a surplus balance of $10,616,131, and as the Colonial Treasurer has explained in the memo the extra taxation imposed during 1931 and 1932 will have its full effect in 1933 and has made it possible to proceed without considering any further additions.

I have already used the phrase "the balance of the Budget', and I hasten to support it before the point is made that it is a poor kind of balance which shows an extra weight of dollars on the Expenditure side. Each and every year Government must perforce estimate for a full staff on duty: but there are invariably casualties such as cannot reasonably be foreseen which leave some balance on the total estimated under the Head Personal Emoluments. Further the choice of Public Works Extraordinary provides a very difficult problem. Each item proposed must be specifically named with its figure, and yet there is probably no year in which the Public Works Department have been able to carry out the whole programme and to expend all the money allotted. The Department is an easy public target for jokes on this account, but a very little reflection will show that the position is one which is dictated by the circumstances. In such a long list of works as Government has to consider in any year―and the detailed memo by the Director of Public Works in your hands shows only those that have been selected from a preliminary list several times as long―there are necessarily a number of uncertain factors. The practice in forming the Estimates is to enter at once on the list all works that are definite commitments, to add those considered essential and to make a choice from those considered desirable up to the limit of the funds available if any remain. But even in the first two categories there are many where circumstances combine to prevent the expenditure of the money allocated to this or that object, and among the desirables work may be postponed at any rate till late in the year owing to difficulties, such as change of site or questions of accommodation required or of design. It is in fact hardly possible to complete a programme of this size precisely according to a very definite plan, and a margin of variation is called for; and hence a margin of saving―in fact a slightly inflated estimate―is unavoidable. Considerations such as these, invariable under-expenditure which cannot be estimated for, will justify calling the Account balanced when mathematics would not justify the word. But all the expenditure allowed for must be at the lowest "desirable" and must at its total figure be within our means and the Government holds that the proposals now before the Council fulfil these requirements.

A word on the other side of the problem. If necessity compels, as it did when the dollar sank to 1/- and below, it is possible to reduce certain departmental expenditure and some Public Works.

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It is granted that this can only be done by a certain risk of efficiency―as for instance, by reducing travelling and other allowances, or by lowering the standard of the upkeep of roads― but necessity may compel, as it has done before. The Treasurer is standing by with his blue pencil as he notes in his memo, but he adds "it is not considered that the expenditure shewn in the Printed Estimates is beyond the resources of the Colony."

I pass now to the question of the form in which the 1933 Estimates have been drawn up. Hon. members will note that there are important changes as compared with 1932, and they are the result partly of instructions from Home and partly of an attempt to fall in with the wishes of the Unofficials as expressed last year. In either case the object was the same―to shew as clearly as possible the separate cost of each Department for the year concerned. The effort to reach this end has shewn that caution is required in interpreting the Estimates as now presented; the difficulty centering in those caches of the service which are not in their nature confined to special Departments. They are the Cadet Service, the Senior Clerical & Accounting Staff and the "Junior Clerical Service," in the case of the first two the position being made still more difficult by the calls of Home leave. All expenses, leave and other, in the case of technical officers can properly be debited to their Department; but non-technical officers may well have no connection with the Department in which they have been serving once they go on leave. The precise appointment on return from leave depends on circumstances―the circumstances of a small service in which it is not possible to keep all Departments sufficiently manned to meet all eventualities, and it is not only on account of leave that transfers of the officers referred to are necessary―they are constantly being made: but the estimates cannot be altered from day to day to show these changes. We cannot therefore foresee the requirements of next year with precision; with the result that for want of a better heading we have to leave officers, about whose future posts there is any uncertainty, debited to the Departments in which they last served or are now serving. All this may be very misleading, for instance under the Colonial Secretariat, it will be seen that nine Cadet Officers have to be included, whereas actually only four are working in the Department.

In passing I invite attention to the Abstract of Differences which has been circulated. It provides much information that is now valuable, but it will be of greater use in future years, unless the form of the Estimates undergoes still further changes.

I do not propose to deal with all the alterations in staff, as the footnotes have been made very full, and it is hoped that this will make the position clear. But there are certain changes to which special reference is desirable, in amplification of the footnotes.

