Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT
Enclosure 2.
SIR,
Surveyor General's Office, Victoria, February 7, 1852.
I HAVE the honour to submit my annual report upon the works which have been undertaken during the year, and upon the general state of repair of the civil roads and works, &c. upon the island.
Rouds.
Aberdeen to Stanley. Upon this line an expenditure of £251. was made, being the balance of an uncompleted contract for two drains near Deepwater Bay,
The new roads finished comprise that from the Albany Godowns to Wongneichung, at an expenditure of £3234. 3s. 8d., and the road by the Plaza, including the work in levelling adjoining, at an expenditure of £1816. 3s. 3d. + £64=£1871. 3s. 3d.
A new road twelve feet wide 1 mile and 117 yards from Aberdeen Street, to join the Aberdeen Road (100%), is also in course of construction, and upon which an expenditure of £501. has been made. At the present date it is nearly completed; but as it has not received one single shower of rain I apprehend considerable settlement and damage thereto before it is perfectly consolidated.
The new road for the extension of the carriage drive from North Point to Quarry Bay on the Saiwan Road, 1,080 yards, was authorized during the latter end of the year, and is in course of execution, under contract for £1231. 19s. 2d. Upon this line also there will be considerable settlement during the next rains; and before the summer I hope a sufficient bank of sand will be thrown up against the rough stone wall, which will be planted with grass or seaweed to protect it against the wash of the sea.
A small arch and three drains were made on the Saiwan Road, estimated at £67l. 0s. 10d., in lieu of the old platform wooden bridges.
The road round the island was repaired during the year 1850, the contract for which, amounting to £621. 18s. 4d., was paid during the year 1851, since which time no repairs have been effected.
Sundry repairs have been paid for on the Wongneichung and Sukunpu Roads, amounting to £201, 16s. 6d.; the total expenditure on road construction and repair being £6984 1s. 9d.
Bridges.
The only bridge constructed during the year is that over the ford at Causeway Bay, a twenty feet arch, upon abutments four feet high, with a roadway of twenty feet in the clear, which was much required, and cost £1456. 16s. 8d.
Authority (under Report and Estimate No. 4, of 1851, and Requisition No. 20, of 1851) was given for an expenditure amounting to £316. 13s. 4d. for the construction of stone bridges and drains on the road round the island (with the exception of the two large bridges; one at Tytam; the other at Quarry Bay). These are in course of construction.
Buildings.
The repairs of a miscellaneous character to gaols, police stations, and other civil buildings, including expenditures by other departments, amounted during the year to £1361. 10s. 7d., in addition to which hired watchmen were employed to take charge of the Albany and Larkins' Godowns, resumed by Government at an outlay of £331. 15s., making the aggregate expenditure for buildings £1714 15s. 7d.
Victoria.
The works in the city, exclusive of convict labour, comprised covering the open culverts with the stones of the parapet walls (reserving the coping stones for future use), at an expenditure of £461. 13s. 10d."; the extension of a drain in Albert Road, £61. 5s.; and manholes to drains on the Plaza Road, £l0. 10s. 8d. Total for drains, £611. 9s. 6d.
Sundry Works.
Planting trees, 343 in number, of various kinds and sizes, in several parts of the city, amounted to £204 15s. 9d. The goats complained of in previous years as doing so much damage to trees have not been so destructive this year, and the only damage trees have sustained lately is caused mostly by thieves stealing the supports thereto, and by drunken sailors, nevertheless the greater number are thriving very well, and will in a few years be a great ornament to the city.
Five public wells were also ordered to be made during the year, four of which are completed, and upon which an advance of £251. has been made.
Twenty-one stone seats were placed near the public roads. These were formed out of the coping stones of the open culverts in the city, lately covered over.
The additional Government grant for completion of the cathedral was paid during the year, amounting to £4551.
I have also to report the commencement of the work for Government House, in the preparation and lowering of the proposed site, which provides for the cutting and removal of 24,000 yards of earth, at an expenditure of £2002.