CHÍNA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
The subscribers to the Jubilee Fund have rea- son to regret the apathy with which the Jubilee memorials have been treated. If the money is not going to be spent in accordance with the agreement arrived at they will no doubt claim themselves as to the way in which their money is to be expended.
the
497
June 17, 1899.]
continually choked up and even with the most careful attention on the part of Europeans will continue to be. I am convinced that nothing has ever been done or left undone in Hongkong since it was occupied which has caused a fraction of the harm this separate system has. Mr. the right to reconsider their position and decide ||at all. I would rather see the money employed Chadwick did not recommend that the system should be carried out over the whole city, but Mr. Cooper got his theories from books, he followed the standard authorities, and un- fortunately the evil which men do lives after them. Yours faithfully,
Hongkong, 13th June 1899.
THE JUBILEE ROAD.
W.
""
TO THE EDITOR OF THE * DAILY PRESS,'
Sir,-In Mr. Ormsby's report published in the Hongkong Government Gazette of 10th June the following words occur :-
It was hoped that the close of 1893 woull have shown good progress made with the Victoria Jubilee Road. Plans and estimates six miles should have been well in hand, were ready in June and by December, fully but delays such as are apparently insepar- able from all works projected in Hong- kong have blocked the way in this case and the first sod' is as yet unturned. Public Works Department having no end in view but the public good feel much disappointed and disueartened at this apparently unnecessary delay
27
The
'T'o
It is difficult to understand what Mr. Ormsby means by the above statement. whom has the delay been due but the Govern- ment themselves? The resolution approving of the two memorials to celebrate the Jubilee were passed on 26th April, 1897. and the foundation stones of the Hospital and road were laid in June of that year. The survey of the Road was not taken in hand till November, 1897. Whose fault was that Even then it was undertaken by a trilitary surveyor and not by the P.W.Ď. Had the P.W.D. been zealous the survey would have been finished before then and the winter of 1897 would have seen the Roa i well on its way. As a matter of fact the survey was not completed until the summer of 1898 audduring the winter of 1898 no work was done at all. With the above rate of progress it is interesting to compare that at which the railway line to Canton has been surveyed during the last two or three months, and the distance is 125 miles.
With the plague again amougst us and a general craving expressed to let in more fresh air upon China Town it seems a pity that the Government do not give the poor who live ont west a chance of getting some fresh air outside, if their houses do not permit of it when they are at home. There is plenty of good fresh air to be got at the south side of the island. especially at the mouth of the Sulphur Channel, during the summer.
I venture to trouble you on this point as I was in some degree responsible for the idea of the Road as a Jubilee memorial. I am, yours faithfully,
G. STEWART.
Hongkong, 12th June, 1899,
TO THE EDITOR OF THE “DAILY PRESS.” S18-I do not think that many readers will experience the difficulty Mr. G. Stewart has experienced in understanding the remarks in my annual report regarding the Jubilee Road.
2. Before rushing into print Mr. Stewart would have done well to have first made sure of his facts, when he would have avoided several strange errors into which he has fallen.
ber, 1897, I will refrain from referring to any- 3. As I only arrived in Hongkong in Octo- thing which took place previous to that date. The survey o. the Jubilee Road was started by
me within a mouth of my arrival. It was carried out by an officer of the Public Works Department, now one of my Assistent Eu. gineers, who had, it is true, served in the Royal Engineers, but whose connection with the military ceased from the day he joined the Public Works Department.
4. The length of the surveyed trace is 19 miles, and to complete such a trace single- handed, with all the plans, sections, cross-sec- tions, and working drawings, in six months, or at the rate of three miles a month, was, I have no hesitation in saying, au extremely smart piece of work; my experience in such matters I consider making me a better judge on such a subject thun Mr. Stewart. Mr. Stewart's in vidious comparison of this survey with that of the Cauton Railway survey is most unfair. The whole work of the former was done with the theodolite and Dumpy level, the distance accurately chained, and, as stated above, com- plete working plans prepared. I think I am correct in stating that 109 miles of the latter was a mere preliminary survey and recounais- sauce to select the best route for the finished
survey.
5. Mr. Stewart should be aware, if he is not, that General Black most strongly opposed the construction of this road round Mount Davis and made no secret of it. It understood that the Military Authorities now are of the same opinion.
6. Is it possible that Mr. Stewart is ignor- ant that the large permanent building so pro- minent at Kennedytown is the Plague Hospital and that the temporary mat-sheds are the property of the Tang Wai Hospital for the use of Chinese patients who prefer native treatment and but very seldom used
I maintain that to construct a road close below the Permanent Plague Hospital and the over- orowded plague .cemetery and along Mount Davis to another crowded plague cemetery at Sandy Bay would be a grave mistake and enough to damn the road to all seekers of fresh air and enjoyment. level
It is difficult to attach much weight to the whispered military objection, as our late Gen. eral assisted at the Jubilee proceedings and said nothing in the way of disapproval. He, 'further, administered the Government for some months after the departure of Sir William Robinson and made no objection of any kind to the Jubilee memorials. It is well to bear in mind that in 1891, when the seR road was considered and only not brought t a successful issue owing to want of money, the military authorities then not only raised no objections, but approved of it; and our fleet out here is a much stronger fleet than ever it was before.
