246
HONGKONG
LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL.
A meeting of the Hongkong Legislative Council was held on the 16 inst. in the Council Chamber.
[September 18, 1909.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
which we believe the community agrees the bay here, where beer is being made. to be the most legitimate thing, namely, It is an experiment which we hope will the consumption of liquor in the Colony. flourish. With respect to the home-made What I have just said, namely, the liquors, they, of course, would have to pay their feeling of the community in that respect, I am share towards the revenue. The imposition justified in saying, because, if I remember upon them will be that which is known as excise, aright, His Excellency, in a speech on the first and, according to the class of liquor made in the reading of the Bill, quoted from a resolution of Colony, it will pay whatever the equivalent class The following were present
the representatives of the people, the unofficial of liquor pays on importation. That is to say, make good HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR, SIR members, to the effect that a duty should be im- if anyone is clever enough to FRED CRICK JOHN D'ALTRY LUGARD, posed on all foreign and Chinese alcoholic liquors. whisky in the Colony, the excise will be K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O.
That is what we are doing. The Bill, then, is whatever the import duty on good whisky HIS EXCELLENCY COLONEL C. H. DARLING designed to carry into effect the views of un- may be, and the same will apply to beer. (General Officer Commanding).
official members that it is expedient that money Then there is another class of goods, those Hon. Mr. A. M. THOMSON (Colonial required for the purposes of the Treasury should which pass through the Colony in transit. They Secretary).
be derived by a duty on foreign and Chinese are quite free from duty, and this Bill does not Hon. Sir H. S. BERKELEY, K.C. (Attorney-alcoholic liquors imported into the Colony. It touch them at all. They can be put in bond General).
is not necessary for me to address the Council and exported again. But here it will be neces- -· at any length on the occasion, because to-day Isary to do what to some people appears offensive, am speaking on the principle of the Bill, and namely, to see that such goods put into bond that has been practically accepted, and are really exported again, and not distributed in I believe hon, members will accept it to-day by the Colony. I put it to the gentlemen of the passing the second reading unanimously. Let Council that it is a misapplication of the word › me be permitted to say that we are agreed to offensive" to say that it is offensive to see two things that there should be a revenue that goods placed in bond for export are derived from a duty on imported liquors. And exported, and not used in the Colony, Since the if that is so it only follows logically that the Bill was read a first time the matter has
the very
careful and anxious Bill that imposes those duties must contain received provisions which will enable the Government consideration of the Government, and every to effectively collect the duties which the desire has existed to do what was possible to Council authorises them to impose. The produce a Bill which, while it would have the measures for that purpose will be such as are effect of raising the revenue, would be easy to pos- The minutes of the last meeting were read calculated to defeat, to detect, and to punish for work, and would fall as lightly as ard confirmed.
sible
Hon. Mr. C.MT. MESSER (Colonial Treasurer). Hon. Mr. P. N. H. JONES (Director of Public Works).
Hon. Mr.A. W.BREWIN (Registrar-General). Hon. Mr. F. J. BADELEY (Capt. Superinten dent of olice).
Hon. Dr. Ho KAI, M.B., C.M.G. Hon. Mr. W. J. GRESSON.
Hon. Mr. E. OSBORNE.
Hon. Mr. E. A. HEWETT.
Hon. Mr. MURRAY STEWART.
Hon. Mr. WEI YUK, C.M.G.,
Mr. C. CLEMENTI (Clerk of Councils).
MINUTES.
FINANCIAL MINUTE.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of His Excellency the Governor, laid on the table Financial Minute (No. 40), and moved that it be referred to the Finance Committee.
The COLONIAL TREASURER Seconded, and the motion was agreed to.
THE LIQUORS ORDINANCE.
