Sessional_Paper_1884 — Page 233

Appendix pp. 191-4,

(ix)

13. The Commission desires to remark furthermore that the system adopted by the Government, in making payments to the Chinese who are employed on Public Works, is unnecessarily overburthened with check and countercheck, designed no doubt for the purpose of protecting the revenue, but actually so dividing and distributing responsi- bility as, in a great measure, to defeat the object in view, and interposing obstacles to the speedy discharge of bills which can hardly fail to involve much loss and vexation to Public Creditors. The Commission does not regard it as within the scope of its functions to do more than call the attention of His Excellency the Governor to this administrative defect, which appears to be a serious one, but to which an efficient remedy may easily be applied.*

14. The Commission finds evidence of a practice, apparently common in the Surveyor General's Office, for the Chinese clerks to make out bills for the more illiterate class of Contractors, from whom they receive remuneration. In view of the tendency of native employés to exact illicit commissions, the Commission regards this practice as one open to grave abuses, and suggests that it should be stopped, or limited to occasions where it may be unavoidable and adopted by express permission.

15. The Commission is compelled to draw the attention of His Excellency the 221. Governor to the utter disregard of truth displayed by Mr. KAM CHU-SHEUNG in giving

his evidence on this subject.

16. The Commission recommends that the acceptance of presents of any kind by the Officers of the Department, excepting by express permission of His Excellency the Governor, should be absolutely prohibited.

p. 138.

With regard to the second subject of enquiry;

17. The Commission has had before it the various members of the Colonial Secre-

tary's and Surveyor General's Departments, and has come to the conclusion that the unauthorised communication to the Editor of the Hongkong Telegraph, or to some person through whom it reached him, of a letter addressed by the Honourable Mr. PRICE to the Colonial Secretary, dated the 8th January, 1883, must have been the deliberate act of some person either in the Colonial Secretary's Office or in that of the Surveyor General. Appendix The Commission rejects as untenable the suggestion made by Mr. GOULBOURN, the clerk who copied and had charge of Mr. PRICE's draft of the letter in question, that such draft was casually read by some one of the many Officers who make use of the room in the Public Works Department in which he sits. It is incredible that not only should the attention of a person not engaged in the office have been accidentally drawn to this particular letter; but that he should have found an opportunity to carefully make notes of it, and subsequently acquaint himself with an official number attached to documents of the kind only some time afterwards when they are permanently filed.

*The Commission learns with pleasure that this suggestion is in course of adoption.