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original estimates should be adhered to, If there is any reasonable ground for supposing they are not, it would be well that a statement to that eff at should be made. I had it in myotes, Sir, to refer to the manner in which expenditure n the railway was entered in the fluancial s'atement, or rather, the way in which it had DOL been entered. The original financial state. ment, as placed before the Council, showed a lon of one million, one hundred thousand odd poun s, and against that the sinking fund of £220,000 is entered. As your Excellency ex- plained in your speech, the sinking fand did not exist as that money was being devoted to the rai way. Your Excellency further referred in your speech to the possibility of a further lo n having to be raised, and mentioued the sum of £4500 for interest which, su, posing the new loan is raised on the same terme as the last at 78/- per cent per annum represents the sum of £125,000. I think it would be certainly interes ing if Your bro-ll-ney would ex. plain whether it is probable that an extra sum of this amonut will be asked for. i would sugest that in future proper state- ments should be made of the amount to be expended during the current year in the case of any ve y important public works. At the present moment, owing to the way the estimates are pul before the Council, no one could possibly suppose the Government were engag di an important railway construction. In page 88, und r the somewhat discouraging heading of nou effective and charitable services -I trust that is not prophetic-is mentioned the sum of £,850 on railway cous raction. That is the only reference made in the estimates to the fact that the Government is engaged in a big railway scheme going to cost five or six millions. I regret having detained this honourable Council so long, Sir, but it appeared desirable to make the rem rks that bave occurred to me. There is yet one more subj-ou to which I would refer. In Happy Valley there rest mary who have done good work for the Colony-not only for the Colony, but for the Empire at I rge. And i should be our pride as well as our du y to maintain the monuments erected over them The gardens are really in xcellent order, but many of the graves have been allowed to gradually disa pear into flower beds and shrubberies. I think careful examination of the ground will justify the assertion made. Within the past few years a sum has been set aside for the re-let-ering of graves, and it is not unreasonable to ask that a larger um be voted for the entire restoration of the graves of those who lie there, These include grav-s of all grades fr m the highfficial to the bluejacket and private soldiers who lost their lives through wounds or disease in the service of their country, and also large number of civilians who have done good work for the Colony. I think we shou d keep their memory green by retaining the memorials of those who so generously B. wed where we now resp.
Hon. Mr. OSBORNE Sir, On the evening of 22nd September 1874, to quote fr m Dr. Eitel's History of Hong kong, the severest disa ter that ever befel Hongkong since 1841, was a typhoon of unprecedented suddenness and power, which resulted in business being at a complete stand- still for several days. ver 2000 lives were lost within the space of 6 hours and 3, for-igo ressels, trusting in their anchors, were wrecked or badly injured. The screams of Chinese in distress on the water, were heard by residents on the upper levels of the town, to rise above the terrifio din of the storm. The amount of property destroyed in Hongkong within those six terrible hours was estimated at five million dollars. But very little was done to utilise the lessons taught by this typhoon. Change these figures, Sir, into a duration of two hours, exacting a toll of probably 10, 00 lives with twenty millions worth of property, and Dr: Eitel's picture of 1874 portrays exact y the disaster that b-fel this Colony just over a y ar,
of ago. The purpose my quotation how-ver lies not in raking amongst painful reminiscences, bat to give point to Dr. Eitel's concluding sentence that very li tle was done by the ci izens of that day to profit by the lessons taught them, and I wonder to myself how far the future historian will truthfully pen such words of us. history of Hongkong, Sir, is burdened with
The
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applies a ruthless pruning. To pay for this work the Government proposes, I understand, to draw on the Colony's res....ve, which I think- a pity because reserves should, as a matter of principle, be util sed only as a last resouros, and we are not yet at our last resouro There is for instance under weigh a huge and expensive - aterworks scheme concerni g which it seems to me economy might be effected; and here I disagree with the Hon. M mber for thờ. Chamber of Commerce for assuming the present storage capacity to be sufficient, as I understand the case, to give a moderate allowance per head throughout the dry season, then futher expenditu e од the scheme is uncalled for, antil we have money to spare. The correct solution of this water. problem is, I submit, to allow the Chinese în their houses an unlimited supply daring months of plenty, and to limit them, and indeed non Chinese also, for a much waste goes on
European dwellings 88 in Chinese t street hydrants, during months of scarcity. The funds thus freed from waterworksTM would be available for the typhoon refuge, and I submit, Sir, that on every ground of economy and equity, funds so applied in the protection of life and property are more rightly app ied than in providing a con- stant flow of water for ignorance and stu- pidity to waste. On the question of taxation I again disagree with the Hon. Member. and shall probably find myself at variance with most people. Excepting for the Chinese this Colony is the permanent home of very few; almost all are here in the hope, and with the intention of acquiring sufficient wealth to enable them to quit it for their native land, at the earliest opportunity; the Chinese only differ from the rest in that their homes are so conveniently near that they are able to make use of the place till the day of their death. Hongkong is their place of busin as, the neighbouring mainland their home, and the nearer railway develop. ment brings their home, so much the more will they cease to have inter-st in Hong- kong except as a couning house, workshop or safe deposit. If then such be the case, if the Colony exists purely and simply as a trading centre, then obviously the com-
