11. The following is a return of the trees planted since 1873, when I assumed office:
China Firs, 55,849 Bombax, 2,330 Moreton Bay Chestnuts, 1,050 Banyans and India-rubbers, 3,039 Casuarinas, 1,087 Australian Gums, 500 Miscellaneous, 1,200 Bamboos, 11,400 Total, 76,455 Average number planted per annum, 15,29012. However imposing this array of figures may look upon paper, the result is by no means telling on the ground itself, and it is somewhat disheartening to think that after all, the entire seventy-six thousand trees have only sufficed to dot here and there a few streets and suburban roads, a ravi... incipient forest to be seen on the mountain slopes overlooking the harbour, and which, from the contr...uit, and which I think the owner would part with not very unwillingly, as he does not appear ever to have turned them to much account. I assess their value at $762.75, and would advise their being re-entered by the Crown. I am fain to recommend this course only after a fruitless search for suitable nursery sites elsewhere.
21. In addition to the outlay in its acquisition, the cost of draining and preparing the nursery, and purchasing seed and materials, will be $1,299, making a total prime cost of $2,001.75, while the succeeding yearly expenditure in labour and material will not exceed $1,610.00, a figure sufficiently moderate. I trust, to recommend the project to His Excellency the Governor's favourable consideration.
22. If not inconsistent with future Gaol Regulations, it might be possible to reduce the estimate by employing long-sentenced convicts, or those whose term of punishment has already passed from the punitive to the reformatory stage, to till the nursery, dig holes on the hill side and to carry trees, in which case item 4 and half of 6 in the appended Estimate might be struck out and the prime cost brought down to $650 as shown in the Estimate, reduced to $1,436.75, while at the same time the yearly outlay might, by means of the same assistance, be reduced.
23. During the first two years, the places to be planted out would be sufficiently close in to town to allow of convict labour, if available, being employed with safety, and I think it will be time enough continuing the work with hired coolies. Independently, however, of the class of labour to be used, it is my duty to consider the advisability of planting one or two of Victoria Peak, and to cover but sparsely the small, isolated and insignificant patches when the plantation sites shall have receded to greater distances to consider the advisability of their greenness and luxuriance, serve, like oases in the desert, only to remind one the more painfully of the glaring bareness of the surrounding hills.
13. I have made with deep interest an examination of the waste lands of this Colony capable of being wooded, and which are unfit for any better use. Freely excluding paddy-fields, meadows, and gardens of Kowloon, I would propose to make this tree enter largely into the varieties to be planted in the future.
24. With reference to His Excellency the Governor's recommendation that the cocoanut palm should be more widely cultivated in this Colony where it thrives so well especially in the grounds cultivable for food or other productive purposes, as also foreshores, tidal swamps and places too rocky, or otherwise unable to support vegetable life, I find the sites available for tree planting comprise about ten thousand acres.
14. Looking to the exposure of most of these sites to the force of the North-East monsoon, especially to the action of typhoons, it would be necessary to plant the young trees somewhat thick, from five to seven cents a piece, and we might begin by purchasing and planting five thousand Cocoanuts sprouted in the husk for the purposes of seed may be had in large quantities from Manila so as to enable them to shelter one another; not less than four should be planted to every hundred square feet, or in other words 1,740 trees to the acre.
15. But, although feasible, it may perhaps be too much to aspire to ten thousand acres of woodland, and if our planting operations were continued at their present tortoise pace, viz., at the rate of 15,000 trees a year, it would take us eleven hundred years to complete the job.
25. It is the opinion of competent professional persons, that by a judicious selection of hardy classes of plants to suit the peculiar conditions of different localities in regard to soil, moisture, shelter from prevailing winds, temperature, and altitude above sea level, there will be no difficulty in forming forests of many varieties of trees.
16. Before proceeding further, I should explain that one of the reasons why planting has been hitherto conducted upon such a sorry scale in this Colony, is to be found in the smallness of the amount of Government tree nursery at Sokonpò, which will not hold more than fifteen thousand seedlings, while in respect of climate, its capabilities may be best judged by the fact that firs and cocoanut palms, the typical trees of countries so widely differing as Norway and the Sahara, are here to be seen flourishing side by side.
26. It is unnecessary to descant upon the benefits which the realization of this project of increased tree-planting promises to the Colony.
17. A second though subordinate reason is the inadequacy of the present staff. If our operations are increased, it will not however be necessary to add very largely to the number of permanent foresters; journeymen coolies can be taken on and dismissed as occasion may require; the cost of these and six additional Foresters is given in the Estimate appended.
18. I had at one time feared that the difficulty of getting enough seeds might prevent our sowing as many as half a million each season, but the result of enquiries on this point is satisfactory. Taking it at a prudently low estimate, I find the island and neighbouring islets will yield enough fir cones alone for that number of plants, while my correspondents at Amoy and Foochow advise me that fir cones are also procurable in those places.
19. To turn out as many as five hundred thousand trees every spring, a nursery containing 12 to 15 acres would be required, also the annual services of sixty coolies for one month to collect seeds, as well as sixty coolies for two months to dig holes, to wrap and bind the plants with straw, and to convey them from the nursery to their destinations.
20. Having as far back as the administration of Sir HERCULES ROBINSON disposed of all farm lands within easy distance of the City, the Government unfortunately does not now possess any ground available for a nursery, and for this purpose, it would be necessary to have recourse to a Government resumption of private land. There are some sufficiently large paddy fields at Sokonpo, the property of Mr. GEORGE DUDDELL, and registered in the Land Office as Farm Lots Nos. 1, 2 and 5, which would suit us.
I have the honour to be,
Your obedient Servant,
J. M. PRICE,
Surveyor General.
Sir,
ESTIMATE OF COST OF PLANTING HALF-A-MILLION OF TREES PER ANNUM.
The Honourable Cecil C. SMITH,
Acting Colonial Secretary.
Note.-If convict labour be used, item 4 may be omitted, and item 6 brought down to one-half.