24th Jan. We have received from Hongkong a copy of the " Protest of Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council against alarming increase in cost of Administra tion and with reference to their position and treatment in the Council." It was laid on the table of the Council for record in the minutes, is dated the 13th of December last, and signed by Mr. C. P. Chater, Dr, Ho Kai, Mr. 't! H. Whitehead, and Mr. E. R. Bell It is accompanied by a letter of explanation dated the 12th instant addressed to the Marquis of Ripon, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and bearing the additional signature of Mr. J. J. Bell-Irving.
In this letter the unofficial members ask Lord Ripon to give effect to their protest and advise the Queen to refuse her assent to the Appropriation Ordinance for 1893. hey point out that in the Finance Committee the unofficial members were in a majority, and they decided to lower the salaries of the principal civil servants of the Colony to the scale in force in 1890; that in the Committee of Council the official members were in a majority, and accordingly the salaries in question were restored to the scale in force in 1891 and 1892, and in this shape the Ordinance was passed, assented to by the Governor in the name and on behalf the Queen, and published in the Hongkong Government Gazette, The unofficial members submit that the votes on this ordinance of the official members—each of whom was directly and personally interested from a pect ruary point of view in the rejection of the amendments proposed and supported unanimously by the unofficial members for reduction of salaries generally" were illegal and void, and that the! Ordinance should have been allowed to pass as amended by the unofficial members in Finance Committee. They then give a short history of the increased salaries question, regretting that the colonial government will not accede to their desire that there should be an independent examination into the exceptionally heavy and steadily increas~ ing cost of the administration of the government of Hongkong, The beginning of this history is the high-flown despatch of Governor Des Veoux in October, 1889, to Lord Knuts-ford, in which the actual condition of Hongkong was painted in such brilliant colours, and the most sanguine prognosfications of the future were made. It was at this time, and because house rents had risen so enormously, that the salaries ofthe principal civil servants: sere increased; but it was some time before'Lord Kuutsford consented to the increase; and when the revised scale was introduced into the estimates for ©1891, the "boom" had already collapsed, We need not recapitulate the harrowing details. For six months the payment of the enhanced rates of salary was suspended while the unofficial members were begging Lord Kuutsford to withhold his sanction, " and the Civil Servants were expressly warned by the Unofficial Members."
Governor that if payment was made it would be only for the year, and that the whole question of salaries was open for reconsideration and revision in the next and following annual estimates. Lord Knutsford finally directed the payment for 1891 of the increased rates of salary, on the allegations that house rent for Europeans had increased from 100 to 150 per cent., and for Chinese 100 per cent.
Distinct official caution was given to the officers concerned that it was not to be looked upon as a permanent increase, but as an increase that was open to reconsideration and reduction in the next or any following year, if there was no improvement in the financial condition of the colony." Under these circumstances the unofficial members ask if there is anything inequitable in their wish now to restore the salaries to the old scale; and they go on to show the justification for their wish, We can pass rapidly over the lurid picture, for in Shanghai we know too well what a fall Hongkong has had. Land has gone down and will continue to go down; mercantile houses and banks have collapsed; the trade of Hongkong and the neighbouring Chinese province has shrunk; if the tonnage returns have increased, it has been with no corresponding benefit to Hongkong; the revenue from the opium farm and from subsidiary coinage has fallen, while the general revenue of the colony is not as productive and elastic as it was, and the ordinary expenditure increases needlessly "every year. House rents are lowe: than in1889- 90, and even the Governor recognises the need for retrenchment. Then comes paragraph setting out very forcibly the reasons why any self-respecting person must be very unwilling to be an unofficial member while the present system is unreformed The Unofticial Members beg leave to point out to your Lordship that their position in the Council, and their treatment on many fivaneial questions by the Government and by the Official Members of Council is such that they are compelled to take this step for the protection of the interests of the Colony, and in vindication of their own rights and powers as guardians of the public purse. If any increase of expenditure is proposed locally and it happens to meet with the approval of the Unofficial Members of Council they are consulted and their opinions are cited to your Lordship as justifying the expenditure. It is they who have voted for it. If they disapprove they are too often ignored and given to understand that) their votes and opinions are valueless and that their presence in Council might well be dispensed with, and that it is for the Executive Government and for your Lordship to determine what is necessary and proper.
Ifa demand is made on the public purse for any purpose disapproved of by the Government or not cordially supported, the responsibility of rejecting it is thrown on the Tt may be added that the salaries and personal allowances in 1887 were $547,650, while the estimate for 1892 was about $774,000.
The letter closes with a vey pertinent. request to Lord Ripon—for reasons given—to answer it direct to the unofficial mothhers or to their dover. "The following is the protest in full "We, the undermentioned Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council of Hongkong, both nominated and elected, desire to place on record our unanimous protest against the Appropriation Or-finance for 1898, entitled—An Ordinance enacted by the Gover nor of Hongkong with the advice and consent ut the Legislative Council there: of, to apply @ sum not exceeding Tw millions Tio hundred and Fifty-thousand Three hundred and Secentyfive Dollars to the Public Service of the Year 1893, numbered 12 of 1892 and published in the Hongkong Government Gazette of the 8rd instant as having been passed by this Honourable Council on the 30th day of November, 1892, and as having been assented to by His Excellency the Governor, in the name and on behalf of the Queen, on the 3rd day of December instant.
"We protest against the inclusion in that Ordinance, contrary to the unanimous votes and opinions of all the Unofficial Members of the Council in the Finance Committee and in the Committee of the Council, of large sums for the salaries of the Civil Servants of the Colony in excess of the amoutits voted and approved by all the Unofiicial Members in the Finance Committee and reported to the Coucil, and far in excess of what, in our opinion, are necessary or: the Colony can reasonably afford to pay.
"We protest against the Colonial Secretary and the Official Members of Council voting in Committee of Council, and in Council on the third reading of the Bill, in support of votes for their own salaries in excess of the amounts approved by us in the Finance Committee as reported, "Members of Council are legally incapable of voting on questions in which, ti hey are directly pecuniarily interested. hey are disqualified on principle and by the law of Parliament formally declared in a recent case in England, and we rotest and declare that the votes of the Official Members of Council on the Appropriation Bill, so far ax the question of official salaries was concerned, were null and void and of no effect.
"We claim that the amendments proposed in Committee of Council for the reduction of official salaries to the scale in force in' 1890 were duly carried by a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.