The Hongkong papers have quite recently been publishing the increases in pay granted to civil servants there, following upon the consideration by the Colonial Office the recommendations of the li Services Salaries Commission. All the Commission's recommendations, it is stated, were not adopted by the Imperial. Government, but it coa be said that, on the whole, very substantial increases have been made, though -these do not appear to have aroused the general satisfaction which was anticipated. The report of the Commission itself does not appear to have been published, so that how far the Colonial Office stood between the Commission and the Hongkong taxpayer is not at all clear. It is plain, however, that in some instances the authorities were more generous than the Commission, and probably on the whole a very fair level has been struck. The great difficulty which has to be met in these matters is the tendency to compare official salaries with those paid outside the service. Such an attitude is not altogether wrong: but it has to be remembered that whereas a civil servant is sure of a pension at the end of his service," for which he makes no provision. a man in couimerce has to save from his salary to that end, and when that is done the money available for immediate expenditure is very considerably reduced.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.