interests lie ал indecated by. your Excellen y in the direction of in- dustrial evelopment, and seeing that de- velopment in our case is impossible without taxation, then
the com- muuity, in its own interest, is eminently one to be taxed; and this typhoon shelter, as
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PREŠŠ AND
records of these dangerous st rms mesn ing so much to those whose lives are passed проп upon the frail craft that ply the waters of our harbour; 80 much to shipping, the life blood, as we are apt to put it, of a Colony basting the largest tonnage in the world. And what have we, with the lessons of 1874 au subsequent typhoons before us, what have we done to nourish this life blond, to protect the craft so essential to ita being; to preserve the port against the evil reputation of being a dan erous anchorage! From the records of the Observatory now 25 years old, it would be interesting to learn how many times during that period we have suffered actual con- tact with typhoons and how many times they have, so to speak, grazed our door, and the Colony eso-ped by a hair's breadth. And what have we done during those 25 yea s? Absolutely nothing; indeed, worse than nothing, because we have per- mitted the Causeway Bay shelter, built in 1882 by men who, notwithstanding Dr. itel s stric-in tures, w re in this respec batter man than we, we have permitted this shelter to silt up to such an extent, that at low water a large proportio of it is dry land. A year ago public and official opinion were agreed that a
belter was a work of urgent necessity and a new shelter was accordingly decreed, but, a year has gone, Sir, and this work of urgent necessity has apparently not passed the initial stage of plans aud discussion. From your Excellency's re- marks when introducing the estimates I gather that the breakwater is to cost $1,40,000, of which $25,0 0 are provided for next year. The figures, Sir, are ominous; fourteen undred thousand dollars, at $2,000 a year means 56 years to complete, and were it not for your Excellency's promise that more than $25, 00 will be spent if need d, I should be inclined to judge from it beginning, that the end of the scheme was a very loug way off. It has alw ys appeared to me that, considering the modest sum generally available for public works, we spend Too much in the direction of permanenc and grandeur. From the engineer's point of view no doubt the most expensive work is in the long run the cheapest, and it certainly reflects greater credit on its hor; but from the other point of view, that of the community, chafing at delay in the prosecution of mansipal improvements, Imunity's think, although I yield to no man in recognising he value of imposing and substantial public building, I think in our circumstances would profit more were we to utilise what little money we possess rather in satisfying the people's needs tan in gratifying our own natural bat expensive appetite for splendour. The people's most pressing need is this typhoon refuge, and as such the work calls for speedy completion, even at a sacrifice of architectural luxury in other works. We seem to be capable only of extremes. For years we endured ramshackled, insanitary unsuitable markets, it only for the flames: then having funds we indulge in structures like the Central and Western markets, too costly for our purse, unnecessarily good for their purpose. Kowloon asks in vain for a market, for nothing short of a similar building will suffice, whereas in reality $10,000 will give all that is needed. Blake Pier has ever been shelterless except for an occasional matched erected in honour of Royalty or to welcome a new Governor, and so the Public blisters in the sun, because nothing short of magnificence will suffice, when in re lity all that is needed is a small unpretentions covering, oosting $5,0 0. And thus it is with roads. Your Excellenoy bas referred to an industrial future for Hongkong.
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Industrial success,
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phase of d velopment, if not possible under ordinary soure s of revenue, should be paid for by additional taxation. During a rather long residence in the Colony, I have had excep- tional opportunites of coming into contact with the boating population; and though like most humanity their character is a blend of the good and the bad, there is on quality they possess in a marked degree, which has always commanded my deep admiration, and that is their pati-at philosophic bearing under circumstances of trial and suffering. In their name Sir, and apart from the commercial aspect to which I have alluded, in the name of thousands who have already suffered in silence the misery wrought by these destructive storms, I appeal to your Excelleny that there shall be no further delay in giving them the shelter which it is our clear and bounden duty to provide.
The DIRECTOR of Public WORKS-With regard to the remarks of a somewhat severely critical nature which have fallen from my honourable friend opposite, I would offer some Sir, needs cheap land, cheap dwellings for observations. He made a general statement the workers, which in tura necessitate first of all that works were entered in the the opening of new areas by roads. Bat no estimates and carried over without anything` new roads are forthcoming because our policy being done. This statement, unfortunately, is to make spacious drives such as Gascoigne Ws made in general terms, otherwise it might road, 100 feet wide, metalled from kerb to kerb, have been somewhat easier to reply to it. At when the wiser course, it seems to me, would be a matter of fact, in the present year's estimates to plan the 100 foot road, but metal only such
the works which have not been undertaken so portion as is needed for immediate traffic, far are the Tytam Tak scheme, second section, thus permitting expenditure ou other roads which is entered with an estimate of $200, 00;
Branch Post office, Wanchai, $6000; Blake - through undeveloped districts, as should be done in the direction of Lai Chi Kok and Chin Pier Sheltar, $20,000; and resuming and Wan. It may interest your Excellency to know filling in the fish pond at Taipo $9,000. With that no road communication exists with the these exceptions all the works appearing on the ' large suburb of Kowloon known as Sam Sui estimates have been begun. It had been desid- Po. nd so with the Harbour office, Law ed that the second section of the Tylam Tük ourts and Post office, and so I fear will it be sobeme should not be gone on with, and theres with this typhoon abolter unless your Excellency · fore-that-is-suficient reason for not having “