508 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 17тп NOVEMBER, 1877.
13. I have made with deep interest an examination of the waste lands of this Colony capable of being wooded, and which are unfit for any better use. Freely excluding paddy-fields, meadows, and all ground cultivable for food or other productive purposes, as also foreshores, tidal swamps and all places too rocky, or otherwise unable to support vegetable life, I find the sites available for trees comprise about ten thousand acres.
14. Looking to the exposure of most of these sites to the force of the North-East monsoon, and especially to the action of typhoons, it would be necessary to plant the young trees somewhat thickly, so as to enable them to shelter one another; not less than four should be planted to every hundred square feet, or in other words 1,740 trees to the acre. For ten thousand acres then, we would require over seventeen million trees, and if our planting operations were continued at their present tortoise speed, viz., at the rate of 15,000 trees a year, it would take us eleven hundred years to complete the job.
15. But, although feasible, it may perhaps be, too much to aspire to ten thousand acres of woods. I will, therefore, reduce my figures at once to five thousand acres, an area one third of which may be planted during the term of His Excellency's Administration without entailing any very serious outlay or throwing upon the Department over which I have the honour to preside any additional work which it may not grapple with if assisted, in the proper seasons, by hired or convict labour.
16. Before proceeding further, I should explain that one of the reasons why planting has been hitherto conducted upon such a sorry scale in this Colony, is to be found in the smallness of the Government tree nursery at Sokonpò, which will not hold more than fifteen thousand seedlings, and which is, therefore, unable to accommodate one year's sowing and the preceding year's trees at one and the same time. This will be the more readily understood, when it is borne in mind that the process of transplanting, partly dependent on the weather, extends sometimes over two months, and that owing to the young plants being still in their beds often as late as March, there is no ground available in which to sow the seeds that should be already germinating in February. For this reason, for instance, no seeds were gathered or sown by Mr. FORD, the gardener, in 1876, and there will, therefore, be no trees to plant next spring, a circumstance sufficiently mortifying.
17. A second though subordinate reason is the inadequacy of the present staff. If our operations are increased, it will not however be necessary to add very largely to the number of permanent foresters, journeymen coolies can be taken on and dismissed as occasion may require; the cost of these and six additional Foresters is given in the Estimate appended.
18. I had at one time feared that the difficulty of getting enough seeds might prevent our sowing as many as half a million each season, but the result of enquiries on this point is satisfactory. Taken at a prudently low estimate, I find the island and neighbouring islets will yield enough fir cones alone for that number of plants, while my correspondents at Amoy and Foochow advise me that fir cones are also procurable in those places. From Canton, I have not yet sufficiently reliable data to say whether seeds are to be easily had there, but I see no reason why they should not be. At all events, all doubt as to the sufficiency of seeds is now dispelled.
19. To turn out as many as five hundred thousand trees every spring, a nursery containing 14 or 15 acres would be required, also the annual services of sixty coolies for one month to collect seeds, as well as sixty coolies for two months to dig holes, to wrap and bind the plants with straw, and to convey them from the nursery to their destinations. In addition to this, the services of six permanent Foresters to act under the Head Forester as already stated would be necessary to keep the nursery in order.
20. Having as far back as the administration of Sir HERCULES ROBINSON disposed of all farm lands within easy distance of the City, the Government unfortunately does not now possess any ground available for a nursery, and for this purpose, it would be necessary to have recourse to a Government resumption of private land. There are some sufficiently large paddy fields at Sokonpò, the property of Mr. GEORGE DUDDELL, and registered in the Land Office as Farm Lots Nos. 1, 2 and 5, which would suit, and which I think the owner would part with not very unwillingly, as he does not appear ever to have turned them to much account. I assess their value at $762.75, and would advise their being re-entered by the Crown. I am fain to recommend this course only after a fruitless search for suitable nursery sites elsewere.
21. In addition to the outlay in its acquisition, the cost of draining and preparing the nursery, and purchasing seed and materials, will be $1,299, making a total prime cost of $2,061.75, while the succeeding yearly expenditure in labour and material will not exceed $1,610.00, a figure sufficiently moderate, I trust, to recommend the project to His Excellency the Governor's favourable consideration.
22. If not inconsistent with future Gaol Regulations, it might be possible to reduce the estimate by employing long-sentenced convicts, or those whose term of punishment has already passed from the acute to the reformatory stage, to till the nursery, dig holes on the hill side and to carry trees, in which case item 4 and half of 6 in the appended Estimate might be struck out and the prime cost reduced to $1,436.75, while at the same time the yearly outlay might, by means of the same assistance, be brought down to $650 as shewn in the Estimate.
23. During the first two years, the places to be planted out would be sufficiently close in to town to allow of convict labour, if available, being employed with safety, and I think it will be time enough when the plantation sites shall have receded to greater distances to consider the advisability of continuing the work with hired coolies. Independently, however, of the class of labour to be used, it is of great importance that the tree nursery itself should be in some district immediately suburban so as to ensure its efficient supervision by myself and my officers.