As regards the objection that folks would have to pass the plague hospital, it is ouly fair to suppose that we will see the plague hospital considerably altered by and by. It is good enough as an emergency hospital, but if we are to have annual epidemics the flimsy mat-sheds in use at present must give place to something more solid and substantial which people could pass by as they do any other hospital. A good typhoon may at any time remove the mat-sheds and it is to be hoped for our own reputation as a humane people that the sheds are not full of suffering Chinese.
The Jubilee Road as proposed is in a certain measure a hygienic artery for this very crowded towr and as snch alone is worthy of considera- tion.
cannot see what objection any subscriber can user road | have to the other end of the road being com-
menced first. If the War Office say t cannot be made round Mount Davis there is an end of it. Personally I do not yearn for a road in building that much neeled institution a new Post Office, or I would like some of it used for present removing the Clock Tower from its p site to the head of the Pedder's Wharf, and a fine lofty granite tower erected, and a set of chimes pat in it with the clock. That would be at once useful and ornamental, and the exist- ing obstruction to traffic would be swept away.
But as, I imagine, the majority of the sub- scribers want a road, why, let it be made and made at once, so that some enjoyment may be biking." The extension of the road from got out of it by those whose present craze is Shankiwan could be proceeded with at once, and no more time ought to be lost. The Hospital ought also to be built without farther delay. The money is there; why delay further ? I protest, however, most emphaticaly against the money being employed in cutting a road which few would use right through the Chinese come- teries. Rather than that I would prefer to it used in developing the Hinterland, though I hold strongly the opinion that Loan should be raised for that purpose.—Yours,
ROADSTER.
800
&c.,
Hongkong, 15th June, 1899,
THE NEW FRONTIER AND KOWLCON CUSTOMS STATIONS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PREKS.
SIR,-There is so much absurd secrecy as to the future frontiers of this colony, and the which the taking over of the new territory was results of the hole-in-the corner fashion in arranged (resulting in the farcical tragedy of the past few months) were such proof of the want of grasp of the situation on the part of those responsible for the settlement of this important question, that I venture to throw a little light on what seems to be another bungle and a throwing away of a most favourable opportunity to settle the question once and for ever on a reasonable basis. If the natural and simple solution is followed of declaring that the whole of the Sunon District is now to become British territory it will sweep aside every pos- sibility of questious of blockade by Customs than anything else to obviate Chinese official in- cruisers, of this port. arising, and also tend more terference with our new Chinese subjects. I have it on good authority that the Kowloon Customs (by the way. is Kowloon still Chinese territory ?) are about to locate their two principal stations
*#
at Chekwan, ou the peninsula forming Deep Bay, and at Tooniang, an island commanding Mirs Bay. Foreseeing that, should. the local British authorities come to their senses, they may be called upon to remove from points con- trolling the British waters of Deep Bay and Mirs Bay, these stations are at present to be uf a temporary nature, but should the British lion prove to have returned to its normal drowsy verted into permanent depôts for the re mood these two points of vantage will be con throttling of the trade of the colony and the
wartshould have the full credit of having evolved
7.-I am more thau willing that Mr. G. Ste-coercing of the Hongkong Chinese. the idea of a level bicycle road round the Island as a fitting memorial of Her Majesty's Jubilee, and hope sanction may be obtained to carving his name on the memorial stone planted at the base of the cliffs below the plague cemetery.-I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient ser. vaut,
R. D, ORMSBY. Director of Public Works.
Pablic Works Office,
Hongkong, 14th June, 1899.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE
DAILY PRESS.
"3
SIE,As a subscriber to the proposed Mem- orials in this Colony of the Queen's Diamond | Jubilee I am in entire sympathy with Mr. Gershom Stewart in desiring that the Memorials should take form. Seeing, however, that the cost of the section of the proposed road round the base of Mount Davis is to prove so excessive that it would virtually use up the funds I
|
There likewise seems, according to present prospects, a strong proba bility of about being l left balf the shores of these two bays as Chinese territory, in which case we would, when quieter times favour it, have Chinese gun- of the villages there, on business, constantly boats and cruisers, ou the plea of visiting some dropping in to anchor and utilizing the facili ties thereby offered to carry on intrigues inimi. cal to British rule.
The Suuon District is divided from the Tung- koon District aud the Waiohow District by distinct range of high hills or mountains, the line dividing the two water sheds, north and south, being easily seen on the map, and this the nature poninsula dividing Mirs Bay from
boundary. If this boundary adopted Bias Bay falls in British territory and whole of the shores of both Deep Bay Mire Bay likewise become British, thus visting the danger above referred to of trigues on the part of Chinese off Further, the valley in which Sunon city,