CO129-294 - Governor Sir Blake - 1899 [10-12] — Page 451

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No plans or details of the building have yet been laid before the Public Works Committee in connection with the Governor's Peak Residence for their approval, and no money has been voted for it, yet money is being spent on the site.

11. The most important and most pressing public building is undoubtedly the Post Office. Fifteen years ago it was reported in the plainest language that the present Post Office was much too small for the work which had to be done in it. In 1896 a strong Committee reported—

"The accommodation in the Post Office, in spite of the recent arrangement by which the offices of the Attorney General and Crown Solicitor have been placed at the disposal of the Department, is so cramped that there is not sufficient room to sort two heavy mails at a time, while the space devoted to the business of the Parcels Post is insufficient to secure the safe custody of parcels."

There has been a vast increase in the business of the Post Office since that report was written. There are many more mails coming in. There will soon be a fortnightly German mail in addition. Captain HASTINGS' reports emphasize more emphatically the need of space and the impossibility of working the Post Office with ordinary success without more space. The easy and successful working of the Post Office is of the first importance not merely for the business of Hongkong but of all China and Japan. The Post Office is a most successful revenue-making Department, yet the construction of a new Post Office is put off until the Law Courts are finished, in other words, ad Kalendas Graecas, for no one knows when the new Law Courts will be commenced. Government land previously appropriated for the purpose is lying idle. Interest is being lost on the money sunk in its reclamation; it is abundantly ample in size for a first-class Post Office and most conveniently situated; it is a site deliberately selected by a strong Committee in 1896 for the purposes of a Post Office, whose report was approved by the Governor and Council and not objected to by the Secretary of State.

Messrs. COOPER, THOMSON, CHATER, MCCONACHIE, and Sir THOMAS JACKSON were the members of the Committee. Their opinions and recommendations were set aside in 1898 in Public Works Committee by the vote of the Chairman only, the Director of Public Works, newly arrived in the Colony.

However strong may be the arguments from convenience in favour of the site of the present Post Office and Supreme Court for the construction of the new Post Office, they become valueless, and worse than valueless, when it is discovered that the site cannot be made use of for an unknown period, not less, at the very least, than five or six years.

It may be that the present site is the more convenient and the more central for the new Post Office and Treasury than the Reclamation site (although there is much to be said on both sides and the older and more experienced men in the Colony favour the latter and think that in a very short time it will be the true centre of the Colony), but these arguments, if they were very much more cogent than they are, must surely give way to the contention that on the Reclamation site a new and perfect Post Office could be completed in two years from date; (there are local architects who could most certainly do the work if the Government are unable to do it), while if the present site is to be the site of the new Post Office we must drag along in our present discreditable state for five years more, going from bad to worse each year as business grows.

As to the financial aspects of the case, a letter from the undersigned to the Chamber of Commerce of the 17th ultimo (copy attached) shows clearly that the Treasury would profit largely by the removal of the Post Office and Supreme Court from their present position and by the sale of the land.

If the Public Works Department were properly manned or if private enterprise were availed of, there is no reason why both the new Law Courts and the Post Office should not go on together.

12. Next in order to the Sanitary Works already indicated, and to the Shelter at Victoria Gap and to the Post Office, would appear to come in importance the speedy extension of our means of obtaining, storing, and distributing Water. The waterworks are estimated to bring in a revenue to the Colony in 1900 of $132,000. The actual cost of maintenance is estimated at $19,700, leaving a balance to credit of Water Account of, say, $112,300. It is proposed to spend on Water Account a sum of $73,000: $15,000 in carrying out the Taitam Extension, $27,000 on waterworks in Victoria and the Hill District, $11,000 on meters, &c., and $20,000 on water supply in Kowloon.

In respect of this latter item no plans appear to have been prepared or submitted, and therefore in obedience to the Secretary of State's instructions of 18th April, 1890, no money can properly be asked for or voted for this work.

The Unofficial Members of Council formally protested in a memorandum dated 20th December, 1890, laid on the Council table on 22nd idem, against being asked to vote monies for works in respect of which no plans, statements or details of any kind had been prepared and submitted and of which they had not approved. It is deeply to be regretted that with the experience of past years before us and with the rapid and rapidly increasing growth of the population in the island of Hongkong, no greater expenditure than $15,000 is proposed for 1900 in adding to our means of Water Supply in the City of Victoria. An abundant supply is indispensable to the health of the Colony; a continuous supply throughout the year and especially towards the end of the dry season is absolutely essential for the effective operation of our separate system of sewage disposal. The separate system depends wholly on a perennial supply of water at all hours of the day and night for its successful working. It was sanctioned on the assurance that abundance of water would be found and every floor in every Chinese house was provided with water works on that assurance. Every year for months the supply has been intermittent only. No effort should be spared to provide for a continuous water supply. A vote of $15,000 not merely for our present but for the growing population, for additional water supply in the island is wholly inadequate.

If the Staff is not strong enough to carry on the works necessary for an enlarged supply, it would be economy—true economy—to get a separate staff of Engineers equal to the work, as was done when the Taitam Reservoir was taken in hand, and establish a separate department. The Colonial Revenue is three millions and a quarter. The ordinary expenses of government and of the maintenance of existing works is two millions and three quarters. There is roughly half a million a year available for Extraordinary Public Works together with the surpluses from past years.

13. In conclusion, the first place in point of urgency should be given, in the appropriation of the Colonial Funds for Extra Works, to the sanitary wants of the Colony and among the sanitary wants of the Colony there stands in the forefront the pressing necessity of getting rid of the causes, or of any possible causes, of the visitations of plague. In that connection the necessity for an adequate number of Latrines comes first, and no estimate for 1900 which does not provide for this can be satisfactory. Perhaps the next most important public work from the point of view of health is the water supply. The increase of the water supply is hardly a work to be completed, like the latrines, in a few months. It should be continuous work to be completed over a number of years, but the amount allotted for it each year should bear a large proportion to the total amount of money available.

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