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A number of retirements in the senior ranks of the Cadet Service are expected during the next year or two, and we have to look ahead in filling the ranks of this cadre. In the past a Cadet has not been available for duty until he has studied Chinese for two years; for the future the new unification scheme of the Colonial services requires him to take a course of one year's study at Home before coming out. We have not been able to fall completely into line at once, and have asked for one new Cadet to be sent out at once without the year's training at Home, and other two will be appointed against the eventualities of three years hence, when they will be ready for duty. The cost of the year in England is estimated at £335, but the figure arrived too late for inclusion in the Estimates, where the ordinary Cadet salary of £450 has been entered.

On page 16 of the Estimates appear two Class II posts of the Senior Clerical & Accounting Staff on a dollar salary. There are two more such posts at the foot of page 18 and one each on pages 45 and 46. This represents the first step in an experiment directed to the substitution of local for European staff in some of the posts of responsibility and control, now assigned to the Senior branch of the clerical service. There are at present forty-one of these posts, but the reduced establishment of the branch authorized in the 1932 Estimates is only forty-nine officers, of whom all but three are non-local and require long leave at intervals of four years. Consequently during the current year one post has been left unfilled and the others have been manned by temporary transfers from other branches of the service. This is unsatisfactory and in any case these makeshift arrangements could not continue next year. Some expansion of the staff available for these clerical positions is inevitable and it is merely a question of the nature of the expansion.

Government has from time to time had on its books locally recruited officers who have fulfilled all the requirements desired, but something better than the prospects of the Junior Clerical Service, which is becoming a little unwieldy by its weight of numbers, and consequent slow promotion, is required to attract and hold the right type of recruit. It is therefore proposed, subject to the approval of the Secretary of State before whom the scheme has been laid to create a local section of the Senior Clerical & Accounting Staff, and to fill it with specially selected men of the type who now enter the Special Class of the Junior Clerical Service, and unfortunately leave it only too often just when their promise is becoming clear. The section will be in three classes and its main feature is a long time-scale in Class II which will start at the same figure as Special Class Junior Clerical Service, i.e. $1,200 per annum and proceed by increments of $150 p.a. to $4,500 with efficiency bars at $2,400 and $3,000, the great difference between a time scale with efficiency bars and a scheme

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of classes being, that the former admits of a good man going forward at any time while the latter requires the occurrence of a vacancy. As a start it is proposed to provide for six Class II posts, with a view to appointing two officers in the Secretariat, two in the Treasury and two at the Magistracies where Cadet officers are now performing clerical duties for lack of other staff. The scheme embraces a Probationary Class III for very junior recruits and a Class I with a salary scale of $4,600 with increments of $200 to $5,600. For the immediate relief of the Senior Clerical position, junior recruits are useless and it will be some years before a member of the new cadre becomes eligible for Class I. No provision is therefore being made for either of these categories in the present Estimates.

The next increase to which I wish to refer is that in the Assessor's staff of the Treasury on page 19. Your Excellency when introducing the Budget last year stated that an officer of the Public Works Department was being seconded to the Assessor's office. This transfer is now being made permanent by the creation of the post of Second Assistant Assessor. There has been a corresponding reduction in the establishment of Overseers in the Public Works Department. The Inspector of Tenements and the Class III officer of the Senior Clerical & Accounting Staff are also new posts. The former will inspect all tenements for which applications for refund of rates are made on the ground that the premises are vacant. The clerical officer is required to assist in the office side of the work. It is very necessary that both the Assistant Assessors should spend a considerable part of their time out of doors inspecting. But the absence from the office of both of them at the same time is apt to inconvenience members of the public who come to see them. This state of affairs will be largely remedied by the presence of the Senior Clerical officer. The object in view is to leave the Assistant Assessors as free as possible to make visits in any part of the Colony; and the justification is found in a recent intensive enquiry into a comparatively small area in Kowloon where the Assessment was found to be too low by some three lakhs of dollars―representing a shortage of some $50,000 Government Revenue. The provision of a motor car to assist the Assistant Assessors is an obviously reasonable measure.

