CO129-412 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [7-8] — Page 333

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No 285.

sir,

HONGKONG.

324

27:30

live

Fe2 0 14

GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

12th August,

Slab Laky, 1914.

I have the honour to inform you that for some

time past this Government has had under consideration the ques-

tion of requiring the private moorings for ocean going vessels

in Victoria Harbour.

Captain Basil Taylor mooted this subject in the

interests of the improvement of the accommodation for ocean

going steamers as long ago as the year 1902. He reverted to

the subject in 1904 and correspondence ensued with the Chamber

of Commerce without any definite result.

Owing to the increased and increasing size of

ocean going steamers the question has now become urgent, and I

have therefore to submit proposals for dealing with it.

2.

The system that has grown up in this Colony is

for the Harbour Master under section 28(2) of the Merchant Ship-

ping Ordinance to permit steamship companies, or their agents to

lay private moorings at their own expense in Victoria Harbour

for the use of their steamers, subject to the regulations to be

found in Table 0(a) of the Ordinance.

The result is that the old established shipping

firms, many of whom employ steamers of small tonnage engaged in

the coasting trade of China or in lögal trade with the Philip-

pines, Japan and Siam, monopolise many of the best berths in the

deepest water, to the prejudice of newly established lines of

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LEWIS HARCOURT, M.P.,

&0.

0.1

steamer:

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