Confidential
Government House.
12 February 1907
My Lord,
Referring to my confidential dispatches dated 15 September and 9 October 1906 on the subject of the slow progress made on the construction of the Hong Kong section
2. My principal reason for this request is my great fear that the large sums of money that are now being expended on this construction are not being spent in the most advantageous manner. Since the commencement of November, the sums amount to over $500,000 or about £56,000. For this amount, according to the latest returns from the Chief Resident Engineer of the work on the railway, including the reclamation of station site, should have been completed. I am convinced that nothing like this proportion has been carried out. Again, according to the weekly progress reports that have been submitted to me, not more than 200 men have on an average been employed on the works.
I am not at present sure how payment of this number of the staff and for the materials, which the local purchases have been reported, can account for anything like the money expended.
3. In these circumstances, I have directed the Local Auditor, with the assistance of the Chief Resident Engineer, to make a special examination of our expenditure.
4. I have further directed that no contracts in reference to exceeding $500 in value are in future to be entered into without a reference to the Director of Public Works, who will examine the same.
5. I have also ventured above to suggest that I consider some more complete control of the railway construction should be vested in this local government than exists under the present system, under which the Chief Resident Engineer reports to and takes his orders from the Consulting Engineers at home. The Chief Resident Engineer is in effect the officer of our Consulting Engineers, and our Government can only suffer through its own officers in the way in which he carries out his work at the dictation of the Consulting Engineers, relieving them of the responsibility that naturally rests on them for efficient and economical construction of the railway.
In practice, Your Lordship will probably, and the people of Hong Kong will certainly, hold me responsible if there is great delay or waste of money in the completion of the railway, and it is therefore essential that I should decide to exercise control through an officer in whom I have confidence.
I have great confidence in Mr. A. E. Griffin's capacity to take independent charge of a work of such magnitude. I consider he lacks organising power and I know that he does not get on well with his staff. The Director of Public Works – Mr. Cathcart Methven – does enjoy my confidence and I see no reason why the railway should not be placed under his control in the same way as other large Public Works in this Colony have been carried out in the past.
The Hon'ble
The Earl of Elgin
K.T.