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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
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were too high to permit of much business being done. Flour imports during the year amounted to 1,604,033 bags, a decrease of 471,086 as compared with 1915. There was little business in opium. The consumption of petroleum and its products decreased about 40% during the year on account of scarcity of tonnage, abnormally high freight rates, and the disturbed condition of South China. Metals were in strong demand throughout the year. The demand for Tin Plates was exceptionally strong. It was difficult to place orders for Structural Steel and Shipbuilding material as American mills were booked up. The total shipping entered and cleared during the year amounted to 642,794 vessels of 36,381,459 tons, an increase of 111,192 vessels and 2,496,538 tons over 1915.
Public Works.-The only building worthy of mention, completed during the year, was a new block of Quarters for Subordinate Officers (6 houses) on the east side of Happy Valley. Matsheds were erected at Castle Peak Bay for occupation as a Police Station. The Creek at Au Tau was bridged by a ferro-concrete bridge, thus linking up Castle Peak Bay with Fanling, Taipo, etc., and the widening of the road from near Sheung Shui to San Tin to 20 feet in width was completed. Upwards of 6,500 lineal feet of stream-courses were trained in the neighbourhood of the City, Aberdeen, and Pokfulam, and in Kowloon. Considerable extensions of sewers in connection with new buildings were carried out in Hong Kong and Kowloon. An additional filter-bed, being the fourth, in connection with the Kowloon Water Works, was constructed below the Taipo Road, near the 5th milestone. Somewhat extensive dredging operations off Kowloon Point in connection with the erection of a new pier, 655 feet in length, by the Hong Kong & Kowloon Wharf & Godown Company, were completed. An additional telephone cable, containing 20 cores, was laid across the Harbour but was unfortunately so seriously damaged by a vessel during a storm in September that it had to be taken up again. Good progress was made