570
last proposed to contribute a sum of money to the Typhoon Relief Fund to be spent in the construction of a Typhoon Refuge at Mong-kok-tsui, and that Your Lordship approved the prompt commencement of the work in your Despatch No. 116 of June 6th. I have to report that the revised estimate (received since my remarks to the Council) of the cost of the shelter at this site (which has been approved by the Typhoon Relief Committee, the Chamber of Commerce and the Chinese Stevedores) amounts to no less than $1,540,000. It seems probable that this large expenditure cannot be reduced owing to the necessity of providing a refuge sufficiently large to accommodate all the native craft which may seek its shelter; to the greatly enhanced prices of materials and to the necessity for increased solidity and height in the design of the breakwater due to experience gained in the typhoon of the 18th September, 1906. It is manifestly impossible while the Colony has to meet the heavy annual cost involved in the construction of the new Law Courts and Post Office (which will not be completed till 1911) to meet this expenditure out of ordinary revenue, and I propose that the cost should be defrayed partly out of balances and partly out of a special tax to be levied for the purpose by an increase in the Light Dues or