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outlay to $330,000. In this Estimate is included the removal and re-erection elsewhere of the Colonial Powder Magazine and the Line at present occupying the only site available for a prison.
2. In compliance with the Secretary of State's wish that I should furnish His Lordship with such a report as would enable him to come to a decision on the subject of the proposed new prison, I have the honour to state that as hill-side ground forming respectively the western and eastern suburbs of the town.
3. Of these two spots Belcher's Bay would be the least desirable for a gaol, as the building would be closely hemmed in by a semicircle of hills that would not only overlook the exercising yards but shut out all ventilation. The only quarter from which the prison buildings cannot be recommended, the choice of locality, as regards the island of Hong Kong, is limited to the only two pieces of level ground which exist near Victoria. These are Belcher's Bay, called by Bowrington the Chinese Lapsapwan, and ... would be open to the breeze, which would be the North West, that is, from the direction of the harbour, which is here fringed by a low-lying foreshore of poisonous black mud that stretches out to a considerable distance during the hours of low tide, rendering the locality unhealthy, especially in summer. The expense of forming the Belcher's Bay site entailing ...