Occasion has also been taken by the Press to refer to the heavy burden which so. small a Colony Hongkong has to bear in the way of oficial salaries "and: pensions. The former now total about $11,000,000 yearly, while pensions absorb more than tio millions and. are bel added to every year. Th half of the Colony's revenue lowed up in these two items, while Military Contributions to the Imperi Government amount to a further four millions per annum. Apart from liberal salaries, civil. servants the age of 50 years, while among the privileges which they enjoy are re sidence, partly furnished, at seven er, cent, of their salaries, contrasted with from 20 to 30 per cent, paid by the average resident of the Colony. Moreover, extra taxation has been imposed to meet the Government salary billy and although civil servants admittedly bear their proporion of this increased taxation, they have compensating advantages which the ordinary resident does not enjoy. It. ts recalled, also, that the com: mittee which recently enquired Into the finances of the Hongkong University (on which the Government represented) approved continuation ct the ten per cent, reduction to which the staff is subject. Apparently what is sauce for the University loose is not sauce for the Govern. ment gander.
The general feeling of the publio ig that Government servants are too Numerous and are overpotd, resulting.
the cost of administration being fay heavier than the Colony can be Yeasonably expected to bear, General reaction may be summed up in the comment of one newspaper who remarked: "The community. does not wish to deny the Civil Service ¢air, even comfortable, conditions; but it wants the Government to appreciate more fully that the taxpayer also has his problems, specially gs taxation is indirest—and it wants the problems of both parties merged, that being the essence of government for the peopl The question of the compulsory pasteurization of mille has again come fo the fore in consequence of the Government's decision to hold -1n abeyance its previous resolve to Tegistate along these nes." Reasons given for the deferment of the step fare the fact that a special investigation Into the subject, so far as the United "Kingdom is' concerned, faking place at Home, and that the British-owned Dairy Farm, the biggest suppliers in Hongkong, is now selling no unpasteurized mille, It was intended, following the recent outbreak of infantile dysentery, which took a heavy toll of young European lives, to bring pasteurization into effect next year, a step which was strongly advised' by Dr. A. A, Wellington, Director of Medical Services, who gave emphasis to the ined by elting the case of Toronto, where compulsory pasteurization is force. "It it be necessary," said Dr. Wellington, "to safeguard the purity Jot mile in Toronto by compulsory pasteurization, it is many times more necessary. in Hongkong."
"The fact that, In spite of this advice, the Government has now de. folded to wait the results of the United Kingdom inquiry. before definitely, imposing its own law: has been the subject to caustic comment, both feditoriatly and in the correspondence feolumng of the Press. Conditions in England and in Hongkong are, itis [said, not comparable except by the widest stretch of an elastic mind—"some such elasticity," to use the Jwords of one journal, "as enables the Government to make up its mind tone day and change it the next." It fis conceded that small Chinese dairy es: would find It dificult to meet the Joost of modern pasteurization plants, four the stand is taken that so, long as these dairies are able to operate on the present basis—one writer says! that he has never seen such poorjelass dairy animals or such crude dairy arrangements as are to be found thee establishments—so long. will the public be exposed to the danger let another major outbreak of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.