of that measure.
I have re-established, from the 1st of this month the Situation of "Land Officer" and appointed to it Mr Gordon a gentleman who has just arrived from England and who I have reason to believe is well qualified for the duties which will devolve on him as "Land Officer, Surveyor and Inspector of Roads" in this Colony.
The measures I have taken are that Mr Gordon has been instructed to complete with the least possible delay the main Road - called the Queen's Road - from the Military (or Volunteer) Barracks to the Eastern side of the Tai Ping Shan valley where the proposed Road to Cheung Chau branches off, and this will include the Gap near the Morrison Education Society's Hill. This very important line of Road had been contracted for £293 before I left Stanley to go to the Northward in June last, but the Contractors have failed in their Agreements and the measures to be taken towards those men are now under my consideration.
I shall now further instruct Mr Gordon to put himself in communication with Captain Edwards with a view to their conjointly examining the branch Road from Wong Nai Chung Valley to Cheung Chau and after having surveyed it, forming an estimate of the probable expense to be incurred on it; as should it amount to a very large sum it may be necessary to await instructions from England regarding it.
In the meantime, I will here observe that I do not imagine it will be requisite to have a drain of Masonry along the side of the Road: