Improving
and extending
communica- tions.
Efficient transport
cheap fares.
service and
British
residents on middle levels of Island.
Peak Tramway.
110
Sub-Head (2)-Improvement and Extension of Communications
with Outlying Districts.
* 19. As steps towards the opening up of undeveloped areas, in order to increase housing accommodation, and to ease the congestion in the crowded parts of the City, we recommend that prompt action be taken by the Government-
(1) To speed up the completion of the road from Wongneichung Gap to Repulse Bay, which will halve the distance from the City of Victoria to Repulse Bay, and will also open up good building sites between Wongneichung Gap and Repulse Bay.
(2) To push on with the projected motor-roads in the Kowloon
Peninsula.
(3) To construct as soon as possible a tramway from Stone Nullah Lane to Wanchai Gap in order to open up the Mount Cameron district which, we understand, will provide sites for some 60 separate houses. These sites should be marked out on a plan which should be published by the Public Works Department. (This neighbourhood cannot, in our opinion, be adequately dev- eloped by motor traffic, because—
(i) Many residents have not sufficient means to enable them
to keep motor cars;
(ii) Motor traffic cannot (to quote the words of H.E. the Governor at page 137 of the Hongkong Hansard for 1921 with reference to this Wanchai Gap Tramway) supply the "necessary cheap and rapid transit at re- gular intervals to a central point ", besides being liable to stoppage in heavy rains; and
(iii) Such a tramway will tend to relieve the Peak Tramway.
(4) To provide tram-services in Kowloon and its foothills.
(5) To encourage the extension and improvement of motor-bus services.
in Hongkong, Kowloon and the New Territories.
(6) To provide improved ferry-services to both sides of the Kowloon
Peninsula, and to Cheungchau.
(7) To arrange, if possible, for a reduction of ferry-fares. If existing ferry companies cannot be induced to reduce their charges, reduction of fares should be made a condition for the renewal of current concessions, or for the grant of new concessions.
* 20. In connection with the improvement and extension of the tram, ferry and motor-bus services, we think that the Government should aim at efficiency and cheap service rather than at raising revenue.
21. As regards recommendation (3) in paragraph 19, the Commissioners see a state of affairs rapidly approaching on the middle levels of Hongkong Island, which is of a serious character from the point of view of diminishing the present accommodation available for British residents. Kingsclere' has recently been purchased by a Chinese syndicate with the result that some 50 to 60 British residents will shortly be rendered homeless. It seems likely, too, that other boarding-houses in the neighbourhood of Kingsclere', which are occupied mainly by British guests, will, when the Rents Ordinance lapses, cease to exist. Under these circumstances the obvious remedy is to look for outlets for building on the higher levels; and the. Mount Cameron district, when opened up as suggested in paragraph 19, will be a suitable place for the purpose.
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* 22. Whilst we wish to congratulate the Peak Tramway Company upon the relief to the Peak traffic afforded by the recent inauguration of several non-stop trams, we would recommend, in the interests of the dwellers on the