Moreton Bay Chestnuts,
1
Bombax,
11. The following is a return of the trees planted since 1873, when I assumed office:-
Chum Firs,
55,849
Banyans and India-rubbers,
2,880
Casuarinas,
1,050
Australian Gums,
3,039
Bamboos,
1,087
Miscellaneous,
500
1,200
11,400
Total,..
76,455
15,290
Average number planted per annum,
12. However imposing this array of figures may look upon paper, the result is by no means so telling on the ground itself, and it is somewhat disheartening to think that after all, the entire seventy-six thousand trees have only sufficed to dot here and there a few streets and suburban roads, a ravine or two of Victoria Peak, and to cover but sparsely the small, isolated and insignificant patches of incipient forest to be seen on the mountain slopes overlooking the harbour, and which, from the contrast of their greenness and luxuriance, serve, like oases in the desert, only to remind one the more painfully of the glaring bareness of the surrounding hills.
13. I have made with deep interest an examination of the waste lands of this Colony capable of being wooded, and which are unfit for any better use. Freely excluding paddy-fields, meadows, and all ground cultivable for food or other productive purposes, as also foreshores, tidal swamps and all places too rocky, or otherwise unable to support vegetable life, I find the sites available for trees comprise about ten thousand acres.
14. Looking to the exposure of most of these sites to the force of the North-East monsoon, and especially to the action of typhoons, it would be necessary to plant the young trees somewhat thickly, so as to enable them to shelter one another; not less than four should be planted to every hundred square feet, or in other words 1,740 trees to the acre. For ten thousand acres then, we would require over seventeen million trees, and if our planting operations were continued at their present tortoise speed, viz., at the rate of 15,000 trees a year, it would take us eleven hundred years to complete the job.
15. But, although feasible, it may perhaps be too much to aspire to ten thousand acres of woods. I will, therefore, reduce my figures at once to five thousand acres, an area one third of which may be planted during the term of His Excellency's Administration without entailing any very serious outlay or throwing upon the Department over which I have the honour to preside any additional work which it may not grapple with if assisted, in the proper seasons, by hired or convict labour.
16. Before proceeding further, I should explain that one of the reasons why planting has been hitherto conducted upon such a sorry scale in this Colony, is to be found in the smallness of the Government tree nursery at Sokonpò, which will not hold more than fifteen thousand seedlings, and which is, therefore, unable to accommodate one year's sowing and the preceding year's trees at one and the same time. This will be the more readily understood, when it is borne in mind that the process of transplanting, partly dependent on the weather, extends sometimes over two months, and that owing to the young plants being still in their beds often as late as March, there is no ground available in which to sow the seeds that should be already germinating in February. For this reason, for instance, no seeds were gathered or sown by Mr. FORD, the gardener, in 1876, and there will, therefore, be no trees to plant next spring, a circumstance sufficiently mortifying.
17. A second though subordinate reason is the inadequacy of the present staff. If our operations are increased, it will not however be necessary to add very largely to the number of permanent foresters; journeymen coolies can be taken on and dismissed as occasion may require; the cost of these and six additional Foresters is given in the Estimate appended.
18. I had at one time feared that the difficulty of getting enough seeds might prevent our sowing as many as half a million each season, but the result of enquiries on this point is satisfactory. Taken at a prudently low estimate, I find the island and neighbouring islets will yield enough fir cones alone for that number of plants, while my correspondents at Amoy and Foochow advise me that fir cones are also procurable in those places. From Canton, I have not yet sufficiently reliable data to say whether seeds are to be easily had there, but I see no reason why they should not be. At all events, all doubt as to the sufficiency of seeds is now dispelled.
19. To turn out as many as five hundred thousand trees every spring, a nursery containing 14 or 15 acres would be required, also the annual services of sixty coolies for one month to collect seeds, as well as sixty coolies for two months to dig holes, to wrap and bind the plants with straw, and to convey them from the nursery to their destinations. In addition to this, the services of six permanent Foresters to act under the Head Forester as already stated would be necessary to keep the nursery in order.
