Sessional_Paper_1896 — Page 440

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C.-Complete control by the unofficial majority over the Expenditure

of the Colony.

This is a proposal that some half dozen inen representing, say, eight hundred ratepayers should dispose of the revenues derived from over 200,000 Chinese rate- payers and derived also from local industries and British capital.

Assuming that the Unofficial Members were all elected and that they had a working majority, it may be conceived what evils would arise in the local Legisla- ture if they could dispose of its revenue as they might elect.

If this prayer were granted it would be necessary in common justice to give the Chinese adequate representation based either (a) on numbers, or (b) on taxa- tion. In either case the Chinese must indisputably be given their full weight, in the case of (a) in respect of their numbers, or in the case of (b) in respect of the taxes paid by them. In either case where would British interests in Hongkong be ?

D.—Management of Local Affairs.

What are local affairs?

The drainage, roads, wharves, harbour, police, Treasury, Post Office, Educa - tion, in fact all departments of Government which it is proposed to hand over to an unofficial majority of persons. The evils that would spring from such a con- cession would destroy all confidence in the administration of affairs, and introduce the Colony to the municipal experiences of New York and San Francisco.

E-A consultative voice in matters of an Imperial character.

I do not understand what Hongkong has to do with matters of an Imperial character beyond her responsibilities as a Crown Colony of Great Britain, and it is not apparent to me in what way the Unofficial Members could exercise the pri- vilege prayed for if granted.

A distinction is made in words between local affairs and Imperial affairs, but in all cases where the discussion sets out with general phrases the difficulties are found when they come to be practically defined. In this case the petitioners agitating for power to manage a certain class of affairs ought to have specified with the greatest precision what those affairs are, otherwise how can any effect be given to their demand ?

There is not much more that I can usefully add in the way of criticism of this very short-sighted, and, as I view it, mischievous Petition, which I have endeavoured to consider with an open, unprejudiced mind as to the motives which underlie it, and its substance, but I would perhaps do well to make a few general remarks on the whole subject.

A revolutionary change in the Government, even of a small Colony, requires the most cogent reasons to justify it, and the demand for popular Government ought at least to come spontaneously from the people who are aggrieved by the existing régime. In this case both these conditions are wanting. The grievance is not defined but is hidden away in hypothetical generalities, and there is nothing about the "movement" to show that it is the outcome of any genuine public feel- ing.

The proposal is crude and shapeless, and has not been thought out by the authors. They ask for representative Government, while carefully avoiding any specification of the electoral body or the mode of election, or the qualifications of the representatives. They wish to introduce an entirely new thing, but cannot get beyond the terminology appropriate to the existing régime.