I would invite the attention of hon. members to the nine Assistant Marine Surveyors and to footnote (6) on page 31. In accordance with the undertaking given in its Commentary on the Retrenchment Commission that, on the post of Government Marine Surveyor falling vacant, there would be no corresponding recruitment in the staff of Assistant Surveyors, provision for one Assistant Surveyor has been made for a half year only. If after a trial of six months it is found, as I hope it will be found, that the sub-department can be run efficiently on the reduced staff the post will be abolished. If, however, it is found that the work suffers, it will be necessary to fill the post again.

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The Lady Assistant and Translator under the Observatory on page 36 is required to deal with the large number of technical publications received at the Observatory in French and German. She will be available as translator for all Government departments.

Apart from the additional posts which were approved by the Finance Committee last December, and with which I do not propose to deal to-day as they were fully discussed at the time, the principal increases shewn in the draft Estimates of the Police Department are one European Sub-Inspector, and two Lance Sergeants and twenty-eight Constables in the Cantonese Contingent. The Sub-Inspector and one Chinese detective are required for Women and Girls' work in Kowloon, arising largely from the new policy of dealing with brothels. Nine Constables are required to work three new beats in the Wong Nei Chong district, and five Constables and one Lance Sergeant to work two new beats in the Tai Hang district. There has been considerable building expansion in both these areas. Three Constables and one Lance Sergeant are required to replace four men who were withdrawn from regular duty for the anti Communist section in 1931. One Constable is required for the Traffic Department in Kowloon. Five more detectives are required for the Yaumati and Shamshuipo districts which continue to spread. One detective is required for Kowloon City, and two for the eastern district of Hong Kong. One is required for Castle Peak which is a not unimportant centre with its ferry, brickworks and large number of bathing sheds. All these increases are a direct result of the development and expansion that has been going on throughout the Colony. Provision is made for an Assistant Superintendent for the Anti-Piracy Guards. It is hoped to open the Remand Home for Juveniles at the end of this or the beginning of next year, as soon as the necessary alterations have been made to the building which it is proposed to use for the purpose. The requisite staff, which may have to be modified in the light of experience, is shewn at the foot of page 52.

Honourable members will no doubt recollect that a reduction of five posts of European warders in the Prison Department was made in the 1932 Estimates and that Government undertook to retrench five more posts. Two of these five posts now disappear, and it is anticipated that the remaining three will have been reduced by the end of 1933, as a result of leaving vacancies unfilled as they occur. The ten additional temporary Guards will be dispensed with as soon as arrears of leave of the Indian staff have been made good.

The Medical Department shews a marked increase in personnel. The most noteworthy additions are, in the order in which they appear in the printed Estimates, a Class I officer of the Senior Clerical Staff, who is required to assist in the increasing amount

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of administrative work that is involved in running a department the size of the Medical Department; a House Officer for the University Professors who assist the Government at the Outpatients' Department at the Civil Hospital; two European Nursing Sisters, who are required in connection with the expansion at Kowloon. Even with these two additional Sisters there will be no reserves available for outside work or for times of emergency. The Venereal Diseases branch is strengthened by a Chinese Medical Officer, and a European Technical Assistant. It is intended to place the latter in charge of the new clinic at Kowloon, which will be close to the docks. There are also small additions to subordinate staff for this branch. Provision is made for one more Chinese Medical Officer for schools. Even with this addition there will in all be only three school doctors; not an extravagant number in view of the number of school children in the Colony. There is one new post of Chinese Lady Medical Officer under Chinese Hospitals and Dispensaries. This officer is required for gynaecological work. Government anticipates further increases in future years in this very important work as it does also in the Venereal Diseases, School hygiene and Maternity and Child Welfare branches. One more Chinese Medical Officer is provided for under New Territories. The work of the Medical Department and of voluntary associations is rapidly expanding in the New Territories with a welcome response from the villagers. Under Kennedy Town Hospital on page 64 three posts of Staff Nurses and three of Staff Dressers have been inserted. These will be sufficient to cope with the few cases that this Hospital receives when there is no epidemic, and will form a nucleus when there is an epidemic. At present there is no special staff for this hospital, and consequently when it is in use staff has to be withdrawn from other hospitals, which is unsatisfactory.

