Revenue and Expenditure
319. Water accounts were, as usual, sent out quarterly and supplementary and miscellaneous accounts rendered as due. Approximately 191,241 water accounts were dealt with compared with 171,000 in the previous year. The water rates at $0.80 per unit of 1,000 gallons for trade and domestic supply and $2.00 per unit for shipping and construction purposes remained unchanged.
KAI TAK AIRPORT DEVELOPMENT
Consulting Engineers, Messrs. Scott & Wilson, Kirkpatrick & Partners.
320. The contract for the first stage in the development of the new airport was awarded on 2nd August to the Societé Française d'Entreprises de Dragages et de Travaux Publics, with Messrs. Gammon (Malaya) Ltd. as their main Sub-contractors. The division of work between these two firms provided for all dredging operations and the construction of the low half of the seawalls to be undertaken by the Societé Française, and for Messrs. Gammon (Malaya) Ltd. to construct the upper half of the walls, the pavements and the drainage, and to excavate the Kowloon Hills in the approach to the new runway. Government appointed Mr. A. W. C. Villiers as Chief Resident Engineer for the scheme, with Mr. H. D. Butterworth as Resident Engineer in charge of marine works, and Mr. G. Wilson as Senior Assistant Resident Engineer in charge of land works.
321. From August to January the Contractors were engaged in building up their organization of personnel and plant and undertaking preliminary work. The plant came from a variety of sources—two large bucket dredgers and a floating crane were towed from Southern France; a fleet of 9 tugs, 10 barges and 4 pontoons were fabricated in Hong Kong dockyards; the machinery for a grab-dredger and two cutter-suction dredgers were shipped from the U.S.A.; a fleet of tipping lorries was shipped from England and bodies for these were fabricated in Hong Kong; excavators, bull-dozers and a variety of other plant came from Singapore, England and the U.S.A.; another floating
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