Sessional_Paper_1896 — Page 27

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Before proceeding to deal with that and other interesting matters, I have to express the gratification which it affords me, and which I am sure you all share, to welcome the presence at this table of His Excellency Major-General BLACK and Mr. WE A-YUK, as Official and Unofficial Members respectively of this Council. The course of events which brought about this change in the constitution of the Legislative Council is still fresh in your memory. I shall not refer to them in detail, but content myself with remarking that as His Excellency the General Officer Commanding is to administer the Government during the absence at any time of the Governor, it is obviously advantageous to the Colony that he should occupy a seat in the Legislative Council, while the appointment of Mr. WEI A-YUK, a resident highly respected in Hongkong, will, it is hoped, bring the Government into still closer touch with the Chinese community which forms such an important element in the population of the Colony.

The constitution of the Executive Council has also undergone a change, which was recommended by me and approved by the Secretary of State. It now consists of two Un- official Members, Mr. CHATER and Mr. BELL-IRVING, in addition to the Official Members who previously composed it. You will agree with me in the opinion that the Colony is to be congratulated on this reconstruction which has strengthened the Executive by the addition of two able advisers, whose experience, especially on matters affecting the com- mercial welfare of Hongkong, cannot fail to be of the highest value at all times to me and to my successors in office.

Turning now to the orders of the day, the first item which claims attention is a Bill entitled "An Ordinance to appropriate a Percentage of seventeen and a half per centum of the Colonial Revenues as a contribution for the Defence of the Colony.'

This Bill is the outcome of lengthy correspondence and negotiations with which you are familiar, and it is introduced under instructions from the Secretary of State. I may mention that the Unofficial Members have recently forwarded a memorial praying that the contribution may be again fixed at the former figure of £40,000. I can, however, hold out no hope that this request of the Unofficial Members will be acceded to. I have no option therefore but to ask you to pass this Bill into law, and so finally settle the much-vexed question of the Military Contribution.

The next item of importance, and indeed the most pressing one on the order paper, is the Appropriation Bill for 1897.

From the Draft Estimates, which have been in your hands for some time, and which I now lay upon the table, you will have observed that the Revenue for 1897 is estimated to yield $2,438,823. This estimate has been arrived at with due caution; it is less than the actual revenue for 1895 and the probable total for the current year, and I have every reason to expect that it will be realised. The various items do not, I think, call for any special remark at this stage. The total expenditure for 1897 is estimated at $2,769,083, but of this $368,000 is chargeable to the Loan. The estimated sum chargeable to current revenue is therefore $2,401,083, or $37,740 less than the estimated revenue.

The principal increases in expenditure, as compared with the Estimates for 1896, appear under the following heads :-

1. Public Works Extraordinary chargeable to Loan,

2. Military Expenditure,......

3. Pensions,

4. Public Works Recurrent,

5. Post Office,

6. Public Debt,

7. Sanitary Department,

8. Medical Department,

......$170,800

30,079

26,000

23,300

22,181

11,447

9,800

4,542

The increase in Military Expenditure is due partly to an increase of $9,000 in the amount set apart for "Barrack Services," but chiefly to increased (estimated) revenue. Only $61,000 of the estimated total Military Expenditure is included in the Appropriation Bill, viz., $49,000 for Barrack Services and $12,000 for the Volunteers, as the Bill to which I have already referred and which is designed purposely to remove the question of