He succeeded, indeed, in increasing the revenue by the sale of Crown-land, principally marine lots. He was aided in this respect by the surrender (in 1854) of the ground at Westpoint previously occupied by the Navy Department for stores which were removed to Praya East. Sir John succeeded in doubling the revenue within the five years of his administration and the last year of it, when compared with the revenue of the last year of his predecessor, presented an increase of £37,776. But he could not keep the expenditure within the limits of the revenue, although he restrained public works as much as possible. Consequently he had to fall back once more upon Parliamentary grants, obtaining £10,000 per annum for the years 1857 and 1858. These grants were made for hospital and gaol buildings. But by an advantageous exchange with the Rhenish and Berlin Missions he obtained a new hospital at little cost, and by reducing the proposed limits of gaol extension he made some further savings, so that the greater part of the Parliamentary grants, laid out at interest, could be left to accumulate for the purposes of his great Praya scheme, which however broke down at the last moment. After raising the police rate to 10 per cent., Sir John reduced it again (in 1857) to 8½ per cent., only to find that it after all proved insufficient to pay the cost of the police and gaol departments owing to the extra expenses caused by the disturbances consequent upon the Arrow War. In spring 1858, Sir John stated that he had intended to claim from the Chinese Government compensation for the increased expenditure caused by the disturbed state of the neighbouring Districts, but that the appointment of Lord Elgin had taken the power out of his hands. As a matter of fact, the Colony never received any compensation when the accounts between England and China were settled at Canton, at Nanking or Tientsin. The Imperial Exchequer appropriated in each case the whole amount of war compensation paid by China. Sir John deserves credit for having initiated the practice of depositing the surplus funds of the Government in local chartered Banks, paying interest, instead of leaving large sums of money lying idle in the vaults of the
