Sessional_Paper_1892 — Page 4

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, No. 1.

MONDAY, 25TH JANUARY, 1892.

PRESENT:

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR

(Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON, K.C.M.G.).

The Honourable the Acting Colonial Secretary, (WILLIAM MEIGH GOODMAN),

the Acting Attorney General, (ANDREW JOHN LEACH).

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the Registrar General, (JAMES HALDANE STEWART Lockhart).

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the Colonial Treasurer, (NORMAN GILBERT MITCHELL-INNES).

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the Acting Surveyor General, (FRANCIS ALFRED COOPER).

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the Acting Harbour Master, (WILLIAM CHARLES HOLLAND HASTINGS). CATCHICK PAUL CHATER.

JAMES JOHNSTONE KESWICK.

HO KAI, M.B., C.M.

THOMAS HENDERSON WHITEHEAD.

ABSENT:

The Honourable PHINEAS RYRIE.

The Council met pursuant to adjournment.

The Minutes of the last Meeting, held on the 7th December, 1891, were read and confirmed. His Excellency moved the following address of condolence :-

We

the Governor and Legislative Council of Hongkong desire to express our heartfelt sympathy with Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales in the irrepar- able bereavement they have sustained by the death of Prince ALBERT VICTOR, Duke of Clarence and Avondale."

Honourable C. P. CHATER Seconded.

Question-put and agreed to.

His Excellency addressed the Council as follows:--

HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN. -As this is the first time we have met for the transaction of public business, I think that before we deal with the orders of the day I may very properly make some remarks in reference to the position and prospects of the Colony Doubtless you expect me to do so. As a preface to these remarks I would mention that I am happy to find. myself associated in Council with gentlemen several of whom have for a long time devoted their energies to the service of the Colony. I am certain that I shall receive from both official and un-official members that support and assistance which you are so well able to give, and which have invariably been extended by this Council to a Governor who has, as I claim to have, the true interests of the community at heart. I shall always be ready to receive any advice and suggestions you may tender to me, and to weigh such advice most carefully and respectfully. Our relations will, I trust, be ever of the most harmonious character and the proceedings of the Council conducted with due dignity and decorum. Having only been in the Colony for six weeks I must claim your indulgence if I should appear in any way to fail to appreciate correctly the position of its affairs. The first public document which attracted my attention was naturally the address delivered in this chamber on the 15th of October last, and the Colonial Estimates for 1892 which had been sent home before my arrival. I at once conveyed to the Secretary of State an expression of my opinion that, in one particular at all events, those estimates were framed in far too sanguine a spirit. The principal item which struck me as over-estimated was a most valuable portion of our revenue, namely, the yield of the Opium Farm. There may, of course, have been an object in over-estimating this amount. The figures, I understand, were arrived at in the following manner:-1892, January and February, at the reduced amount agreed upon in 1891, namely, $35,800 per month, equal to $71,600; ten months at the original amount of tender, $39,800 equal to $398,000, making $469,600; add 1891 ten months' arrears at $5,000 per month equal to $50,000, making a total of $519,600. The highest tender which has been received for the next three years is at the rate of $340,000 a year, and therefore the receipts for 1892 will be as follows:-1891, ten months' arrears, at $5,000 per month, $50,000; 1892, January and February at reduced amount, $35,800, $71,600; 1891, ten months' at $28,400 per month, $284,000, making a total of $405,600 and leaving a deficit on the estimated revenue for 1892 of $114,000 and a prospect of $340,800 only from the Opium Farm for 1893 and 1894. It is hardly possible at this

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