May 16, 1908.] ASQUITH and the late Prime Minister both distinctly adopted that demand, and how Mr. ASQUITH, now that he has come to the serious business of initiating an Old Age Pension Scheme, can hope to carry out this idea with a fund of less than a million and a quarter pounds sterling it will be interesting to learn. There are in receipt of Poor-law relief in the United Kingdom at the present time more people over seventy years of age than Mr. ASQUITH's fund would provide pensions for, and it may safely be assumed that the number of persons over seventy years of age in the United Kingdom who would have a legitimate claim to a pension are not far short of the million estimated by Mr. JOHN BURNS.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT in the national expenditure in many direc- tions, the House of Commons may find substantial grounds for strenuously opposing a universal and non-contributory scheme of Old-Age Pensions which sets a premuim on improvidence and commits the State to a lavish expenditure to which no reason able limits can be set.
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL.
A meeting of the Hongkong Legislative Council was held on May 14th in the Council Chamber.
PRESENT:+
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR, SIR FREDERICK JOHN DEALTEY K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O.
LUGARD,
His Excellency the Officer Commanding the Troope, Colonel C. H. DARLING.
Hon. Mr. F. H. MAY, U.M.G. (Colonial Secretary),
Hon. Mr. W. REES DAVIES, (Attorney General).
Hon. Mr. A. M. TROMSON (Colonial Tres. surer).
Hon. Mr. W. CHATHAM, C.M.G. (Director of Public Works). Hon. Mr. General).
E. A. IRVING (Registrar
Hon. Commander BASIL R. H. TAYLOR, R.N (Harbour Master).
Hon. Dr. Ho KAI, M.B., C.M., C.M.G. Sir HENRY BERKELLY, K.C.
Hon. Mr. WEI YUK.
Hon. Mr. H. W. SLADE.
Hon. Mr. MURRAY STEWART,
Mr. C. CLEMENTI (Clerk of Councils).
MINUTES.
The minutes of the previous meeting were read and confirmed.
NEW MEMBER. Mr. B. W. Elade took the oath and assumed his seat as a member of the Council.
PAPERS.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY, by direction of His Excellency the Governor, laid on the table the Report of the Superintendent of the Prison
for the year 1907.
The principle that Old Age Pensions are a natural and proper charge upon the com- munity because, so it is alleged, their recipients have had no chance of making provision for themselves is one to which both great political parties in the State have in recent years more
or less committed themselves, but it may be hoped that the public discussion which has proceeded in the Press during recent years will have shown many of our legislators that the déclaration that prospective pensioners have no chance of making provision for themselves is one that can be flatly denied. At the time Mr. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN made Old Age Pen- sions a political cry the great Friendly Societies in England were on the point of working out a scheme for providing old-age pensions for their members, and competent authorities say they could easily have done it. Indeed Sir WILLIAM CHANCE in an article in the Financial Review of Reviews for February says that "certain Courts and Lodges of the Manchester Unity and Fores- ters have made it obligatory on their members to insure for old-age
pay a8 well as sick pay and for death, and these Courts and Lodges have become most popular. But whenever they have made an effort to get their system applied over the whole of these two great Friendly Societies-and they have tried to do this more than once-they have, at any rate up to the present, been met with the answer: "What is the use of it, when the State is going to provide the pensions ?'” It has been calculated that any working man who so desires may obtain an old-age pension of 58. a week at sixty-five in a Provident So- ciety if from the age of twenty-one to sixty- five he makes a payment of 21d. a week. The permanent secretary of the Ancient Order of Foresters has declared that the extra contribution in the Foresters required to give 5s. a week at seventy would be only td. a week beginning at eighteen years, ld. week at twenty-four and 14d. at twenty- eight. Such figures effectually dispose of the assertion that working men have no chance of making provision for themselves. Sometime ago Lord AVEBURY in collabora- tion with other known men propounded what seemed a very practical scheme of subsidised providence, putting it in the power of any individual to insure for an old-age pension and enabling Friendly So- cieties, Trade Unions and similar associa tions to insure under it for the old-age of their members. The loss was estimated to amount to not more than £1,000,000 a year, and it was proposed that this grant in aid should be voted by Parliament annually. In the smallness of the sum allocated for old-age pensions by Mr. AsQUITH we may find some ground for hope that his scheme is one of this nature, subsidising thrift, rather than a non-discriminatory and non- contributory scheme such as the labour leaders demand and have certainly been led to expect. In view of the constant growth
a
FINANCIAL MINUTES.
His Excellency the Governor, laid on the table The COLONIAL SECRETARY, by direction of Financial minutes Nos. 19 to 23 and moved that they be referred to the Finance Committee.
