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Considerable amount of reclamation from the sea will moreover be very great. It works out that the brick ground about $64,000 only to prepare the ground before a single structure could be laid. An additional minor drawback would be the necessary expropriation in the gaol scheme of part of the Chinese Cemetery at present occupying a portion of the site.
I am unable for those reasons, to recommend the Belcher's Bay site, for although a gaol on level ground would doubtless be feasible, it could only be at undue cost, and its occupation would in all probability entail continued stress on the inmates.
On the score of privacy and isolation, no less than for sanitary reasons the Bowrington neighbourhood is preferable. In this district, there are two plots of flat land, i.e.: the Bowrington Plantation, a Government property, and a piece of land known as Bowrington Green which comprises over six acres, including the adjoining land which might be bought out from Mr. Chater for about $25,000.
The cost of preparing either of these sites would be comparatively little as the ground is already quite level; of the two, the Plantation is larger than the Green and would therefore be the more desirable site. Indeed, if the erection of a new penal establishment on the Hong Kong side of the harbour were determined on, the Bowrington Plantation will be found to be the only tract of level ground near the town capable of satisfactorily accommodating such an establishment.