HONGKONG.
No.
MINUTE ON THE PEAK TRAMWAY BILL BY THE SUPERINTENDENT, BOTANICAL AND FORESTRY DEPARTMENT.
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor, May 27th, 1909,
Hon. Colonial Secretary,
In accordance with instructions I submit the following notes on the proposed new cable tramway to the Peak districts. It is now six years since the question of allowing a new cable trainway from the town to the Peak to be constructed partly through the Public Gardens began to be considered by the Government; during that time four distinct pro- positions have been put forward in the endeavour to devise a compromise by which as little damage as possible should be done to the very beautiful surroundings of the Public Gardens and Glenealy Ravine, while ou the other hand a conveneint route might be provided for the construction of the line. The four alternative routes were (1) a tunnel under the Gardens (2) a line on the surface of Glenealy Ravine (3) a line on high trestles in the Ravine (4) a wide cutting through the Public Gardens. The fourth, which was the first scheme proposed, is that now before you. It is the very worst of them all from the point of view of damag to the Gardens and in my capacity as Superintendent of the Botanical and Forestry Depart- ment I have felt it to be my imperative duty from the first to protest against it.
My position has throughout been supported by the conviction that the promoters, in their anxiety to secure the concession of a second route to the Peak have overlooked or at any rate not adequately considered the limited number of those whom the tramway is intended to benefit compared with the immense mass of what may be called the intelligent middle classes of Chinese and Portuguese who would suffer in a special degree if the tram were run in this way through one of the most important section of the Public Gardens. In order to bring this aspect of the case more prominently before you I would ask you to remember in the first place that our city is, in consequence of the great demand on the limited amount of ground available for building purposes, unusually devoid of public open spaces or even of private gardens and that access to the open country on either side of Victoria cannot be gained except through suburbs densely crowded by the poorer classes of Chinese, so that the Public Gardens, situated as they are in the centre of the residential district, form a priceless possession to the residents of the city of Victoria, by whom indeed they are more or less crowded all the year round. In addition to this the Gardens are very small, some thirteen acres only in all, and no further ground is available for extending them in any direction, nor is there any probability that there ever will be. It is doubtless in consequence of these considerations that Government after Government has resisted all temptations to part with any of this area for building purposes, for which its value must be very high. The city is yearly growing in size and importance, the Gardens are certainly more popular than they were five years ago and they may at any time again become the favourite resort of the English community also, as they used to be.
But apart from the general question of the encroachment by which some 50,000 square feet out of this small area will be made absolutely useless to the frequenters of the Gardens I would desire to emphasise the detriment which would be caused to the beauty and seclu-