Hong Kong redging: Sub-Committee.
Draft Reply for consideration at Wednesday's
Committee.
51
Our opinion is asked in regard to proposed dredging
operations in Hong Kong Harbour.
We understand that it i
proposed to place an aerodrome on the land which is being re-
claimed at Kaitak, at the head of Kaulung Bay. The sche:
hitherto contemplate i, has apparently been to obtain the filling
material for this reclamation from the neighbouring hill front,
at a cost of $738,000 (£73,800) spread over a period of 34 years.
The proposal put forward in the governor's telegram of 5th
Sarch is that the filling shall be obtained from dredging in
the harbour at a cost of X1,491,000 (£149,000), but in a period
of only là years. It is further indicated that a firm of Dutch
contractors has been at work at the neighbouring Fortuguese port
of Macao, and that the foregoing price contemplates the removal
of the plant of this firm from Vacao to Hong Kong, the firm in
question becoming the contractors for the dredging.
8. Ne desire to make one preliminary observation. It
common experience in other parts of the world that when a firm
of contractors is approaching the completion of a considerable
contract, that the agents of the firm look round the neighbourhoo
in a suggestive frame of mind with a view to further employent
for their plant, and the avoidance of its removal to a distance.
It is necessary, therefore, not to attach undue importance to the
economies which are offered, since it may well be that even the
reduced money would be better spent with some other object.
3. It is quite likely that there are urgent reasons for the provision of an aerodrome in the Colony, not improbably not for
From this point of view a saving of some
defensive reasons.
two years in the reclaiming of the land may, we can quite
imagine, be of orucial importance, and the significance of
this saving will not be diminished by charging the additional
cost against the harbour.
4. What we have, therefore, to consider is whether an expendit
of /