CO129-453 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1919 [1-3] — Page 355

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Government that, if the existing system proved a success, owing

to the courage and enterprise of the original Company, the

Government would reap the field which others had sown by stepping

in and gathering for itself the profit which the efforts of others

had proved could be made.

3.

The progress made by the Company in the earlier years

of working was naturally very slow, and it was not until 1912

that sufficient revenue was earned to pay a dividend to its share-

holders.

4.

The number of passengers carried on the tramway in 1905,

the first complete year of working, (exclusive of season ticket

holders) was 6,488,158, in 1910, 8,562,322, in 1915, 9,786,946

and in 1918 12,283,979.

5.

6.

The tramway to-day is run efficiently and economically,

and gives satisfaction to the Government and the public. No

justification on these grounds exists for the proposed action of

the Government nor does any other justification exist which the

Company is aware of and none has been suggested by the Government.

The Company has always been alive to extensions of its

system, which is at present a very mall one (covering only 9

route miles) and has been prepared to construct lines to open up

building areas in districta where no immediate return on the

Capital invested could be anticipated. As one instance of this,

I may mention that plans were prepared for a funicular tramway to

a proposed Portuguese settlement at Wong Nei Cheong, which scheme

however eventually fell through.

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7.

Although Kowloon is separated by the harbour from the

Island of Hongkong, a tramway there forms a legitimate extension

of the Company's system, and in this connection I would instance

the case of the Calcutta tramways which provide a service at

Howrah, although that place is separated from Calcutta itself by

the River Hooghly. The same conditions as to fares, use of roads,

relations with Government &c. would apply.