Unexpected turn of events have put the Public in possession of land which it is very desirable should be owned by the Public, and which never-the-less it would have been thought extravagant to purchase merely as a public acquisition, and which might have passed into objectionable hands and been used for objectionable purposes, if it had not been thus forced into the possession of the Colony.
That is the view taken by myself and Executive Council before whom as well as before the Non-official members of Council, their Excellencies Gibbs and Rowsell were then in town, I laid Your Lordship's despatch and telegram, explaining at the same time the previous correspondence connected with the subject. They felt that provided the ground in question was not purchased as a building speculation by Government, or for a Hospital, but simply with the object to which it was most suited, viz: that of constituting a permanent addition to the general alterations of the City of recreation available by the inhabitants of Hongkong, the money would not be ill spent, though in the present state of the land market the price is high.