One of the recommendations of the Retrenchment Commission was the replacement of European by Asiatic Sanitary Inspectors. A scheme, which has been approved in principle by the Sanitary Board, has been devised and it is proposed to make a start next year with the appointment of six Probationary Inspectors who appear at the top of page 69 of the Printed Estimates. They will have practical work under the Medical Officer of Health and will attend a course of lectures on sanitation, hygiene etc., preparatory to the Royal Sanitary Institute examination for Sanitary Inspectors. After passing the examination, they will take their place in the Inspectorate as vacancies occur or new posts are created. Moreover as recruitment will be limited to Cantonese or Cantonese speaking Hakkas they will also replace the interpreters. In the first year they will receive $1,200, then, on their passing the Royal Sanitary Institute examination, they will proceed by annual increments of $100 to $1,800 per annum, and thence to $3,000 by annual increments of $150. Those who prove themselves worthy will have an opportunity of rising to a higher class with a salary

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scale of $3,200 to $4,800. Provision is also made in the draft Estimates for three messengers for serving notices etc., as part of the scheme. No reduction has been made in the establishments of European Inspectors and Interpreters as none of the Asiatic Inspectors will be qualified until 1934 at the earliest.

On the retirement of the present Director of Education, Mr. de Martin, he will be succeeded by Mr. N. L. Smith, a Cadet officer, whose appointment to the post has been approved by the Secretary of State. Provision is made in the draft Estimates accordingly. There is an increase of four posts of Students in Training. This method of obtaining teachers was fully discussed in this Council a few years ago, and it was again examined as a result of the Report of the Retrenchment Commission. As pointed out in Government's Commentary on that Report it is not an expensive scheme, and the finished product, the University Trained Teacher, is eminently satisfactory. It is proposed to appoint next year a Kwok Yu teacher in accordance with the recommendation of the Committee which examined the question of the teaching of Chinese at the University, which has a direct bearing on the syllabus of Chinese at Government schools.

I come now to Public Works Department on page 93. Under General Staff there is an increase of one Executive Engineer, three Engineers, one Inspector of Works and three Overseers. But this increase is more apparent than real, for, if to these posts are added the corresponding posts under loan Works Staff in Appendix V (C) on page 115, and the totals so obtained compared with the totals in 1932, it will be found that the number of Executive Engineers, Architects, and Inspectors of Works is the same, whilst that of Overseers is reduced by one. When Your Excellency introduced the Budget last year, you stated that though the amount provided under Public Works Extraordinary was not the sole factor which decided the size of the staff of the Public Works Department, it was an important one. It is this factor which has led to the increase in the number of officers shewn under the department, and to a decrease in the number shewn under Loan Works. The approved Estimate for Public Works Extraordinary for 1932 was $2,173,545 and for Loan Works $1,882,789. For 1933 the figures are $3,667,923 and $1,309,398 (exclusive of payments to the Consulting Engineers). It will thus be seen that actually so far as extraordinary works are concerned whether paid out of current revenue or out of loan, the estimated expenditure next year is approximately 25% more than the approved expenditure for the current year. The part of this sum that will prove to be required during 1933 will tax to the utmost the capacities of the staff of the Public Works Department.

The Special Staff shewn on page 95 under Public Works Department is in connection with the proposed new Crown Leases Ordinance, which has already been drafted and been referred to

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the Law Society. Briefly the object of this Bill may be described as "one house one lease." It will facilitate dealings in property, as there will not be the danger, as there is at present, of the Crown re-entering a lot because of default in payment of Crown Rent by a remaining portion owner, owing to his inability to collect the proportionate shares from the section holders. The new policy will involve increases of staff also in the Land Office and the Survey Office. The Treasury also will have serious additions to the routine work of the office, but it is hoped to meet this call by the provision of the office equipment entered on page 18. The whole scheme is estimated to take some ten years to complete at the rate of 1500 new leases per annum, and it is anticipated that it will be self supporting. The cost of a lease dealing with the original section of a lot it is proposed to make $60 (as at present) while $30 will be charged for each additional lease issued to other houses on the same section.

