June 7, 1909.]
held that "until China has properly initiat- ed a currency in accordance with economic principles, no proper agreement is even possible, and it is always probable that if one were entered into it would be evaded or abrogated, according as the profit therefrom might accrue to the authorities concerned. The Government might now consider whether the experience of the past eighteen months has not fully confirmed this view.
THE PROPOSED NEW PEAK TRAMWAY,
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
other practicable route to the Peak with the same prospert of the enterprise proving remunerative, and the rejection of both thes proposals would therefore mean the abandon. ment of the undertaking, since the tunuel scheme appears to be regarded by the Directors of the Company as quite out of the question.
A NECESSARY EVIL,
(Daily Press, June 2nd.) We pointed out yesterday how matters appear to stand in regard to the projected new tramway to the Peak. Sanction must be obtained from the Government either for the line to be carried up the Glenealy Ravine on trestles, or for it to pass in a cutting across the western end of the new garden The Works Committee has recommended the rejection of the trestle scheme, and we have been asked what there is that can be said in favour of the encroachment on the Public Gardens. There certainly are two opinions on the subject. Mr. DUNN, the Super. intendent of the Botanical and Forestry Department, has said all that there is to be said against this encroachment, but, seeing that the promoters are practically restricted to this route, it will be for the Legislative Council to say whether Mr. DUNN's argu- ments are so entirely convincing as to war- rant the rejection of the Works Committee's recommendation that this route through the Gardens should be adopted. We share the view that Mr. DUNN has attempted to prove
the opinion of the Works Committee there is " great need for additional facilities for reaching the High Levels and the Hill District" and we think that fact will be generally admitted. If it were not so patent, the new tramway would never have been proposed, for when men put their money into an enterprise they do so with some confidence of seeing an early return on the capital invested. Either the need for these increased facilities for reaching the higher levels has to be ignored by the Gevernment or approval must be given (1) to the cutting through the gardens; or (2) to carrying the (Daily Press, 1st June.)
line on trestles up the ravine, a proposal The Legislative Council has week by week which, in consequence of the opposition it been postponing the consideration of the has evoked from the Roman Catholic com- new tramway route to the Peak in the hope, munity, the Works Committee has recom- perhaps, that some evidence might be forth.mended the Council to reject. There is no coming of the public interest in the matter. An able Minute by Mr. DUNN, the Super- intendent of the Botanical and Forestry Department, has been published strongly protesting against the new tramway being carried through the Public Gardens, by means of a wide cutting. Four alternative routes were orginally suggested, viz (1) a tunnel under the Gardens; (2) a line on the surface of Glenealy Ravine; (3) a line on high trestles in the Ravine; and (4) a wide cutting through the western end of the new Public Gardens. At the annual meeting of shareholders of the Peak Tramways Com- pany on Saturday the Chairman mentioned that the Directors had from the first objected to the tunnel route because of the enormous outlay involved. To Route No. 2 the objections are so obvious that it does not appear to have been seriously advocated. The Roman Catholic community has strong ly objected to the third proposal because of the noise which would be created by trams running over high iron trestles so near to their principal place of worship, and in this objection they have been unanimously supported by the Works Committee of the Legislative Council who have recommended the Council to refuse approval of this proposal. With the same unanimity, low- ever, they recommended that Proposal No. 1 (the open cutting through the Public Gardens) is the best, and should be adopted, the damage done to the Gardeus not being, in the opinion of the Committee so serious as to justify its rejection." Now, two months after the submission of this
too much in his minute. There is a con- Report, the Superintendent of the Botan-siderable amount of "honest exaggeration nical and Forestry Department, has been required by the Government to state his views on the proposal. That this official would be strongly opposed to the idea of a tramline running through any portion of the Public Gardens was a foregone conclu- sion, and the value of the Minute which Mr. DUNN has submitted consists in the argu- ments on which bis protest is based. The proposal now under the consideration of exaggeration the Government means, he says, the sacri- fice of 50,000 square feet of garden space and the destruction of
