300*
:
Ki
100
increasing the Shipping Dues for general purposes out-
side the needs of the harbour;" and does not (except in a private letter) allude to the possibility of in- creasing the Assessed Taxes which in 33303 the Officer Administering Government deprecated and we in reply put forward again.
J
The Governor, however, proposes to provide for certain "productive" Public Works out of a loan. The cost of these works, which are to be spread over five or six years, is estimated at $2,244,000 in all. This estimate is by the Director of Public Works.
In June, 1902, he estirated the Waterworks schemes in- cluded in the present list at $2,181,000
adding that some of the estimates were "mere guess work", but he thought they might "be regarded as minimum figures". He has now added to them a portion of the cost of the Western Market, on which about $150,000 remains to be spent; the remaining $8,000 to be spent on the Tai Po Road; and part of the cost of the Road from Sham-shui- po to Lai-chi-kok, which will cost $43,000 in all. The estimate must, I think, be received with caution. The expenditure during 1903 on these works is put down at $562,000 (ahout one-fourth of the whole $2,250,000).
The votes for Public Works (including every- thing) amount to a total of $1,626,449.50, as com- pared with $1,252,517.68, estimated for 1902, and $820,565.86 actually spent in 1901. The 1903 expend-
iture is as follows:-
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