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allowance of £100 as Executive Engineer and the special allowance of $1200, he should draw a non-pensionable
allowance of £3600.
14.
The next sub-department to be considered is
that which deals with the construction and maintenance of
roads and general works. During the past twelve years the
whole nature of the road system of the Colony has been
changed. In 1912 the only roads of any width suitable for
motor vehicles were those on the low levels in the City of
Victoria and a few comparatively short pieces of road in
Kowloon. There is now an extensive system of roads
throughout the island and many miles of wide roads are
under construction in the Kowloon Peninsula. The work to
be performed during the next ten years in the island will
consist of a limited amount of actual construction of new
roads, the widening of existing roads and the improvement
of the surfacing generally but especially in the City of
Victoria. In the Kowloon Peninsula and in the New
Territories an immense amount of work is in prospect. It
is unnecessary in this despatch to go into details, but
I can state with confidence that the cost of road construct-
ion in Kowloon and of fitting the whole road system for
heavy wheeled traffic will require expenditure which may
amount to several million dollars.
15.
The senior officers in charge of road
construction and maintenance and general works are Mr. H. E.
Goldsmith and Mr. E. W. Carpenter. They are both officers
of great experience and efficiency in this class of work,
but differ in their professional attainments. Mr. Goldsmith
has devoted much time to the technical side of road
construction and maintenance, and is the author of several
works on the subject. Mr. Carpenter has proved himself to
be a competent road engineer, who gets on well with his
subordinates and with contractors, with the result that the
works