CO129-391 - Acting Governor Claud Severn Governor Sir May - 1912 [7-8] — Page 14

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and 40 Grant Vernacular Schools. The averago attendance at all these Lower Grade Schools is 2,196. The total average attendance,

at both grades of school, is 6,303,

The revenue derived from school fees was $76,056.25 (of which $40,435 was from Queen's College).

Two schools are limited to children of British parentage. Both these schools (one for boys, the other for girls) are under the Govern- Tent. In 1911 the combined average attendance at them was 76.

Higher education is represented by the Technical Institute, where instruction is given in the evening in Mathematics, Machine Drawing, Building Construction, Field Surveying and allied sub- jects; in Chemistry and Physics; in the English and French languages, Book-keeping and Shorthand. There is also a Teachers' Class, at which the junior Chinese masters of Government and Grant Schools are expected to attend. A Kindergarten Class has also been started for teachers in Girls' Schools. The Institute is furnished with a well equipped laboratory. The lecturers are chiefly Civil Servants recruited from the European staffs of Queen's College and the Public Works Department. These officers receive fees for their services.

The Hongkong University building, the gift of Sir Hormusjee Mody, was almost completed at the end of the year and was opened in March, 1912. It is expected to be open for teaching in the autumn of this year. The first chairs will be those of Medicine, Engineering and Arts. On 31st December, 1911, the Endowment Fund amounted to $839,970.11 in Hongkong currency and a sum £40,098 7s. 3d. in sterling.

V-PUBLIC WORKS,

Of the important works in progress, the Post Office was com- pleted by the middle of the year and the following departments were accommodated on three floors of the building :-Post Office, Treasury, Registrar General's Department, Sanitary Department, Education Department, the District Office for the South of the New Territories and the Audit Department. The extensive basement was partly utilized for postal purposes and partly for the storage of materials required by the Sanitary Department. A fourth floor, which is intended to provide for future expansion, remains unoccupied. but it has been decided to let it for offices in the meanwhile. The Law Courts were practically completed. Substantial progress was made with the Mongkokisui Breakwater, but all the work executed was invisible, being helow low water level. A. contract for the reconstruction of the old Western Market was let in September, and fair progress with the foundations had been made by the close of the

year.

The following buildings were completed:-Kowloon Market; Additions to No. 2 Police Station; Staff Quarters, Kennedy Town Hospital; Police Station, Ts'ün Wan; Reconstruction of Government Pavilions; Hospital at the Quarantine Station, Lai Chi Kok; Work-

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shops and Sheds for Ambulances at the City Disinfecting Station; Coal Shed, Tai Po; Latrines in Mee Lun Tane and Rutter Street and a Trough Closet in Queen's Road West under the ramp leading to the Government Civil Hospital. The following building-works were in erection --Sanitary Office in Wantsai District; Additional Storey and Extensions, Yaumati English School; Market and Slaughter House, Aberdeen; Stables, Yaumati Disinfecting Station; Quarters for Searchers, Imports & Exports Office; Lighthouse and Quarters, Kap Sing Island; an extension of the Maternity Hospital and the Reconstruction of Coolie Quarters at the City Slaughter Houses to admit of the provision of further accommodation for slaughtering pigs.

The diversion of Wongreichong Road past Inland Lot 1698 was completed and extended northwards to join the permanent align- meut of that section of the road which had previously been formed. The area formerly occupied by No. 2 Tank was filled in. A path from Bowen Road to May Road, bifurcating towards the latter road, was completed and paths from Boundary Path to Keandey Road and from Chamberlain Road to Plantation Road were in progress. A diversion of Bonham Road to admit of an extension of Inland Lot 751 was also in progress, the necessary works being executed at the A road to the site of a expense of the lessees of the lot mentioned. proposed Japanese Crematorium in Sookoupon Valley was completed. In the New Territories, the sections of road extending from Ping Shan to Au Tan and from San Tin to Au Ha Gap were completed. As it was decided to utilize the last-named section for a light railway, to extend from Fan Ling Railway Station to Sha Tau Kok, the neces- sary extension of the road to the latter place was abandoned, a track for the light railway taking its place. The construction of this track and the laying of the light railway were carried out by the Railway Administration. A pier was constructed in Castle Paak Bay and connected with the road to Ping Shan and Au Tau.

The training of some of the nullahs he waen Bowen Road and Magazine Clap to the eastward of the Military Hospital was completed, and a considerable amount of such work was executed to the south of Magazine Cap in the valley below the Military Sanitarium, the A consider- Military Authorities sharing the cost of the latter work. able length of the nullah at No. 12 Bridge, Shaukiwan, was also trained and the stream past Pokfulam Village was chann lled aud otherwise improved. In Kowloon, an extension of the nullah in Waterloo Road to the north of No. 4 Railway Bridge was carried out. Underground tanks were constructed at the junction of Arbuthnot Road and Wyndham Street ani in Stone Nullah Lane for the purpose of flashing the low-level sewers, the messary con- nections with the sewerage system being madle. Tho laying of a sewer in Craigmin Road to intercept the drainage from houses on the southern slopes of Mount Gongh, &c., was undertaken and con- Extensive nections with a number of the houses were carried out. drainage works were also executed in Shaukiwe: West and Sham- elmipo.

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