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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT
1845, according to the orders of his Excellency the Governor, a Report and Estimate was prepared for their future work, in order that the value of their labour might be shown satisfactorily. This Report and Estimate, No. 7, of 1845, was accordingly submitted and approved of by his Excellency, with the exception of two items, Nos. 5 and 6, which it was not considered safe to place them upon, from the difficulty of guarding them sufficiently, the locality being in the neighbourhood of the Chinese town Ta-ping-Shang. Therefore the remaining works, embracing four items, were undertaken, estimated at 3346 dollars, and completed during the past year.
Another Report and Estimate, No. 10, of 1846, was prepared by the late Surveyor-General, for further works, upon which the convicts are now employed.
The work executed by these men is, as may be expected, proceeded with but slowly, as they are much incommoded with their shackles, and being obliged to be sent back to gaol earlier than a free Coolie would leave his work. Under these circumstances, I consider they have executed a reasonable quantity of work.
My estimate values each convict at 6d, but this is too high, as many of them are miserable beings, and in cold or rainy weather can give but slight assistance: some are boys. The total number employed during the execution of the above services is 30,000, and the estimate of the work performed, amounting to 6971. 1s. 8d., gives the average value of each at about 5¼d.
A few trifling repairs have been done by them on Caine Road, but this service is so small I have not considered it necessary to make further mention of.
Honourable Major Caine,
Colonial Secretary.
(True Copy.) (Signed)
I have, &c.
(Signed)
CHARLES ST. GEORGE CLEVERLY, Surveyor-General.
W. CAINE, Colonial Secretary.
SIR,
Enclosure 3 in No. 43.
Surveyor-General's Office, Victoria, January 23, 1847.
I HAVE the honour to submit the following Report upon the progress of this department during the last year past.
The general routine of the services executed by the officers under my direction has undergone no change since my Report last year, with the exception of the period during which Mr. Gordon had charge as head of the department; and as he had frequent attacks of illness which prevented his attendance at office, he was unable to relieve us from any pressure of work; for instance, I required some months to prepare a new set of plans of the town, showing the houses which have been built since my first survey in 1843. I must therefore defer that work until another opportunity, which I fear will not occur this season, as I must necessarily attend this office from 10 till 4 every day, and Mr. Pope's time will be fully occupied with the works to be executed.
The want of efficient overseers for the works has been much felt; I mean men who are tradesmen, such as bricklayers, carpenters, &c., to remain upon each separate work during its execution, for however strictly a specification may be worded, a contractor will find means to make the work appear in conformity therewith, and it is totally out of the power of the clerk of works to detect bad workmanship without pulling it to pieces. The works are visited as often as possible both by myself and the clerk of works; and in town, Overseer Crawford had charge of all the works, which, being at a considerable distance from each other, rendered the inspection very severe. He is a very serviceable man, and has given great satisfaction.
The hardest work that we have to encounter in this climate, I find to be in surveying or levelling, as the person so engaged is necessarily much exposed to the sun, and if the locality is far removed from Victoria, the best portion of the day is taken up in going to and returning from work. It is hardly necessary for me to remark that we only have three months in the year in which we have a chance of making a good day's work, and even then it is dangerous at times to expose oneself to the sun; the remainder of the year we can only work in the mornings and evenings for two or three hours at the utmost, it is therefore apparent that the amount of work we can perform is very small in comparison with that which could be done in a more temperate climate.
The greatest share of this work necessarily falls to the Civil Engineer and Clerk of Works, Mr. Pope, as he is the only person in the establishment who can give me that assistance.
The next officer in the establishment is road overseer, Mr. Bruce, unfortunately he is unacquainted with the details of the work which I most require from him. The whole assistance I desire from him consists in the general inspection of finished roads and the direction of the convict labour, which is also under the charge of Overseer Matheus, who receives his instructions from Mr. Bruce.
**
It has been the duty of the Civil Engineer and Clerk of Works to make a weekly report upon the progress of the works; but in future, if it should meet the approval of his Excellency the Governor, I beg leave to propose that the Report be made monthly, as a more satisfactory detail might be made of work executed during that period, than for the short space of six days, as in the latter time it occasionally happens that the change in the work is hardly perceptible.
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