¡ considered.***
Hou, W. KESWICK-I have been much in- terested in the statement your Excellency hus made on the subject, but at the same time, t cannot bust express my regret that in fixing the' ine of the repairs the Praya has not been' xtended. Donbtless a very great advantage would have been gained if that line of Praya which the memorialists mentioned had been extended. I don't say the number of feet, bat certainly greatly extended from the present line. The amount of traffic on the Praya rendors it sometimes difficult to pass. Cargo is landed there as if it wore a public quay and along all parts of the Praya inconvenience results. I can- not but feel the weight of the statoments your Excellency has made, but at the same time I cannot but regret that in a work costing so much money and calculated to be of a permanent char: acter, the extension should not have been made.
Hon. II. Lowcock-May I ask if the Surveyor- General will state if the works that have been commenced and are almost approaching comple- tion are being carried out at all ou the scale re commended by the Commission that sat four years ago. There is an impression that that! scheme has been considerably modified and it would be interesting if the Surveyor-General could give us information. The extension of the Praya in some parts suggested by the Commis- sion amounted to ten feet and different styles of, work were recommended for different portions. The sobome proposed was sanctioned in 1871 and in 1870 a vote was passed for it, which was after- wards altered, as your Excellency informed us, and Ithink it would be well if some information could be given as to the work at present being carried out.
The ACTING COLONIAL TREASURER I re- gret, sir, that my hou, friend on the left (Mr. Lowcook) did not give notice of his question as I would then have been prepared with a more satisfactory statement. As it is I can only go into generalities and inform the Council that the; history of the Fraya has undergone great vicis- situdes. There has been a constant interchange of dispatches, drawings, and designs with the Colonial Office, and unfortunately Her Majesty's consulting engineer has frequently been absent from England during the last few years, in Natal, Ceylon, and Australia, which caused great delay. and ultimately we
have had to pat up with the advice of the second engineer, professional advice not a whit the less valuable, but which might have been given in 1875 instoud of 1878. The plans have undergone such a material change as to be no longer recognisable. To mention only one item, they necessitats the employment of an ex. tremely expensive material, Portland cement, where I, from my local knowledge, had recom-” mended China lime-conerate, the cost of which is cheaper by three to one than Portland cement. And the foundations are no longer to be based on stones thrown in. but on piling and Portland ¡cement. When it is considered that every barrel
of Portland cenoví imported via the Suez Canal.. Feosts this Government $5 and that a great many
thousands of them are required, I was not. able, in the face of the enormous outlay that would have been involved, to recommend the alteration proposed in the memorial. I feel certain that if Your Excellency had referred the matter home it would have been rejected. aud a counter proposition would have come out involving, roughly speaking, $240,000 of expendi
Under these circumstances I was unable to recommend your Excellency to carry out th proposal of the memorialists. Moreover, there- is another very grave objection, which I have ho doubt the gentleman who signed the memorial were not aware of. It is not in contemplation to' reconstruct the Pruya wall from sud to end de novo. It is only proposed to take such portions as are too weak to stand and reconstruct them, retain- ing those constructed later and bank and strong- then them. Therefore, those portious which would have to be reconstructed could not very well be placed out twenty feet more, as that would at once destroy the continuity of the line of sea wall, and under the circumstances I at once thought that was an insuperable objection. Hon. W. KESWIC-The metoorialiste never contemplated there should be indentations in the wall. Twenty foet was merely suggested; it would sometimes be more, sometimes less.
ture.
The ACTING COLONIAL TREASURER-No; precisely so, but there were portions which, if only repaired must necessarily remain where they are, and therefore if other portions to the | right and left were to be removed twenty foot outward there wust necessarily be indentations. In short the memorial involved the entire ro- construction of the Praya wall from end to end.
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There is another matter which is of some im-" portance, secondary importance perhaps, but which must be considered. The Govern- ment bad waited since 1873 for Borne decision with regard to this work. I really don't know what fresh delays would have arisen from the reference bome. It might perhaps be disrespectful to say a word as to the Home Go-! vernment, but it is not always possible for the Co- lonial Office and other officials to do what is required at a moment's anties, and it seemned to me that while this question was being referred to Sir John Coode we might possibly become involved in a very serious catastrophe. It is trne we have been exceedingly fortunate; most unparalleled luck has attended us in having no eyclone since 1874, but I think if a typhoon Bertook us with the structure in its present condition the chances are some of the marine properties would be placed in great jeopardy, and it seemed to me vory prudent not to paralyse the works, because there was no aying what the dolay would be. Agreeing with the hon. member (Mr. Keswick) It is a great misfortune we should not have a wider road I think it is the best thing to push nn with the works and complete them before the next typhoon season. There are also other objections. They may not be important, but they had to be considered. One is that the Government had entered into contracts and these would have had to be cancelled, giving rise, possibly, to legal claims. I don't adrance that as a very important consideration, but it had to be considered. These, with other cou- siderations, led me to the conclusion that it is wisest to continue the works as now proposed.
Hop. P. RYRIE-A number of people who signed that requisition äid not confine their re- quest to having the Praya widened twenty feet. Thoy would have been very glad to have had it widened ten feet, according to the suggestion of the Commission. That was the idea of several, and they thought that might be done by fellow. ing the plan of the Commission, leaving the pre sent wall stauling and putting the new wall twenty feet outside of it.
His EXCELLENCY--It is under this vote that occurs the item of tree planting, on which I will say a word or to, Yon are aware that last! year I made some observations as to the reces- sity of having a larger amount of tree planting on this island. Without recapitulating what then passed I will say we have now in the nur- series which my hon. friend the Surveyor-Gene. ral took such pains to establish over six millions of seedlings, some of which we will be able to plant out immediately. My hon. friend has been able to utilise the money you were good enough to vote for tree planting in employing coolies to dig the holes necessary for this planting ou cer- tain portions of the bills and notably near the now road which is now called Plantation-road, but I may here tell you the estimate for planting the number of trees I was anxious to plant uext year, one million or two niillions, would have reached the amount of $36,000. It might be argued that to plant out in this colony a million and a half of trees it might be well to lay out $38,000, but I bave resolved to proceed, as far as the expenditure voted by this Council goes, on a more moderate scale, and I am now in communi- cation with certain Chinese who have expressed their willingness, if they are handed over certain hill tops, quite barren and otherwise useless por- tious of the colony, to undertake to plant out these trees at their own expense on certain con- ditions by which they should have, wher the trees grow up, the benefit of the firewood which, according to Chinese custora, is dorived from young plantations. y hon. friends are aware that wherever there is an old establishod Chinese village you will find plantations of fir trees, and on Lamma Island you will see plante- ! tions of fir trees round the hamlets which! have sprang up there, all of which have been plautod within the last few years by the inhabitants themselves. They collect the seed, spread it out on
chunam floors to
dry, and afterwards plant it. Some of the trees are now six or seven, or ten years old. The Chinese custom is that the lower branches can be taken for firewood. A certain portion of the tree must remain and they have very strict rules in their village communities on this subject and the systelu seems to be very fairly carried out on Bonio parts of the coast opposite to us. The pro- posal to the Govermout is that we should allow something of the kind to be done on parts of the island which it was not the intention of the Go- vernment to utilise itself for tree planting. The subject has not been decided, but my inclina- tion is to embrace the offer of the Chinese.
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