CO129-453 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1919 [1-3] — Page 504

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which this undeveloped area is shown coloured pink. In the Estimates for this year provision is made for a road along the hillside in Wong-nei-chong Valley coloured dark red on

the plan, and by the end of the year it will probably be

completed or under construction as far as the point marked A.

Provision is also made in this year's Estimates for a

branch road to Wanchai Gap, marked C. Between A and C there

are good sites for houses, but it is improbable that they

will be taken up unless some easier means of communication

with the City is provided, and it is quite certain that the

area coloured pink will not be developed. It is because of

its isolated and inaccessible position that no houses have

been built there up to now, although many excellent sites

exist.

4.

The only feasible method of making the

areas I have mentioned readily accessible is by constructing a tramway from Wanchai to Wanchai Gap, that is between the points B and C on the plan. This route possesses three advantages; It is short, straight, and of practically a uniform gradient. With the exception of a small area required for a terminus there is no land to be resumed and the cost of construction, compared with the immense benefit to be derived from the work, cannot be regarded as excessive. I should be glad to receive Your Lordship's approval by telegraph to proceed at once with the survey of this route, so that plans and estimates may be forwarded for your consideration at an

early date.

6.

There are already at least ten houses coloured green on the plan for which the proposed tramway will form a more convenient route to the City than the existing tramway to Victoria Gap. I anticipate that when it is known that the Government intends to build a tramway to Wanchai Gap there will be a rush of applications for land.

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