of
measures as are ės-
evading or smuggling. It is obvious that if you pass the Bill giving the Government power to impose duties, you must also give power to enforce those duties, otherwise the whole Bill is a farce. It is, I believe, not going too far to say that there are very few persons who will put themselves out of the way to pay duties they are not actively called on to pay. Hence it is that in every country where revenue is The ACTING ATTORNEY-GENERAL-Sir, I partly derived from import duties there is that beg to move the second reading of the Ordinance institution known as the Custom House. And to provide for the collection of duties upon even in England, where it is supposed there intoxicating spirits. His Excellency in his is absolutely free trade, people landing from speech to the Council when the Bill was read a abroad are liable to have their baggage. examin- first time so fully dealt with it that it will noted, and it takes more or less time to get it passed be necessary for me to address the Council at through the Customs. This Bill will, any length. His Excellency on that occasion course, contain such gave the reasons which led the head of the sential for the enforcing of the duties Government to introduce this Bill, and showed which the Council empowers the Government the necessity for its introduction-for the
to impose. The provisions of the Bill in that purpose of raising the revenue necessary to carry respect necessary have been made, as hon. mem- on His Majesty's Government in the Colony. bers will see when we go into Committee, as He also dealt generally with the Eill in such inoffensive as it is posible for any such measures a manner that made every member of this to be.. Of course, it is always disagreeable to have Council and other persons outside who read the your baggage searched, but the baggage is in speech fully acquainted with the principle of the most cases not searched unless there is some Bill and the measures to be included to give reason to suppose that the person accompanying effect to that principle. The principle is, shortly, the baggage has in it articles liable to duty. the imposition of duties upon liquor as being The Bill, of course, does contain, and must after consideration deemed to be the article most contain, and would be no good unless it did con- properly subject to duty in the occasion which tain, powers which give to revenue officers the has arisen. The House will remember that right, should occasion arise, to see that the originally it was intended that the revenue Government is not being defrauded of revenue. required should be met by an increase in the That is all we can say about those provisions. fees for liquor licences, but, after reflection, There is nothing offensive in them: they are the after considering the representations made ordinary provisions found in every Bill which to the Government, it appeared that it deals with the imposition of import duties. As would be less harsh if, instead of imposing a a matter of fact, this particular provision that duty upon one class, upon persons who belonged will be contained in the Bill is not conceived out to what is known as "the trade," we should of the mere consciousness of the draftsman, but place it upon the community as a whole, the is taken from the Ordinance of a neighbouring community of consumers of liquor. In other Colony, the Straits Settlements, almost word words, it was considered more equitable to place for word, the only difference being that it is this duty upon the whole community rather less offensive. We come next to the method by than upon a single individual or class. The which we propose to collect revenue. The result is that the Licences Ordinance, the method of collection will be, shortly, that when measure under which it was proposed to raise goods arrive in the Colony they will be stored revenue, has been withdrawn, and in its place is under bond in the King's warehouse or in brought forward this Bill to impose a duty upon a warehouse specially licensed for the purpose, the importation of spirituous liquors into this unless they are delivered direct from the ship Colony. Sir, the necessity for discovering some to the purchaser, who has paid the duty and fresh source of revenue I need not dwell upon. obtained a permit to take his goods direct from It is readily and generally recognised as a living the ship instead of into a bonded warehouse. necessity in view of the measures which this The goods placed in bond, of course, will remain Colony has taken for the aid and assistance of there until duty has been paid upon them and China in suppressing opium. It is the abandon-provision is made in the Bill by which goods ment of the last of the revenue obtained hitherto from opium, which we have every reason to believe will not come here in such a large volume in the future as in the past. That has compelled those responsible for the finances of the Colony to look about for some source that will give the supply of ready money needed for carrying on the Government of the country, For that source we propose to tap that
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may be removed from bond to bond, from King's warehouse to private warehouse, or vice versa, upon the production of a removal permit. That is practically what will happen with regard Then liquor has to be to imported liquor.
行 am dealt with that is made in the Colony. glad to say there are one or two factories where spirits are distilled, and there is a factory to which we all wish success, at the head of
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deal
on all of us who are subject to it. One or two limitations have been made in the Bill since it was printed and read a first time. There are not many, and I will just mention ore ог two of the more important ones. In the first instance, we have omitted from the "medicated interpretation clause the words wines," because they will be treated as ordinary wines, and therefore subject to the ordinary duties, or else they will come under the defini- tion of denatured wines, wines to which something has been added to make them unfit we come to for use as a beverage. When
with the amount of duty to be propose to have the duty imposed, we on liquors not in bottle at the printed figure, namely, $3.20a gallon, but with respect to liquor imported in bottle we propose to ask the Coun- cil when in Committee to reduce the amount to g2.40, which, taking six bottles to the gallon, would give aduty of 40 cents a bottle. The reason for this discrimination between liquor in wood and liquor in other receptacles is that the former is of much higher proof. Liquor in casks is always in a state of high proof which, to use the tech- nical term, has to be " broken down," reduced "breaking in strength. Regulations as to down" will be made after the Bill has become law. Bottling and reduction can be permitted in bond. We propose, in order to expedite the unloading of vessels, to give power to the keeper, whoever he may be, of the King's warehouse, to have goods taken from the ship without a permit, the keeper of the King's warehouse being a person to whom the revenue may be trusted. It is hoped that this will prevent the delaying of the ship. We understand that desires in that respect will be greatly facilitated by the fact that the Govern- ment will be able to have at its disposal the large godowns of the Kowloon Wharf and Godown Co. and also of Messrs. Holt. will be a new section dealing with the removal of liquor in bond; that is, liquors not for export. If it is desired to remove these liquors from bond to bond, say, from the King's bond to a private bond, that can be done if permission is obtained from the proper officer. We pro pose also to ask the Committee to assent to the reduction of the fee for a licensed warehouse from $1,000 to $500. We also propose to ask the Committee to assent to the principle that no licence fee of any kind shall be charged for storage in a naval or military ware- house. With regard to the proposal which we originally thought seemed necessary, and which some may still think necessary, with regard to the inspection of baggage, we propose to ask the Committee to strike out that clause, without which we trust to be able to make the Bill effective. These, Sir, are about the only differences between the Bill as originally printed, and the Bill as we shall ask the Committee to pass it this afternoon. I believe that we are agreed upon the principle of the Bill. I believe
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