Page 348
These are in substitution for two others, placed on the 1901 Estimates. The estimated total cost of the two original pair was $27,000; the cost of these will be $36,500.
Item 20 $452. to Harbour agree. Xin measured "Fees C.Pd. secured to Set them The Clock Tower. Mp. 28: see $31 improvements in lighting approached has been approved by the Secretary of State.
Items 21, 22 and 23 were not on the 1901 Estimates, and therefore required the approval of the Secretary of State, under Colonial Regulations 344-348, before expenditure was begun or at least as soon as possible after taking a vote in Council. In all three cases work has actually been begun. Out of a total estimated cost of $103,000, $20,000 is estimated to be spent before 1 January, 1902. No despatch or telegram can be traced asking for the Secretary of State's sanction for these works. I think that this point requires investigation, and, if the explanation is not thoroughly satisfactory, the Governor should be told that this sort of thing cannot be allowed.
Some of the remaining 27 items are all new. them we cannot object to e.g. the Slaughter House at Shankiwan, the disinfecting station in Kowloon, and the bacteriological institute. But the rest I think should be remorselessly cut down. I have marked certain items which I think might be postponed, or considerably reduced; but I am not sure that it might not be better to say generally that the Governor must keep the expenditure on Public Works Extraordinary below the estimate by at least $200,000.
I see nothing else in the estimate of expenditure