444
From Robert C. Mford, Executive Engineer, P.W.D. & Lute to Secretary for Colonial Affairs
Sir,
Hong Kong, 13th March 1876
I am an eyewitness.
In reply to your request that I should report in writing for your information regarding the manner in which the practical transfer of the Military Reservations was effected in 1869, I beg to state that Colonel de Butts, R.E., having been asked to indicate the exact spot where the Garden Road Boundary Stone was to be placed, did so to Mr. Moorsom, the then Surveyor General. And that, having as Government Inspector of Buildings in the Survey Department received orders to carry out Colonel de Butts' instructions in the matter, I caused to be erected a square granite boundary post, which Colonel de Butts further ordered should be chiselled with the letters and numbers WD.
This was done, and upon completion, I reported the same to Mr. Moorsom. Colonel de Butts approved of the position of the stone and of the marks cut on it, and it was duly registered by myself in red ink in the point marked × on the plans which I saw.
J.M. Price, Esq., Surveyor General.