The COLONIAL TRASURER seconded. and the motion was agreed to.
FINANCIAL
The COLONIAL SECRETRAY, by dirction of the report of the Finance Committee (No. 7), His Excellency the Governor, laid on the table and moved its adoption,
The COLONIAL TREASURER seconded, and the motion was agreed to.
BASEMENT BYELAWS.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY propaged that section 16 of the Public Health and Buildings the amendment to the Basement Byelaws under Ordinance of 1903 be approved.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAE Beconded; and the motion was agreed to.
QUESTIONS.
Hon. Mr. MURRAY STEWART asked the following questions standing in his name:-
i
815
to the standard set by the Chinese Government. I propose to make a statement on those lines in Parliament to-morrow night. Despatch follows by mail. Crewe." The statement was, you of the day on which the telegram reached me. will observe, to have been made on the evening I called at once to the Secretary of State asking him to defer the statement in the House and to await the receipt of a despatch from me. I explained at some length the position in which the revenues of this Colony would be placed and that I required a reasonable time and I explained some of the difficulties involved. The Council will appreciate the reasons which make it inadvisable for me to quote this telegram in fall. On May 11th I received a reply from the Secretary of State
1 Is it true that His Majesty's Government has announced in the House of Commons an intention of issuing immediately to the Govern ment of this Colony orders to olose all opium bouses forthwith P
that there had been
which was marked confidential and I am there- informs me that it was not possible to defer the fore not at liberty to quote it in fall It statement in Parliament as the matter was the subject of debate on that day and assured me that His Majesty's Government appreciated the difficulties to which I had referred and awaited the arrival of my des. From the form in which the patches. questions are couchel it would seem that the honourable member was under the impression or might have been a desire on my part to withhold from the Council information on those matters which so vitally affect the interests of the Colony, I need hardly say that there has been no such intention. The Council will observe that the first intima- tion of any kind that I reo ived regarding this matter was on Wednesday last. The questions now put were in fact received before the Secretary of State's reply to my telegram had reached me. That reply reached me on Monday evening. No time therefore has been lost in acquainting the Council of the decision of the Secretary of State. I may add that the Government is engaged in ascertaining what losses will be incurred by closing the divans (applause).
2 Did the Imperial Government communi- cate this intention to the Colonial Govern- ment before making the announcement; if so, how long before; and why was information held from members of this Council? of such capital importance to the Colony with-
to offer, or any information to impart, on this 3 Has the Government now any explanation subject ?
BREWERY LICENCIS.
The ATTORNEY GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill entitled An Ordinance to extend the provisions of the Liquor Licenses Ordinance 1898 and to provide for the grant of brewery licenses.
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR-On May 5th the following telegram was despatched by the Secretary of State and it reached me on May 6th:-"Matter most argent. His Majesty's Government has decided that steps must be taken to close opium dens in Hongkong, as they recognise it is essential in dealing with the Opium question in Hongkong we must act up
The COLONIAL SECRETARY 80conded, and the motion was agreed to.
EVIDENCE, ORDINANCE,
! The ATTORNEY GENERAL moved the first ·
reading of a Bill entitled An Ordinance to amend the Evidence Ordinance 1889.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the motion was agreed to.
OPIUM ORDINANCE. The ATTORNEY · GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill entitled An Ordinance to to China. probibit the Exportation of Prepared Opium
The COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded.
HIS EXCELLENCY-Gentlemen, the Bill be- fore the Council is an ordinance to prohibit the exportation of prepared opium to China. The object of the bill is to prohibit the trade in each country to take measures to prevent the prepared opium between Hongkong and Chins,
import into its own territory. On September 4th last I received a telegram from the Se- oretary of State telling me that I was to under- take this without any delay in consultation with His Majesty's Minister in Peking. I consulted the Opium Farmer who was perfectly ready to agree provided that the Chinese took effective measures for the same purpose. It is in fact entirely to his advantage since the price of prepared opium in Hongkong is about double what it is in Canton and therefore any opium smuggled into Hongkong is of course to the loss of his monopoly. I in- formed the Minister of Peking that as Hong- kong is a free port and as we have no preventative service here that I could not on behalf of the Government undertake any very effective measures for preventing the import into Hongkong, but as the opiam farmer "had promised to co-operate, I hoped that exclusion would be practically effective. On March 27th I received a despatch from His Majesty's Minister at Peking informing me memorial had been presentel on the 23rd to the Throne and that it had been followed by an Imperial rescript sanctioning the proposal and instructing the provincial authori- ties. The Viceroy of Canton instructed all
that a
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