Page:George Bowen 1884 LegCo opening speech.pdf/1



1. It is with feelings of much pleasure and interest that I now open the first Session of the re-constituted Legislature of Hongkong, and have recourse to your advice and assistance in the administration of the Government.

2. It will always be one of the most satisfactory reminiscences of my long public career that I have been able to procure a more adequate representation in this Council of the community at large. I am confident that the Government will derive valuable aid from the local knowledge and experience of the Unofficial Members, and I also believe that you will all agree with me that there neither is, nor ought to be, any antagonism between the Official and the Unofficial element in this Legislature. All the Members alike can have no other object but to secure the general welfare, and to advance the progress of the Colony.

3. For obvious reasons, it is in the highest degree important that this Council should adhere to the constitutional forms followed by the Legislatures of the other principal Crown Colonies. The address of the Governor at the opening of each annual session will contain, here as elsewhere, a general view of the financial and social condition of the Colony, and a statement of the Legislative and other measures, and of the public works proposed. So the address of the Council in reply will afford the Members of the Legislature the usual constitutional opportunity of expressing their opinion of the conduct and proposals of the Government.

4. Further, in accordance with the practice elsewhere, I recommend you to appoint a Committee of Finance (which should be a Committee of the whole Council), a Committee of Laws, and a Committee of Public Works, which should respectively examine in the first instance the details of every proposed vote and measure.

5. After this brief explanatory preface, I will proceed to state generally the principal subjects to which your attention will be directed during the present Session. Full details will be found in the papers which will be laid before you, and in the statements of the several Heads of Departments.

6. In the first place, with regard to the paramount question of Finance, it is very satisfactory to be able to inform you that our position is satisfactory. The Revenue of the year 1883 amounted to $1,286,500; and the Ordinary Expenditure