Summarised new posts, as will be seen from the Recapitulation on the last page of the Abstract of Differences amount to $358,064. Three lakhs of this is made up by the increases in the Treasury, Police, Medical, Sanitary, Education and Public Works Departments, with which I have generally dealt. Posts abolished amount to $127,015. There are explanations of each detail in the footnotes.

Turning to Public Works Extraordinary I would refer you first to the fully detailed memo prepared by the Director of Public Works, in connection with which I would like to state in passing that it has since been decided to reduce the width of certain sections of the road between Causeway Bay and Ming Yuen Garden, which appears as sub-head 11, to seventy five feet. This will reduce the total estimate, but it has not yet been possible to work out the exact figure. It is impossible to avoid making provision for the many details necessary for the properly ordered life of the community in general―Police Stations, Markets, Latrines and so forth, and I would include among them the new residence for the Director, Royal Observatory whose present combined and very cramped House and Office makes work difficult and life uncomfortable. With these requirements satisfied, no great sum remained available for the larger works to which public attention is more easily drawn, and Government had perforce to make a selection. There are in mind:―the Government Civil Hospital, the Mental Hospital, Kowloon Hospital, the Kowloon Post Office, the Vernacular Normal School for Women, the Central British School, to mention the most prominent, and Government has selected the Government Civil Hospital, the Central British School and the Kowloon Hospital as the objects on which attention should most immediately be concentrated. It must not be thought that the omission of the remaining schemes means that their importance is ignored, and the choice was made only after the most anxious consideration of all the conditions. Perhaps I might refer

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particularly to the omission of the Kowloon Post Office. The expansion of the Colony has made office accommodation in Hong Kong very cramped; and the development of Kowloon is not without responsibility for the extra pressure. In any case the time has come when Kowloon should be provided with at least branch offices where residents can do their Government business without coming across the harbour. A comprehensive view of the requirements in this direction is called for, and the probability is that a large building which will include an ample Post Office will be necessitated in the near future. The conclusion therefore was that the Kowloon Post Office should wait to take its place with the other requirements of the Peninsula―requirements which are also urgent but which perhaps get rather less than their proper share of public attention.

The loan works proposed are fully detailed in the memo by the Director of Public Works and I have only to add that should further funds for the new Waterworks be required, the Government will not hesitate to come to this Council and ask for them. Everything possible has been done to impress on the Consulting Engineers the necessity for expedition; and the Government is satisfied that they are fully awake to the situation, and will make a beginning in time to ensure that the opportunities afforded by the coming dry weather are not wasted. At the next meeting of Council, it is proposed to put forward a number of resolutions in connection with the Loan Expenditure for 1933.

That, Sir, concludes my remarks on the Budget for 1933. Hong Kong has so far perhaps fared rather better than the rest of the world during the last two years and it has been found possible to make an estimate for the coming year which is very much on the standard of preceding years, and which will keep us abreast of the times and ready to take advantage of the recovery that is so confidently predicted. But no undue risks have been incurred, and I hope that hon. members will be able to agree that this Budget, rather colourless though it may be, has successfully found the proper middle course.

THE COLONIAL TREASURER seconded and the Bill was read a first time.

HON. SIR HENRY POLLOCK.―I would ask His Excellency to grant a fortnight's adjournment to enable honourable members to consider the Budget.

ADJOURNMENT.

HIS EXCELLENCY, THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT.― Council stands adjourned until Thursday, October 6th.

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FINANCE COMMITTEE.

Following the Council, a meeting of the Finance Committee was held, the Colonial Secretary presiding.

Votes totalling $41,283 contained in Message No. 10 from H.E. the Officer Administering the Government, were considered.

No. 72:

HON. MR. R. H. KOTEWALL.―What is the reason for the difference?

THE CHAIRMAN.―It is hard to say. More work has to be done. Every effort has been made to get officers to economise as far as possible.

HON. MR. KOTEWALL.―I should say the original estimate was too low. THE CHAIRMAN.―Probably.

THE COLONIAL TREASURER.―The basement of the Post Office also requires lighting.

No. 76:

HON. MR. J. J. PATERSON.―What is a hydro-extractor?

THE CHAIRMAN.―A clothes dryer. They do a great deal of washing at the gaol―gaol washing, and the police washing. It is very difficult to get the drying done.

All the votes were approved.

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