Sessional_Paper_1893 — Page 289

286

4. Under the scheme now proposed the salaries will be more or less restored to the 1875 rates. The inference seems to follow that, in the opinion of yourself and your Executive Council, the cost of living for non-Europeans is not materially if at all greater than it was in 1875. If so, I can only assume that the state- ments in the above mentioned Report as to the increased cost of living were exaggerated; and if there was exaggeration in the view taken as to non-Europeans, there was presumably also some exaggeration as regards the case of Europeans.

For instance, both classes of officers alike must to some extent live on imported food and use imported clothing, the price of which (according to the Report) increased "generally speaking in proportion to the fall in exchange," a statement which was hardly borne out by the statistics of prices of various articles of food, which were given in the Appendices to the Report.

5. It would therefore appear to follow that the increase of 35 per cent, granted to the higher officers in the service was unnecessarily liberal, if viewed simply in the light of the increased cost of living, even including the cost of remittances to England.

6. I request you to lay this despatch before the Legislative Council, when the revised scheme of the Clerk's salaries is submitted to that Body.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient, humble servant,

Governor

SIR W. ROBINSON, K.C.M.G.,

fc.,

&c.,

&c.

(Confidential.)

Governor to Secretary of State.

RIPON.

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONGKONG, 13th July, 1892.

MY LORD,

*

*

**

*

9. In the circumstances which I have stated, I have naturally given my careful consideration to the question of the possibility of effecting retrenchment in the ordinary expenditure of the Colony. I do not consider that the ordinary recurrent annual expenditure on Public Works can be reduced without unduly impairing efficiency, and entailing neglect which would subsequently have to be retrieved at a large outlay; and I am of opinion that the Public Works staff which I have reported to be permanently required is not in excess of what is actually necessary. But in other directions, which I will proceed to indicate, I think that retrenchment may be effected with advantage as opportunity may offer.

10. The higher officers, or civil servants proper, are not in my opinion overpaid, regard being had to the cost and conditions of living for Englishmen, and especially to the cost of house rent in Hongkong. But I have no hesitation in saying that the civil service is over-manned, that the clerical service is largely overpaid, and that the cost of the Police is unduly high.

11. With my confidential despatch of the 8th June, I submitted a scheme of reorganization by which an ultimate saving of some $31,000 a year can be effected. It is a feature in that scheme that Englishmen should not be sent out to fill posts in the clerical service; and whatever Your Lordship's judgment may be on the scheme as a whole, I trust that this point will commend itself.