Enclosure No.
COPY.
Despatch No. 359 of the 18th June, 1908.
384
Hon. Director of Public Works,
During season 1899-1900, 105 sheets containing 35,871.25 acres were surveyed on the 16" scale. This area included all cultivated lands to the South of the Kowloon hills from Lai Chi-kok in the West to Chin Lin Shui in the East. Also the valleys of Tún Mun, Shap-pat-heung and Pat-heung near Deep Bay; and the large valley of Sheung Shui extending from San Tin in the West to Sha Ta Kok in the East. This area has been divided into numerous traverse blocks, and each block has been taken by the Land Court as a separate Demarcation District, having its own series of Demarcation numbers.
To resurvey this area on the 32" scale it will be necessary to have the traverse survey done over again, with a great many more stations added owing to the increase in scale.
A retraverse will be necessary as, in 1899-1900, only trijunction stations (with back and forward stations) of blocks were marked with clay cylinders; and as all the wooden pegs that marked intermediate stations, have been uprooted and lost.
A retraverse will be very slow as I have only one traverse Surveyor; in 1899-1900 I had three traverse men and it took them from seven to eight months to traverse the area in question.
In order not to disorganise the Land Court demarcation work, it will be necessary to preserve the old traverse blocks as far as possible; that is to say, the new traverse lines will have to follow the old lines very closely so that the various Demarcation Districts will remain intact. This will delay the traverse Surveyor a great deal and one man will not be able to keep about 40 cadastral surveyors supplied with plots.
I certainly think that all the work to the South of the Kowloon hills should be resurveyed on the 32" scale, also a few shoots in the Pat Heung Valley and near Sha Ta Kok.
The fields in the Tin Shui, Shap-pat-heung, and Sheung Shui Valleys are on an average, about four times as large as the fields in the remainder of the Territory just surveyed on the 32" scale; consequently their appearance on paper on the 16" scale is similar to that of smaller fields surveyed on the 32" scale. In which case they might be allowed to stand as they are.
Of course it would be more satisfactory to have...