1887-1903
HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
21
keeper or cable communication with the rock, as soon as the light is in operation.
59. Owing to these various causes, I expect that both the construction and maintenance of the lighthouse will cost more than was at first anticipated; but even if the expense should be considerably greater there can be no doubt that the object would be fully worth it. Considering that vessels of an aggregate burthen of fully 2 millions of tons annually reach Hong Kong from the south, and that all those which arrive on dark nights or in obscure weather are subject to delay and danger (sometimes for many hours) which would be for the most part precluded by this lighthouse with its warning fog-horn, it may readily be estimated how enormously valuable will be this work to the trade of the Colony. Indeed it is a matter for surprise that more vigorous efforts were not long ago made to secure so great a benefit.
59
60. A serious outbreak on the part of convicts employed on works in gangs outside the gaol took place in the month of September 1888, and resulted in the death of a valuable officer besides that of two of the prisoners, killed while violently resisting recapture. My serious attention having thus been attracted to this subject, I found that similar events had occurred not unfrequently in the past, and I became satisfied that, without an utterly disproportionate expense for guards, they were not likely to be prevented in the future, so many are the chances of escape offered by the situation of the island, and increased, as there is every reason to believe, by the powerful secret societies of China, which devote themselves to the assistance of criminals in confinement. A report from the Surveyor General strongly deprecating the use of convict labour on public works under ordinary circumstances strengthened the doubt which I had previously entertained as to its economical value in a Colony where free labour is so cheap, and completely satisfied me that with any additional expense for guards it would mean actual loss. Being, moreover, convinced, both by medical opinion and from the results of experience, that the working of the convicts outside was not at all necessary to their health, I, under all the circumstances, determined that they should for the future be confined to the precincts of the gaol, and I am glad to say that, in the 10 months which have since elapsed, there has been no cause whatever to regret the decision.
61. In May of this year occurred the severest storm of rain and thunder ever experienced in the Colony. During 36 hours there fell some 38 inches of rain, and lightning was constant during the whole time, fifty flashes and more being occasionally observable in a single minute. The effect upon a place situated, as is Victoria, on the lower slopes of a ridge of high hills may be easily imagined. Landslips caused the discharge of many thousands of tons of loosened stones and earth upon the lower levels, uprooting trees, filling reservoirs, blocking and bursting sewers, and raising some of the waterside streets from 6 to 10 feet above their natural level. In one place a strong stone and brick sewer was burst and the 19-feet-deep earth above it was carried away, leaving a gap 300
1887-1903
HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
21
keeper or cable communication with the rock, as soon as the light is in operation.
59. Owing to these various causes, I expect that both the construction and maintenance of the lighthouse will cost more than was at first anticipated; but even if the expense should be con- siderably greater there can be no doubt that the object would be fully worth it. Considering that vessels of an aggregate burthen of fully 2 millions of tons annually reach Hong Kong from the south, and that all those which arrive on dark nights or in obscure weather are subject to delay and danger (sometimes for many hours) which would be for the most part precluded by this light- house with its warning fog-horn, it may readily be estimated how enormously valuable will be this work to the trade of the Colony. Indeed it is a matter for surprise that more vigorous efforts were not long ago made to secure so great a benefit.
59
60. A serious outbreak on the part of convicts employed on works in gangs outside the gaol took place in the month of Sep- tember 1888, and resulted in the death of a valuable officer besides that of two of the prisoners, killed while violently resisting recapture. My serious attention having thus been attracted to this subject, I found that similar events had occurred not unfre- quently in the past, and I became satisfied that, without an utterly disproportionate expense for guards, they were not likely to be prevented in the future, so many are the chances of escape offered by the situation of the island, and increased, as there is every reason to believe, by the powerful secret societies of China, which devote themselves to the assistance of criminals in confinement. A report from the Surveyor General strongly deprecating the use of convict labour on public works under ordinary circumstances strengthened the doubt which I had previously entertained as to its economical value in a Colony where free labour is so cheap, and completely satisfied me that with any additional
expense for guards it would mean actual loss. Being, morcover, convinced, both by medical opinion and from the results of experience, that the working of the convicts outside was not at all necessary to their health, I, under all the circumstances, determined that they should. for the future be confined to the precincts of the gaol, and I am glad to say that, in the 10 months which have since elapsed, there has been no cause whatever to regret the decision.
61. In May of this year occurred the severest storm of rain and thunder ever experienced in the Colony. During 36 hours there fell some 38 inches of rain, and lightning was constant during the whole time, fifty flashes and more being occasionally observable in a single minute. The effect upon a place situated, as is Victoria, on the lower slopes of a ridge of high hills may be easily imagined. Landslips caused the discharge of many thousands of tons of loosened stones and earth upon the lower levels, uprooting trees, filling reservoirs, blocking and bursting sewers, and raising some of the waterside streets from 6 to 10 feet above their natural level. In one place a strong stone and brick sewer was burst and the 19-feet-deep earth above it was carried away, leaving a gap 300
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