402
No. 147.
Surveyor General to Colonial Secretary.
SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,
HONGKONG, 17th June, 1890.
SIB,
With reference to your No. 2033 of 6th instant directing me to report for the information of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, on that portion of the Colonial Office Despatch, No. 67, of 18th April, 1890, which relates to Public Works, I have the honour to submit the following observations for His Excellency's information.
2. It will, I think, tend to a better understanding of the subject if I endeavour in the first place to give, as briefly as possible, a short statement of the operations of the Public Works Department from the time I took up my appointment 13 months ago, and of the exceptional conditions under which the Estimates for 1890 were prepared.
3. On my arrival on 18th May, 1889, I was informed by His Excellency the Governor (Sir G. W. DES Vœux) that, many public works which had been sanctioned years ago had not yet been begun, and that the Government desired that arrangements should be made for their early commencement and vigorous prosecution. He further informed me that from a variety of causes the Department was greatly undermanned, and instructed me after I had had time to ascertain the true state of things, to submit proposals for what practically amounted to a re-organization of the Department.
J
4. As regards the Engineering Staff, the condition in which I found the Department was as follows. My predecessor, Mr. PRICE, had been compelled by failing health to resign and leave the Colony two months prior to my arrival. Ample evidence remains of the large amount of work which he personally performed during the latter period of his official career, at a time when he was, I understand, ill-fitted physically to carry on single-handed his onerous official duties. Besides the Surveyor General the technical staff on the Establishment early in 1889 was composed as follows:-
1. Assistant Surveyor General,.
2. 1st Assistant Engineer,.....
3. 2nd do. do.,
Mr. BowDLER.
Mr. ORANGE.
....................Mr. MALSCH.
4. Sanitary Surveyor and Inspector of Buildings, Mr. COOPER.
5. Land Surveyor,...............................
6. Temporary Land Surveyor,
........... Mr. Sampson.
7. Assistant Inspector of Buildings, .....................................
..Mr. DRURY. ..........Mr. Sample.
5. Before my arrival Mr. BowDLER had been relieved of all duties connected with the Public Works Department proper, and had been appointed to the Praya Works, Mr. ORANGE had gone away on a year's leave, and subsequently resigned; Mr. MALSCH was also absent on seven months' leave. Mr. COOPER in addition to his previous duties (which were certainly as much as one Engineer could efficiently perform) had been appointed Acting Surveyor General, and after my arrival acted as Assistant Surveyor General. Mr. SAMPSON resigned his appointment about the time of my arrival. Mr. DRURY and Mr. SAMPLE were at the time young men recently appointed who had hardly the experience necessary to fit them for the more responsible posts that fell vacant. It will therefore be seen that on Mr. COOPER and myself practically devolved the duties of the six principal technical appointments of the Department. To add to our difficulties the great storm of 29th-30th May, occurred ten days after I arrived in Hongkong. Our energies were necessarily directed in the first place to repairing the damage caused by that