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HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Yaumati, estimated at $87,000, was approv- ed by this Council last year, and a sum of 512,500 was voted for it. Of this it is es- timated that $4,000 will have been spent this year, and a further sum of $40,000 is provided to continue the work next year, For the improvement of Apliu Village a sum of $13,00 was voted last year to complete, but it has been found necessary to ask the Council for a supplementary vote of $14,000 to compensate the lessons of plots interfered with, thus causing the estimate to be in- creased to $33,000, which is $4,200 in ex- cess of the original estimate. A sum of $6,000 is placed on next year's estimates to complete the work.
for an additional inspector at a total cost of $32,500. A supplementary vote of $1,000 will be submitted to you to enable the work to be begun this year; a total of $26,000 is provided next year. The Sanitary Board also recommends the erection of a fruit and vegeable market in the Eastern district, but no estimate has yet been made. $5,000 is set down to commence the work. Another market is also required at Yaumati at a cost of $9,600. All these are remunerative
For continuing the laying out, raising and improvement of the little village of Tai Hang bebind the Polo Ground a further sum of $5,000 is alloted, and you will recollect that $2,000 is already included in the vote for new roads and streets. The cost of this in- provement has been wrongly shown under different votes in the past. In all we shall bave spent $11,555 upon it up to the end of this year, and the total scheme is estimated to cost 18,600. The "Compensation" vote has been enlarged to include the equally vague charge for expenditure which may be incurred by Government owing to any 3- foreseen necessity for resuming laud for a public purpose. Hitherto no provision has been tuade in the estimates, though such liabilities are not infrequent. A total sum of $25,000 bas been provided to meet such contingencies.
The Principal Civil Medical Officer has to my knowledge for the last four years, and probably longer, represented the need of a new operating theatre at the Government Civil Hospital. We propose to begin this next year, spending $15,000 out of the total estimate ut 850,000. $5,000 is also provided for tiling the lavatories. 25,000 is set apart for sheds for Public Works Department stores on the piece of ground already occupi- ed by them belo. the Naval Hospital, which will be properly laid out and levelled. It will then be possible to remove the temporary stores on the Praya East reclamation near No. 2 Police station, which can be let out for other occupation. The total cost is estimated at 46,50. The Sautary Board has represented that extensions to the Kowloon slaughter-houses are very urgently needed, involving the displacement of some coolie quarters. A house is also required
works.
Internal alterations in the Kennedy Town' Hospital inv Ive a sum of $2,500, and additional office much required at the Observatory will cost $2,000. ↑ Belilios Girls' School has overflowed its quarters and a number of the girls are at present being taught in hired rooms. An extension of the present building is required, but it has not yet been possible to draw up an estimate. $5,000 is provided to commence the work. It has been represented to Government that the Sanitary Department urgently requires offices in the Western District at a cost of $7,000. The fish pond at Taipo, which was filled in a year or two ago, forms a valuable building site, for a portion of which Government has already received offers. A further sum of $2,000 is required to raise the level of a potion of the reclaim- ed ground. $9,000 transferred from the maintenance vote is set down for laying out new areas in Chinese cometeries. The large reclamation scheme at Samshuipo will absorb $25,000 in order to provide sites for persons dislodged from the old insanitary village. The total scheme is estimated at. $84,300 A sum of $20,000 is required for duplicate pumps at the pumping station on Bouham Road, but before these are laid down the question of removing the station to another site will be investigated.
It is proposed to train the stream which flows under railway bridge No. 30 at Taipo directly out to the north by means of a causeway costing 82,500. A bridge for the roadway will be required at $8,000. When these are completed a fine level area can be roclaimed at the small cost of $72,000, 24 fronting on the sea. acres in extent, adjoining Tuipo station and It should form a very valuable asset, and would be an ideal situation for a hotel and recreation grounds. The programme of works which I have presented to you is a tolerably full one, but the Director of Public Works anticipates
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that he will be able to carry it out. I dislike estimates are prepared in App. II. in the the system which has not seldom obtained way usual with railways so us to facilitate In the second here of scheduling an ambitious list of comparison with others. works, & considerable portion of which are place you will see that the loan account is never commenced in the year for which now closed, and the heading "chargeable to I hope that in capital" only appears in regard to special provision has been made. future, before the annual estimates are expenditure, and for purposes of our presented, it may be possible to have fully estimates it conveys no significance, since now equally prepared estimates of every work proposed all railway expenditure is
revenue. Similarly the for the coming year instead of leaving this chargeable to
reliminary work to the year in which interest on borrowed capital is now trans- honey is provided for actual construction. | ferred to the head "public debt.” It will, however, take time to gradually running expeuses are estimated by Mr. overtake this system. The total amount of Lindsey at $190,087, and the earnings at these works is $797,980. The estimated $425,000, showing a balance of profit of revenue, deducting the special light dues 8235,000 towards the service of the loan. which belong to the Typhoon Refuge, is This, I confess, seemed to me somewhat $7,582,488, and the estimated expenditure optimistic in the first year of through work- without Public Works Extraordinary is ing, but Mr. Lindsey, who has very great $6,704,698, leaving $877,790 to meet capital experience, and in whom I have the utmost confidence, assures me that, in his opinion, expenditure on works. We thus have an estimated surplus of $79,810, which can be it is a safe estimate, and based on careful devoted to the Typhoon Refuge, and with calculations. The little Fanling-Sha Tau the light dues makes a total sum of $174,810. Kok branch is estimated to cost us for We propose to spend $350,000 on this work running expenses and maintenance $10,886 next year, and owing to the satisfactory a year and to earn $14,000, showing a profit state of our finances we shall require to of $3,700. I trust these estimates may be draw only a half, namely, $175,000, instead fully realised. Under "special expenditure" of 2 lakhs from our reserves to meet this for the railway we have provided for another expenditure, a sum which may not improb- locomotive and for a house for the manager. ably be saved on the year's working with- I may note here for the information of the Council that, apart from the cost of the out trenching on the reserves at all.
roadway (which, as I have already told you, has been charged, like all the rest of the road, to Public Works Extraordinary), the expenditure on this light line, including, rolling stock, is estimated at $54,107 only, of which $28,000 is a credit to the main line for old materials, and the remainder, $26,107, is forall other charges, including new permanent way, materials and a new engine. This sum has been charged to the capital account of the Railway.
Post Office
Under Other Charges, Post Office, you will find an increase of an extra lakh under transit charges for Siberian mails, a very heavy charge which is in part an arrears payment. The postal estimates do not otherwise call for any special remark. We are still, as I have said, carrying on the Postal Agencies in China on behalf of the Imperial Government, but all charges are borne by the Home Government, from whom we have claimed various sums for postal buildings, furniture, etc., including a sum of $27,000 due on account of the Tientsin Agency and not yet paid. These sums, however, have not been credited in the estimates, and when paid they will add to our surplus.
The Railway
I have already referred to the railway. You will note in the first place that the
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Public Debt, Etc.
In class 8, the charge on account of Public Debt is shown in, I think, a some- The what clearer form than heretofore. interest and sinking fun on the loan of 1895, which is constant each year, stand at 8176,206, while the interest and sinking fund on the money borrowed for the railway and the loan to the Viceroy of the Liang Hu Provinces stand at $550,057. This will vary slightly until the annual instalments of the Wuchang loan are all paid off, when
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