1841-1886
STATE OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS. 265
Convicts.
In the purchase of stone hammers and new tools for convict labour, both inside and outside the gaol, and also in their repair, the sum of £76. 12s. 7d. has been paid; this is a very small sum, considering the number of men employed. I have, however, to remark, that the wheelbarrows, and, indeed, most of the plant, is in very bad condition.
The total expenditure on account of works of all kinds, as enumerated above, has amounted to the sum of £1,613. 18s. 1d.
The labour performed by the convicts has consisted in the general repair of all the roads and streets in the city, which I have been able to keep in a very satisfactory state. The rains not having been particularly heavy last year, the damage they sustained was not very considerable. In actual repairs I have employed 3,000 men upon 84 miles of road, which gives an average of 1¾d. a yard, or a total estimated value of £11. 5s.
In the improvement of the roads round the Wongneichung Valley, by placing stone parapets thereto, and several other services, in the formation of retaining walls, widening drains, &c., I employed 5,310 men; and in the construction, widening, and lowering the road to join the Government House Road from Caine Road and Arbuthnot Road, 2,296 men, at an aggregate estimated value of work amounting to £1581. 9s. 2d. Sundry drains in various parts of the town were repaired and cleaned out from time to time by 312 men. Scavenging, under charge of the policeman on duty in the city, was performed by 158 men, and miscellaneous services of all kinds by 399 men, valued at £18l. 2s. 1d.
The total number of men employed outside the gaol, therefore, has amounted to 12,375 men, being 2,878 less than last year, giving a total value of work performed equal to £257l 16s. 3d.
165
Those employed at hard labour within the gaol walls amounted to about 18,000. The labour performed is of a very light nature indeed; they were employed breaking stones for the roads, but as it was not done by taskwork it cannot be considered a punishment. The advantage of the use of broken stone upon the roads, fine as I require it, becomes more apparent every year, and enables me to effect repairs in a much more substantial manner than I could do in previous years, and therefore it is desirable to continue the supply. I estimate that only 220 tons have been broken, which I value at 3s. 6d. per ton, or £38l. 10s., during the year, a much smaller quantity than last year.
A few men were employed picking oakum for the navy and making mats for the Government offices, and an average of ten daily were employed in the ordinary work of the gaol, carrying water, &c.
The labour of the three department coolies I turned to account during the year on the public works, when they were not in attendance upon me, or otherwise employed with their overseer. In repairs to roads they performed the work of 249 men; in making new drains, 6 men; clearing drains and side channels, 229 men; planting and trimming trees, 274 men; removing timber, 126 men; cutting grass and weeding at Government offices, 31 men; miscellaneous, 12 men.
In conclusion, I have to remark that the whole of the roads, works, and buildings under my charge are in a good state of preservation, with the exception of some wooden bridges; and although the road over the hills to Tytam and that round the island have not been repaired during the year, no great damage has occurred thereto, and both are passable for horses.
W. Caine,
Colonial Secretary.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
CHAS. ST. GEO. CLEVERLY, Surveyor General.
Enclosure 3.
SIR,
Surveyor General's Office, Victoria, February 10, 1852.
I HAVE the honour to forward, for the information of his Excellency the Governor, my annual report upon the state and progress of the department for the year 1851.
During the year last passed there have been no changes in the department, and the general services and duty performed by its members have been of a precisely similar nature to those of the previous year.
The Chinese overseer and his coolies, when not in attendance upon me, perform the ordinary repairs to streets, drains, and attention to the trees, and the general miscellaneous services which are constantly demanded.
In contract work, having no foreman or clerk of works, I employ them occasionally to see any special portion of work requiring supervision fully carried out according to my instructions, and in that particular have rendered very effective help, though not equal to that of a trained overseer.
The repairs to buildings I was necessarily obliged to superintend myself in the mornings and evenings (the only portions of the day I could devote to that duty). The works carried on, however, have been but trifling, and thus a constant supervision was not demanded upon all of them; but as an instance of the difficulties I have occasionally to encounter in compelling an efficient mode of construction, I must mention that on visiting the bridge at Causeway Bay as usual I objected to some of the stonework in the arch, and