one of the best collections of palms and other trees in the world," not one of which, we are told, can be transplanted, in consequence of their size and age, and even if their removal were, possible there would be no space available for their reception. That is a strong argu- ment from the point of view of the botanist, and while the public may not be able to estimate the collection which is menaced at its proper scientific value, they are well able to appreciate its exceptional beauty and would much regret its destruction. The question therefore is briefly this: Would the public utility of the proposed line fully compensate for the sacrifice of public garden space and the destruction of the rare collec tion of palms and shrubs it involves? In
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in his statement of the case against the proposed route, and in view of the fact that the question is one of considerable interest at the moment, it occurs to us that it may be useful to present "the other side of the case" embodying our own views and others which we have heard expressed on the subject. In the first place we have beard it suggested that a little honest is shown in writing of the proposed routs as " through the Public Gardens, " which is probably misleading to many people. To be precise, it was never contemplated that the new tramway to the Peak would run “through the Public Gardens", but only skirt the western edge of what for a long time was called "the New Gardens, the Public Gardens proper by the public which are separated from read to the Albany, the higher parts of Hongkong city and the Peak. These new gardens, made out of the site of Duddel's Coffee Garden, which had a large residence on it, are probably not oue-third the size of the Public Gardens proper, to which they, indeed, form an additional means of access; and as such, it may be pointed out, they would afford a most convenient sive for a station, enabling people living lower down to have easy access to Gardens, besides giving
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those living above them better facilities for getting to or from the town. Mr. Dunnin Lis Minute says his position throughout has been supported by the conviction that the promoters in their anxiety to secure the concession of Peak have "overlooked, or at any
a second route to
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 it the tram were run in this way through one of the most important sections of the Public Gardens." It is not easy to fo low this argument. Does Mr. DUNN mean that an "immense mass" of people frequent this part of the Gardens? If so it will be news to many who are familiar with the place. But the point we wish to make, as against the argumentadvanced by Mr. Dunn, is that the tramway would provide an easy means of access to the Gardens, and would be likely to increase the popularity of the Gardens among all classes of the com- munity. It is admitted by the Superinten- dent that the Gardens are not pow the favourite resort of the English community that they used to be, but he suggests the possibility of European residents again making them a favourite resort at any time. Surely nothing would better serve to promote that thau the easy means of access from the Queen's Road that a cable tram- way would provide. We cannot see that
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the intelligent middle classes of Chinese and Portuguese "would suffer "in a special degree" if the trams ran through the western portion of the new gardens as proposed; on the contrary, a far larger number might confidently be expected to share in the bene- fits now enjoyed by the comparatively few. A tram station in a corner of the Gardens would, we venture to think, be regarded by
the Gardens. most people as a direct inducement to visit
The next point in Mr. Dunn's Minute is the detriment which would be caused to the beauty and seclusion of the Gardens by this particular kind of encroachment." Some sacrifice of beauty is certainly in- volved, but does not the Works Committee represent the view of the public generally when it say that the damage involved to the Gardens is not so serious as to justify of the rejection of the route"? As to the "seclusion' argument, Mr. DUNN says:- "The noise made by a cable tramway must be well known now to every resident; the rattling of the wheels over which the cable runs can be heard far from the present line, and it is through the part of the Gardens most remote at present from noisy roads, that it is proposed to run these trams." A sufficient comment on this is provided by the fact that all the houses, the two churches and a hospital along the existing line have. been built since the tram line has been in operation, and probably more building in that neighbourhood has only been prevented by lack of sites.
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While we are aware that two blacks never yet ma le a white, it is worth mentioning
western that if the tramline were laid through the corner of the Gardens, Hong. kong would not re the only place in the world where such a thing has happened. Does not Edinburgh afford a striking example? There the railway with several lines of rails, and with locomotives burning smoky coal, passes right through one of the most beautiful gardens of one of the most picturesque cities of the world. Sentiment has been sacrificed to practical utility there to a much greater extent than is demanded in Hongkong,