Sessional_Paper_1896 — Page 636

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No. 1127.

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Appendix C.

COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE,

HONGKONG, 16th July, 1896.

SIR,

I am directed to forward for the information of the Government Offices Com- mittee the enclosed extract from a despatch from the Secretary of State, and to state that His Excellency the Governor will be glad to receive a report from the Committee at as early a date as may be practicable.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient Servant,

The Secretary,

GOVERNMENT OFFICES COMMITTEE,

&C.,

&c.,

&c.

J. H. STEWART LOCKHART, Colonial Secretary.

Extract from Colonial Office despatch No. 126 of 5th June, 1896.

With reference to your despatch No. 111 of the 28th April last and to my telegram of the 3rd instant, I have the honour to inform you that before sanctioning the proposed erection of New Government Buildings at Hongkong, I desire to receive further information as to the necessity for the Buildings, and to be more fully satisfied, than I now am, as to the financial ability of the Colony to meet the expenditure out of current revenue.

I request you therefore to forward to me the Report of the Committee, which considered the question of the Government Offices, together with any further explanations you may wish to give.

As regards the financial position of the Colony, I should be glad to know the precise grounds upon which the Acting Colonial Treasurer confidently anticipates that the ordinary expenditure of the current year will be largely exceeded by the Revenue, in view of the fact that the Estimates sent home in December last only show a surplus of $6,500. It appears, moreover, from the Returns forwarded in your despatch No. 92 of the 14th April last, that the Revenue last year fell con- siderably short of the Expenditure (excluding Expenditure charged to the Loan), and that at the end of the year there was an actual excess of Liabilities over Assets, which was only met by temporarily appropriating for general purposes the balance of the 1893 Loan. I gather, however, that this state of affairs was largely due to the special expenditure on the Taipingshan Resumption Scheme, which will, in part at least, be ultimately recouped.