20. Having as far back as the administration of Sir HERCULES ROBINSON disposed of all farm lands within easy distance of the City, the Government unfortunately does not now possess any ground available for a nursery, and for this purpose, it would be necessary to have recourse to a Government resumption of private land. There are some sufficiently large paddy fields at Sokonpoò, the property of Mr. GEORGE DUDDELL, and registered in the Land Office as Farm Lots Nos. 1, 2 and 5, which would suit, and which I think the owner would part with not very unwillingly, as he does not appear ever to have turned them to much account. I assess their value at $762.75, and would advise their being re-entered by the Crown. I am fain to recommend this course only after a fruitless search for suitable nursery sites elsewhere.
21. In addition to the outlay in its acquisition, the cost of draining and preparing the nursery, and purchasing seed and materials, will be $1,299, making a total prime cost of $2,061.75, while the succeeding yearly expenditure in labour and material will not exceed $1,610.00, a figure sufficiently moderate. I trust to recommend the project to His Excellency the Governor's favourable consideration.
22. If not inconsistent with future Gaol Regulations, it might be possible to reduce the estimate by employing long-sentenced convicts, or those whose term of punishment has already passed from the acute to the reformatory stage, to till the nursery, dig holes on the hill side and to carry trees, in which case item 4 and half of 6 in the appended Estimate might be struck out and the prime cost reduced to $1,436.75, while at the same time the yearly outlay might, by means of the same assistance, be brought down to $650 as shown in the Estimate.
561
23. During the first two years, the places to be planted out would be sufficiently close in to town to allow of convict labour, if available, being employed with safety, and I think it will be time enough when the plantation sites shall have receded to greater distances to consider the advisability of continuing the work with hired coolies. Independently, however, of the class of labour to be used, it is of great importance that the tree nursery itself should be in some district immediately suburban so as to ensure its efficient supervision by myself and my officers.
24. With reference to His Excellency the Governor's recommendation that the cocoanut palm should be more widely cultivated in this Colony where it thrives so well especially in the grounds and gardens of Kowloon, I would propose to make this tree enter largely into the varieties to be planted in the future. None better can be selected for the sea shores or other salt low lying places of the Island and Kowloon, and its powers of resistance to typhoons is no small qualification in its favour. Cocoanuts sprouted in the husk for the purposes of seed may be had in large quantities from Manila at from five to seven cents a piece, and we might begin by purchasing and planting five thousand during the forthcoming year. The first palm-groves might be appropriately planted in the sandy open grounds near the Bowrington Canal and in the Bowrington Compound. That neighbourhood is the Hyde Park of Hongkong and has been for the last quarter of a century the only evening health drive which the European Community has boasted of, owing however to the salt and sandy nature of the soil it has defied whatever attempts may have been made to cultivate it, and it remains to this day unattractive and shadeless.
25. It is the opinion of competent professional persons, that by a judicious selection of hardy classes of plants to suit the peculiar conditions of different localities in regard to soil, moisture, shelter from prevailing winds, temperature, and altitude above sea level, there will be no difficulty in forming forests of many varieties of trees. Of the productiveness of the ground under a moderate amount of fertilization and tillage, we already possess ample proof in the vegetation we have reared, while in respect of climate, its capabilities may be best judged by the fact that firs and cocoanut palms, the typical trees of countries so widely differing as Norway and the Sahara, are here to be seen flourishing side by side.
26. It is unnecessary to descant upon the benefits which the realization of this project of increased tree-planting promises to Hongkong. It is universally acknowledged that the improved health of the Colony is in a great measure due to the little that has already been done in clothing the granite with arborescent vegetation, and His Excellency will not have failed, in the short time he has been among us, to notice how general and fervent is the hope that the Government will not slacken its exertions in the good work.
I have the honour to be,
Your obedient Servant,
The Honourable CECIL C. SMITH,
Acting Colonial Secretary.
Sir,
J. M. PRICE,
Surveyor General.
ESTIMATE OF COST OF PLANTING HALF-A-MILLION OF TREES PER ANNUM.
1. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 1, 209.40 2. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 2, 196.20 3. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 5, 306.15 4. Draining and preparing ground, 500.00 5. Fencing waste ground at Bowrington, 150.00 6. Manuring and preparing same, 250.00 7. Purchase of 5,000 Cocoanuts, at 7 cents, 350.00 Total Prime Cost, $2,061.75 8. Contingencies, 100.00 Note.--If convict labour be used, item 4 may be omitted, and item 6 brought down to one-half, reducing the total to $1,436.75Moreton Bay Chestnuts,
1
Bombax,
11. The following is a return of the trees planted since 1873, when I assumed office:-
Chum Firs,
55,849
2.880
1,050
3,039
1,087
500
1,200
11,400
Total,..
