( 10 )
14. As the Gap Rock is itself 96 feet high, the Light if a fixed one might thus be placed on the roof of the necessary keeper's house, while a flashing Light would require the building of a tower about 30 feet high for the weights of the necessary revolving apparatus.
15. Since writing the above I have ascertained from the Surveyor General, that in consequence of the great saving of cost which would be effected by the substi- tution of a fixed for a flashing light at the Gap Rock, the cost of the two Light- houses would be but not little, if at all, in excess of that originally contemplated for the one.
The Right Honourable
LORD KNUTSFORD, G.C.M.G.,
SIR,
&c.,
&c..
I have &c.,
G. WILLIAM DES VŒUX.
&c.
Enclosure 1.
(A.)
(Sir John Walsham to Governor.)
PEKING, 9th March, 1888.
I had the honour to receive on the 11th of February Your Excellency's Despatch of the 16th of January last bearing upon the long pending question of the erection of a Light-house in the neighbourhood of Hongkong to serve as a guide to vessels approaching from the South.
You inform me that the Government of the Colony, in accordance with the unanimous opinion of the Maritime Experts who have been consulted on the point, has come to the conclusion that the only proper position for the Light is the Gap Rock, and that the display of a Light on any other of the sites which have been suggested would be worse than useless as calculated to create rather than avert danger.
Under these circumstances Your Excellency has requested me to lay before the Chinese Government three alternative proposals for the erection and maintenance of a Light-house on the "Gap" Rock, and you state that in order to facilitate the commencement of the work at an early date, you had submitted the decision of the Colonial Government to Her Majesty's Government and asked that, should it be approved, I might be informed by telegraph and so enabled to lay the matter before the Chinese Authorities without delay.
as
Your Despatch reached me at the commencement of the Chinese New Year, when little or no official business is transacted; but with a view to expedite as far possible a settlement of the question, I placed myself in communication with Sir ROBERT HART, the Inspector-General of Maritime Customs who is charged with the Superintendence of the Chinese Light-house Department, and with his usual courtesy he at once promised to give your proposals his best attention, so that at the expiration of the New Year's holidays he might be in a position to discuss the proposals of the Hongkong Government with the Ministers of the Tsungli Yamên, but he did not disguise from me his fears that it would be almost useless to expect a reply from the Chinese Government in time to permit of the work being commenced by the second or third week in March, the date mentioned by Your Excellency, as in all probability it would be necessary to consult the Viceroy of Canton, within whose jurisdiction the Gap Rock lies.