works, drainage, Compensation res, it must have cover about one eighth
some prospect of obtaining revenue, and I need
not
say
that it is not to be had from a few
hundred acres
in the
rear;
of garden ground, or the Villages the people of Hong Kong will not
Submit to be taxed for the Maintenance of Kowloon if no advantage accrues to them by its acquisition other than the small strip of sea coast which will
have to be reclaimed at a heavy expense, and not
A
single point on the S. and W. Coast above the
sea level of any sort or kind whatever. The East
Coast is unavailable for European ships
and
the land in the rear low and flat and consequently
unsuited for English
residences or Godowns.
any
I am, therefore, of opinion that in development of Kowloon, if Mercantile and
Colonial interests are to be considered at all,
part of that sea board
in front of War Department land which it is recommended should be applied to Mercantile purposes. A small additional piece of ground is required either
as a reserve for Military buildings or for a naval Hospital but not for both purposes; and this is the only real addition. The deduction from the Original demand is the entire sea board, very nearly
(sd) G. F. Macpherson
a clear sea
435
frontage of the South and West Coast is requisite, (the wants of the Navy, of course,
being complied with,) and some portion, however
small, of the high ground in the rear, so that the sea board and land above may be in some
measure connected, and not so as to entirely isolate the strip of
Coast
from the rest of the Peninsula and thus repeat the fatal
error of Victoria, by
establishing the Cantonment in the very
centre
of the area devoted to the town, cutting off the Communication by the sea face; occupying
that
face, not required for Military purposes, - and which was, and would be now, of great value to the Colony; and in fact dividing the
Town into two distinct portions to the manifest
detriment of the smaller.
This injury to Victoria might have been