76,455
15,290
Banyans and India-rubbers,
Casuarinas,
Australian Gams, -
Bamboos,
Miscellaneous,
Average number planted per annum,
12. However imposing this array of figures may look upon paper, the result is by no means so telling on the ground itself, and it is somewhat disheartening to think that after all, the entire seventy- six thousand trees have only sufficed to dot here and there a few streets and suburban roads, a ravine or two of Victoria Peak, and to cover but sparsely the small, isolated and insignificant patches of incipient forest to be seen on the mountain slopes overlooking the harbour, and which, from the contrast of their greenness and luxuriance, serve, like oases in the desert, only to remind one the more painfully of the glaring bareness of the surrounding hills.
13. I bave made with deep interest an examination of the waste lands of this Colony capable of being wooded, and which are unfit for any better use. Freely excluding paddy-fields, meadows, and all ground cultivable for food or other productive purposes, as also foreshores, tidal swamps and all places too rocky, or otherwise unable to support vegetable life, find the sites available for trees comprise about ten thousand acres.
14. Looking to the exposure of most of these sites to the force of the North-East monsoon, and especially to the action of typhoons, it would be necessary to plant the young trees somewhat thickly, so as to enable them to shelter one another; not less than four should be planted to every hundred square feet, or in other words 1,740 trees to the acre. For ten thousand acres then, we would require over seventeen million trees, and if our planting operations were continued at their present tortoise speed, viz., at the rate of 15,000 trees a year, it would take us eleven hundred years to complete the job.
15. But, although feasible, it may perhaps be too much to aspire to ten thousand acres of woods. I will, therefore, reduce my figures at once to five thousand acres, an area one third of which may be planted during the term of His Excellency's Administration without entailing any very serious outlay or throwing upon the Departinent over which I have the honour to preside any additional work which it may not grapple with if assisted, in the proper seasons, by hired or convict labour.
16. Before proceeding further, I should explain that one of the reasons why planting has been hitherto conducted upon such a sorry scale in this Colony, is to be found in the smullness of the Government tree nursery at Sokonpò, which will not hold more than fifteen thousand seedlings, and which is, therefore, unable to accommodate one year's sowing and the preceding year's trees at one and the same time. This will be the more readily understood, when it is borne in mind that the process of transplanting, partly dependent on the weather, extends sometimes over two months, and that owing to the young plants being still in their beds often as late as March, there is no ground available in which to sow the seeds that should be already germinating in February. For this reason, for instance, no seeds were gathered or sown by Mr. FORD, the gardener, in 1876, and there will, therefore, be no trees to plant next spring, a circumstance sufficiently mortifying.
17. A second though subordinate reason is the inadequacy of the present staff. If our operations are increased, it will not however be necessary to add very largely to the number of permanent foresters, journeymen coolies can be taken on and dismissed as occasion may require; the cost of these and six additional Foresters is given in the Estimate appended.
18. I had at one time feared that the difficulty of getting enough seeds might prevent our sowing as many as half a million each season, but the result of enquiries on this point is satisfactory. Taken at a prudently low estimate, I find the island and neighbouring islets will yield enough fir cones alone for that number of plants, while my correspondents at Amoy and Foochow advise me that fir cones are also procurable in those places. From Canton, I have not yet sufficiently reliable data to say whether seeds are to be easily had there, but I see no reason why they should not be. At all events, all doubt as to the sufficiency of seeds is now dispelled.
19. To turn out as many as five hundred thousand trees every spring, a nursery containing 14 or 15 acres would be required, also the annual services of sixty coolics for one month to collect seeds, as well as sixty coolies for two months to dig holes, to wrap and bind the plants with straw, and to convey them from the nursery to their destinations. In addition to this, the services of six permanent Foresters to act under the Head Forester as already stated would be necessary to keep the nursery in order. 20. Having as far back as the administration of Sir HERCULES ROBINSON disposed of all farm lands within easy distance of the City, the Government unfortunately does not now possess any ground available for a nursery, and for this purpose, it would be necessary to have recourse to a Government resumption of private land. There are some sufficiently large paddy fields at Sokonpoò, the property of Mr. GEORGE DUDDELL, and registered in the Land Office as Farm Lots Nos. 1, 2 and 5, which would
suit, and which I think the owner would part with not very unwillingly, as he does not appear ever to have turned them to much account. I assess their value at $762.75, and would advise their being re-entered by the Crown. I am fain to recommend this course only after a fruitless search for suitable
nursery sites elsewere.
