HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
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Votes totalling $211,534, contained in Message No. 12 from H.E. The Governor, were considered.
Item No. 73: Public Works, Extraordinary:-Communications New Territories, Circular Road, Ngau Tau Kok to Shatin via Sai Kung, Preliminary Works, $5,000.
HON. SIR HENRY POLLOCK.-I should like to ask that this vote be further adjourned.
THE CHAIRMAN.-I have no objection.
Item No. 75: Public Works, Extraordinary:-Hong Kong, General Works, Waterworks (Consulting Engineers Fee incurred), $1,534.
for?
HON. SIR HENRY POLLOCK.-I should like to ask what this is
THE CHAIRMAN.-One of our Engineers went home to consult the Consulting Engineers on the water supply for Shek O district. The fee was not charged for a long time and now has come to hand. We shall have to pay it.
Kong,
Item No. 77: Public Works, Extraordinary:-Hong Miscellaneous, Purchase of M.L. 187A and payment in reference to Kowloon site, $180,000.
HON. MR. A. C. HYNES.-The total payment, I take it, is $900,000, including the $100,000 for the Kowloon site?
THE CHAIRMAN.-In case Hon. Members do not remember the facts of this case-they go back for very many years-I should like to remark that I think I am right in saying that it was in 1923 and 1924 that an agreement was reached between the Government and the Trustees of the Sailors' Home which was submitted to the Secretary of State, approved by him, and I believe approved by the then mem- bers of the Finance Committee, by which the Government was to purchase the Sailors' Home at West Point for $800,000 and the provision of a site in Kowloon. The whole thing went into abeyance in 1925. Neither the Trustees nor the Government were in a position to go on, and it was only six months or so ago that serious steps were taken to reopen negotiations. The Government was then asked if it stood by its promise, and naturally it said "Yes." The Trustees put a new suggestion to the Government that they should amalgamate with the Seamen's Institute at Wanchai and, instead of building a new place in Kowloon, should build a combined Institute on the Praya East. The Kowloon site, therefore, became useless to them and they offered to sell it back to the Government for $100,000. The Govern- ment agreed that their proposals were sound and, with the approval of the Secretary of State and, I think if I remember rightly, the approval of the Finance Committee as well, the scheme was settled
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