CO129-334 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [5-7] — Page 519

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the breezes from the Lyemun Pass or in tainting those

breezes with Chinese smells. The reclamation will be for

the terminus of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, and it is impro-

bable that the station yard will obstruct or contaminate

the air passing to the barracks at a considerably higher

level.

3.

Paragraphs 2, 3 and 5 of the letter deal

with the general question of buildings interfering with the

fire of works of defence as well as with the special case

of those that may be erected on the proposed reclamation in

the neighbourhood of North Point. On the general question

it will be sufficient at present to point out that any

restriction in building on reclamations of the seabed on

account of defences, erected on sites selected for the

interior defence of the harbour at a time when the condi-

tions of attack and the range of guns were very different

than they are today, will not only tend to stop the develop-

ment of the trade of the Colony, but by limiting the avail-

able area for the extension of the city will perpetuate the

overcrowding to which the constant recurrence of plague

epidemics in it has been largely attributed.

Turning now to the special case of the North

Point reclamation, Your Lordship will observe that I have

pointed out to the General Officer Commanding that the

assumption