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Inclosure 4 in No. 1.
Whangpu Conservancy Board to M. Siffert.
Office of the Whangpu Conservancy Board, Shanghae,
July 31, 1907.
Sir.
IN accordance with the stipulations of Article 4 of the Agreement, signed in Peking on the 27th September, 1905, regarding the establishment of a Board, and with reference to our Report of the 20th April and previous Reports on this subject, we have now the honour to write as follows for the information of the Consular Body regarding conservancy matters for the period 1st April to the 30th June, 1907 :--
2. Appointments, &c., to Conservancy Staff.—(a.) Foreign Staff-Mr. E. A. Smith (British) was appointed storekeeper from the 1st May, 1907; M. G. Frederickson (Swede), overseer from the 1st June; also M. G. Kipke (German).
(b.) Native Staff-Mr. Kuang Han Kuang was appointed to the Pay Department from the 1st April; Mr. Shao Wei Tang, head tracer, resigned from the 15th June on account of ill-health; Mr. Y. T. Fon, survey clerk, from similar reasons. was replaced by Mr. K. S. Pai. There were a few other unimportant changes.
The latter
3. Land purchased at Gough Island.-Fifteen title-deeds, representing mow 607.0.7.9 of land purchased at either end of Gough Island for 18,212:37 Shanghae taels, were sent by the Taotai to the Conservancy Office and deposited in the Secretary's safe.
4. Tenders for Large Works.-On the strong recommendation of the Engineer-in- chief, M. de Rijke, it was decided to accept the tenders of the Dutch firm, Messrs. Ten Bokkel Hainink, Korthals Altes, van Thiel de Vries and Co., for the construction of the large training jetty at Woosung, to cost about 2,000,000 Shanghae taels, and for dredging purposes to expend a similar amount.
5. Work accomplished, &c.—The following details are from M. de Rijke's Report to the Conservancy Board for the June quarter:---
(a.) Shore defence above Telegraph Creek.-Though gabbioni dumping preventing undermining by currents, the high water bank fell away in places on account of the wash of steamers. In order to prevent this, ballast stone was thrown, so as to form moles above low water. This stone can be recovered and used elsewhere when the route of the shipping is directed to junk channel.
(b) Shore defence at Bar Mark-Here the under shore has been fortified by dumping 164 gabbioni in tiers over a shore length of 300 feet; 20 of these gabbioni in the lowest tiers are 30 feet long instead of the usual 24 feet. The slope above low water has been dressed with brush-wood and stone. Although the receding of the Pootang shore is much less than last year, it is found that more defence works will be necessary before the stream along ship channel can be sufficiently restrained.
(c) Shore defence lower end of Gough Island. During April, for a length of 150 feet, the shore had to be dressed with brush-wood and stone to stop caving caused by wave action.
(d.) Shoals below Gough Island.-Dumping the gabbioni, which form the edges of the parallel dams, and of the six cribs on junk channel side, was completed by the end of April.
(e) sink Work. The sinking and placing of the bottom layer of brush-wood ("zinkstuks") in the long parallel dam was commenced on the 19th April, and had since continued uninterruptedly. By the end of June, 17,830 square yards of " zinkstuks" had been sunk, covering a length of 1,150 yards from the island to about 210 yards from the end of the dam. The breadth of the bottom layer is 45 feet, the usual measurements of the "zinkstuks" 120 by 45 feet. It is very satisfactory to note that a large part of the brush-wood has already silted up and become indestructible.
(f.) Crib Work on the South Side of Junk Channel.-The large training work below "Duke End" consists of three cribs, connected with a parallel dam, and having an aggregate length of nearly 1 miles. Dumping gabbionis for the bottom layer of this was commenced early in May with three pontoons, and completed in June. In order to check the currents in this (the wrong) direction, which are still tending to increase, dumping gabbionis on the top of the bottom layer has been vigorously continued. The proper and economical method of raising the crib works would be with layers of "zinkstuks" along the gabbioni, but tais is impossible till the twelve sinkworkers engaged in Holland arrive. They are due in August. For the two double cribs at and below
"salient," gabbioni dumping commenced early in June; the bottom layers are nearly completed.
At
(g.) Gough Island Dyke and Store Places.-The new dyke from one end of the island to the other is now complete to its full height of 17 feet above low water. the upper end of the island, inside the new dyke, a space of ground, occupying an area of about 15 mow, has been raised from 8 ft. 5 in. to 15 feet above low water for storing materials. The large bamboo shed and materials in store near Telegraph Creek have been brought here and new supplies of brush-wood landed. At the lower end of the island a much smaller space has been raised for similar
purposes.
Great difficulty is experienced in the Gough Island reach in landing and storing materials on account of the shoals, and because the land lying so low is flooded by high tides, No materials that float can be stored on the Pootung side of the island till the land is raised. Four culverts were built underneath the dyke in order not to interfere with the drainage of the cultivated land on Gough Island.
6. Houses, &c.-The dwelling-house and office near the Woosung forts will probably be ready by the end of July. The Messageries Maritimes Company having granted us permission to build on their property near Woosung Station, as well as giving us a new lease for five years on very liberal terms, estimates have been made, and a contract draw up for building a large house for the staff on this side.
In this connection it may be mentioned that the Shanghae-Nanking Railway Directors have kindly consented to establish a flag station at this junction instead of the present station, which is, we understand, to be done away with.
7. Plant.-Two more pontoons have been built and fitted for dumping gabbionis, so that we have now five pontoons regularly at work. Two launches, the "Chun Pao" and a hired one, are daily in use transporting materials and coolies and towing "zinkstuks" to where they are sunk. The small launch "Lee Chi" is steadily at survey work. Eight hired cargo boats were at work in April, twelve in May, and sixteen in June, besides sampans.
8. Survey Work.A new survey of junk channel, lately commenced, will soon be ready and wapped out, but from the soundings it is clear that the stream along junk channel, especially during the flood, has increased, but not in the desired "direction between the normal lines, where, on the contrary, more silting is perceptible. As no dredgers are yet available, all that can be done to remedy this is to dump gabbioni in the dyke end crib work, where, as noted above, three pontoons are daily at this work.
Mr. Muller's quarterly survey report states the survey of the river has been completed from the arsenal to 3,400 feet above Lung Hua Pagoda Creck, a distance of 2 miles. The shore line from Pheasant Point to Fisherman's Cross remeasured and sounding lines run 400 feet apart from Pheasant Point to Kajow Creek.
The zeros of all tide gauges (15) have been fixed to permanent marks on shore. Two lots of land outside Woosung Lighthouse and two between signal station and limit beacon have been remeasured. The normal line has been marked outside the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha property below Yangking Creek. The Ocean Steam-ship Company and China Navigation Company properties above Yangking Creek were measured to ascertain the area of reclaimed land to be gained by building out to 50 feet inside the normal line.
The land between the native waterworks and French waterworks was measured and levelled.
Two sounding lines were run three times between the cribs outside the dyke end station (junk channel) to learn the effect laying gabbioni has had. A survey of the land between Woosung Lighthouse and Woosung Fort was completed and plotted. The large scale (ab) maps of the whole survey-Woosung outer bar to above Lang Hua Pagoda Creek, a distance of 19 miles--have been reduced to a scale of 16, and can now be printed, &c.
9. Detail of Works.-Workmen employed during the quarter-coolies, boatmen, watchmen, fascine workers, &c.--represented :-
In April In May
In June
[2692 e-3]
Total
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:
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Days' Wagee.
4,997
5,476
7,217
17,690
0
338
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