CO129-283 - Acting Governor Major Gen Black - 1898 [5-6] — Page 182

YAS

YAWJZVAD

t

Enclosure

178

To

His Excellency

Sir William Robinson, G. C.M.G,

Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of Hongkong

and Vice-Admiral.

The Memorial and Petition of the undersigned

Residents of Hongkong.

RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH -

1. That the population of the Colony of Hongkong is steadily increasing, cach

year shewing, on the average, an addition to the Chinese population of upwards of six thousand men women and children; that the European population is also gradually increasing in numbers; that from the altered conditions of trade and commerce men are now compelled to remain in the Colony for much longer periods than heretofore and are marrying and settling down here with the result that the juvenile population is very largely augmented, and that a very considerable proportion of them are being educated and brought up in the Colony, instead of, as formerly, being sent to Europe.

2. That within the limits of the City of Victoria all available land is being closely built over; houses are rising in height to three, four, and five stories; the consumption of coal instead of wood is largely increasing as are also manufacturing industries of various kinds, with the result that within the City, even on the upper roads, it is difficult to get the pure air exercise and recreation that is essential for the preservation of health in this climate.

3. That the necessity therefore for open spaces outside of the limits of the City is becoming daily more manifest and more urgent, and that the one piece of ground now appropriated to the use of the public-the area within the Race Course in the Wong-Nei-Chong valley-is insufficient for the needs and requirements of the population.

4. That in addition to the civil population there is always present in the Colony a garrison of over three thousand men, and, at some period of each year, generally during the winter months, a large naval force is in the harbour of Hongkong for which provision has to be made, and that at such times the accommodation for recreation in the Wong-Nei-Chong Recreation Ground is wholly insufficient and will still be insufficient even after the piece of land to the northward along the banks of the Bowrington Canal has been added thereto.

5. That there is now vacant and unappropriated at Causeway Bay a limited area of level ground, open to the sea and easily accessible by road, now tempor- arily used, under permission from the Governinent, for purposes of recreation;