21. In addition to the outlay in its acquisition, the cost of draining and preparing the nursery, and purchasing seed and materials, will be $1,299, making a total prime cost of $2,061.75, while the succeeding yearly expenditure in labour and material will not exceed $1,610.00, a figure sufficiently moderate. I trust, to recommend the project to His Excellency the Governor's favourable consideration. 22. If not inconsistent with future Gaol Regulations, it might be possible to reduce the estimate by employing long-sentenced convicts, or those whose term of punishment has already passed from the acute to the reformnatory stage, to till the nursery, dig holes on the hill side and to carry trees, in which case item 4 and half of 6 in the appended Estimate might be struck out and the prime cost reduced to $1,436.75, while at the same time the yearly outlay might, by means of the same assistance, be brought down to $650 as shewn in the Estimate.
561
23. During the first two years, the places to be planted ont would be sufficiently close in to town to allow of convict labour, if available, being employed with safety, and I think it will be time enough when the plantation sites shall have receded to greater distances to consider the advisability of continuing the work with hired coolies. Independently, however, of the class of labour to be used, it is of great importance that the tree nursery itself should be in some district immediately suburban so as to ensure its efficient supervision by myself and my officers.
24. With reference to His Excellency the Governor's recommendation that the cocoanut palm should be more widely cultivated in this Colony where it thrives so well especially in the grounds and gardens of Kowloon, I would propose to make this tree enter largely into the varieties to be planted in the future. None better can be selected for the sea shores or other salt low lying places of the Island and Kowloon, and its powers of resistance to typhoons is no small qualification in its favour. Cocoanuts sprouted in the husk for the purposes of seed may be had in large quantities from Manila at from five to seven cents a piece, and we might begin by purchasing and planting five thousand during the forthcoming year. The first palm-groves might be appropriately planted in the sandy open grounds near the Bowrington Canal and in the Bowrington Compound. That neighbourhood is the Hyde Park of Hongkong and has been for the last quarter of a century the only evening health drive which the European Community has boasted of, owing however to the salt and sandy nature of the soil it has defied whatever attempts may have been made to cultivate it, and it remains to this day unattractive and shadeless.
25. It is the opinion of competent professional persons, that by a judicious selection of hardy classes of plants to suit the peculiar conditions of different localities in regard to soil, moisture, shelter from prevailing winds, temperature, and altitude above sea level, there will be no difficulty in forming forests of many varieties of trees. Of the productiveness of the ground under a moderate amount of fertilization and tillage, we already possess ample proof in the vegetation we have reared, while in respect of climate, its capabilities may be best judged by the fact that firs and cocoanut palms, the typical trees of countries so widely differing as Norway and the Sahara, are here to be seen flourishing side by side.
26. It is unnecessary to descant upon the benefits which the realization of this project of increased tree-planting promises to Hongkong. It is universally acknowledged that the improved health of the Colony is in a great measure due to the little that has already been done in clothing the granite with arborescent vegetation, and His Excellency will not have failed, in the short time he has been among us, to notice how general and fervent is the hope that the Government will not slacken its exertions in the good work.
I have the honour to be.
Your obedient Servant,
The Honourable CECIL C. SMITH,
Acting Colonial Secretary.
Sir,
J. M. PRICE,
Surveyor General.
ESTIMATE OF COST OF PLANTING HALF-A-MILLION OF TREES PER ANNUM.
1. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 1,
Estimate of Prime Cost.
2. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 2,
3. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 5,
4. Draining and preparing ground,
5. Fencing waste ground at Bowrington,
6. Manuring and preparing same,-
7. Purchase of 5,000 Cocoanuts, at 7 cents,
Total Prime Cost,..............
8. Contingencies,
Note.--If convict labour be used, item 4 may be omitted, and item 6
brought down to one-half, reducing the total to
209.40
196.20
306.15
500.00
150.00
250.00
350.00
100.00
.$2,061.75
$1,436.75
W
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