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8. Paragraph 6 asks the question whether "there is any justification now for the present endeavour to reduce the increased salaries to the 1890 level," and its sub-sections (a) to (k) contain the reasons which apparently have induced the Memorialists to answer the question in the affirmative. I proceed to notice each sub-paragraph separately.

Sub-paragraph (a) recurs to certain before mentioned utterances by Sir W. DES VEUX. They are relevant only if the revenue has declined: the revenue has steadily increased."

Sub-paragraph-(b) "Land has not improved in value; it is lower now than it has been for a number of years; and land sales have fallen off."-There is un- questionably no longer the rush for land that there was in the heyday of the gambling mania in Hongkong, land does not now change hands at the inflated prices which it then often commanded, and owing to the losses sustained by not a few of the non-Chinese residents through gambling in many descriptions of shares the present would undoubtedly be an inopportune time for the Government to attempt to realise its assets by disposing of land on a large scale. But land re- quired for bonâ fide business purposes commands a fair price--we obtained only the other day a sum of $67,000 for a lot of waste land only 19,200 square feet in extent--and land sales have realised in 1892 $121,828 as against $51,761 in 1891 and $16,338 in 1890.

Sub-paragraph (c) asserts that the general trade of the Colony is in an un- satisfactory condition, and that several of the oldest established mercantile houses. have collapsed, and it draws especial attention to the fact that the oldest exchange bank in the East, by which I presume is meant the late New Oriental Bank Cor- poration which succeeded the old Oriental Bank Corporation, has fallen, and that another banking institution (the Chartered Mercantile Bank) has collapsed.

The real condition of affairs and the causes of the losses sustained by some of the non-Chinese mercantile houses are very fairly stated in the following letter which has recently been published in the China Mail:-

THE MARINE LOT-HOLDERS' MEMORIAL.

To the Editor of the

"CHINA MAIL."

January 14.

SIR,-Will you allow me, as an old resident and property-owner in this Colony, to enter my strongest protest against the deliberate and gross misrepresent- ations as to the position of the Colony made in the above memorial. Surely, the very limited number of persons interested in the Praya Reclamation are not justified in representing their interests as being of public importance; nor are they justified while seeking relief by trying to force Government into making a loan for their special benefit. To class themselves as all merchants and traders is, to say the least, wide of the truth. The attempt to say that the present widespread ruin in the Colony is due to the depressed condition of trade is utterly untrue and misleading. The honourable member who alluded to this memorial in Council knows better than anyone else that the true cause of the present wrecked condition of the Colony is attributable almost solely to the deplorable gambling mania that was created in the floating of the Land Investment Company, the Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company, the Borneo Companies, the Charbonnages du Tonquin, &c., &c.

I contend that the commercial prospects of this Colony are thoroughly sound and that the future of Hongkong will be far brighter than the past, if only the recent lessons are remembered. Fortunes made in legitimate business have been sacrificed to the calamitous gambling mania that was so unscrupulously led by a gang of men who had little to lose so far as their own reputation was concerned, but who could, and did look on and see hundreds ruined with complacency.

Hongkong can and will right itself without resorting to such means as the memorialists demand. Judging from the past I am firmly convinced that there are other motives behind the memorial that will develop themselves if the money is found by the Colony.

The soundest criterion of the condition of the Colony is the position of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, and both are reported to be able to employ their whole funds in sound and legitimate trade advances. Trade, instead of being monopolised by a few large firms as formerly, is now divided between a numerous body of merchants.-Yours,

A.B.C.