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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
The Legal Practitioners Amendment Ordinance
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved that the Bill intituled, An Ordinance to amend further the Legal Practitioners Ordinance, 1871, should be discharged.
think members will know that this road took a very long time to build. The next comment is: Work commenced late in the year
; then, less work done than LE ditto' that. then, anticipated";
"this refers to a motor rond. Then, work was not proceeded with." Another work mentioned as not proceeded with " about which, I hope, we shall hear something in the estimates for 1922-is $150,000 for the hill tramway to Waichai
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the Bill was discharged accordingly. The Supplementary Appropriation | Gap.
Grdinance
ceeded
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY I beg to move the second reading of the Bil! intituled, An Ordinance to authorize the Appropria-ant tion of a Supplementary sum of one million four hundred and fifty-seven thousand
hundred and eighty- seven dollars and seventy-four cents to defray the charges of the year 1920.
seven
THE COLONIAL TREASURER seconded.
Hox.
and
*
C
""
com-
Turning to page 43, we find not pro- "ditto "-various with
The next item, village improvements. which one would have thought an import- matter-re-construction of ferry piers-" work only commenced at the end of the year," with the result that there was a saving of $53,243 out of $60,000. "Work only commenced at the end of the year"-Aplichau Reclamation. “Un- able to complete during the year,'
"Work Government quarters. menced late in the year that has re- MR. POLLOCK Sir, in (01-
ference to some alterations at the Central nection with the Draft Appropriation Police Station. Net S1) much work Account for the year 1920, which has been
done as was anticipated that relates circulated to members of the Council in
to a matter considered very important- connection with this Bill. I take leave
Only pre- the survey of the Colony, to point on that the items relating to Public Works Extraordinary, on pages
liminary work undertaken "-the Eastern District filter beds, Three items further 58 to 47, demonstrate very clearly that this
Less work carried out than was matter of shortage of the building staff down:
"not Then we come to is not one which has only come into exist anticipated." ence during the past few months. If begun "-new Police Station at Yaumati.
Not begun "additional quarters hon. members will kindly turn to page
Then. Less 39 they will find the following remark: King's Park, $100,000.
than anticipated," It was not found possible to proceed work carried out with the bulk of the work. That is which shows that of $150,000 estimated with reference to the question of officers to be spent on main roads in Kowloon. quarters. upon which there was a decrease | $68,963 was actually spent. If one may of expenditure--what is euphemistically; judge from complaints one hears from termed a "saving "of $173.677.
Two items further down is the remark. Less work done than was anticipated." The next line is. It was not found possible to proceed with the work." -the work being a Fire Brigade station. The_next item says ditto."--a crematorium. Then, again, not found possible to proceed with the work "; again.
less work done than was anticipated that refers to the erection of 12 houses, additional quar- ters at Happy Valley. to proceed with this quarters at Gough HiH.
CE
++
CC
Decided not work "- --summer
Turning to page 41. ** work could not be completed that is the road, contour- ing Mount Gough and forming sites for quarters, now known as Severn Road. I
11}
time to time about the state of roads in Kowloon, not only has less work been carried out than was anticipated" but less work than was hoped for by resid- ents in Kowloon.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY-That item refers to construction, not surfacing of roads.
—
The
ex-
Hox.
ME.
POLLOCK tension
of Coronation Road. Then, Sir, there are various other items, re- ferred to on pages 45 and 17, which I need not deal with in detail. but, on page 16, we see that there was a decrease in expenditure, compared with what was anticipated, of $1,847,716, less an
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HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
126
crease of $429,893, showing a saving are several other items which, for much Public Works Extraordinary of the same reason, were not proceeded
with. $1,417,899.
There are certain items which. as the Director said, might be attributed to want of staff; for That, of course, was not proceeded with instance, survey work in the Colony,
as fast as it should be. The bulk of the
I think the figures I have quoted are quite sufficient to make my point-to slow that this question of shortage of building star is not a very recent one. It is a shortage which ought to have been apparent a number of months ago, and steps ought to have been taken with a view to remedying it and, if necessary. of increasing the quarters for the Public Works Department staff much than has actually been done.
BoonCI
THE DIRECTOR of PUBLIC WORKS- Might I be allowed to say, with regard to one or two of the items mentioned by the hon. member the fact that they were delayed or not proceeded with was not entirely the fault of the staff. Several schemes had to be put before committees; members were often away and was difficult to get the com- mittees together. These delays not only hang up work, but rising prices increase its cost. As to the construction of ferry piers, there has been a delay, not entirely due to the shortage of staff-although the staff is very short. We have not had room to turn out the piles, and we have had to lay out large platforms in order to turn out piles 70 feet long. We are now turning out three a day and hope, soon, to turn put four a day. Whilst there is some 'shortness of staff, there are many other reasons for delay apart from this.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY- I think the hon. member has connected with short- ness of staff a good deal that is not con- nected with that at all. Some of the works it was decided not to proceed with. These make up a very large pro- portion of the 1 millions put down as savings. In addition to that, there are large items; for instance, $150,000 for the hill tramway at Wanchai Gap, which was not proceeded with for causes of which he is aware; this may Or Then may not re-appear next year. there
of $100,000 is the large item for quarters in King's Park not begun. That, properly, should have been decided not to proceed," because circumstances have arisen, since the pro- posal was made to build quarters there, which made it impossible for the Govern ment to go on with the project. There
projects have been abandoned or circum- stances have occurred in which no in- crease of staff would have led to any acceleration.
MR. Hox.
POLLOCK I rise to a point of order. The Colonial Secretary said 1 knew the reason why the hill tramway at Wanchai Gap was not pro- ceeded with. I must say I do not know.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY-The pro- ceelings of the Public Works Committee, which took place during the hon. member's absence from the Colony, were brought
to his notice on his return.
HON. MR. POLLOCK --- That is hard-
to say that I knew why it was.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY-That re- port contained the reasons why the scheme was not proceeded with.
accounts
we
Jone
H.E. THE GOVERNOR-The hon. mem- ber has also omitted to notice that the statement "less work was done than anti- cipated" is frequently counter-balanced by the statement **more work than anticipated." One particular item to which he calls attention, shortness of expenditure on officers' quarters, $173,000 --was due largely to the fact that it was difficult to carry through negotia- tions about the Homestead site. This
Was mixed question
up, inextricably, Fire Brigade Station which with the
for that delay. Admittedly, we might have done more if had had full staff continuously, but I think the hon. member forgets that 1920 was not very long after the conclu- sion of the war, and many people who had been detained in this Colony during the
on Away
leave in 1920. leave Owing to
arrangements being interfered with.
We have not yet re- turned to the normal in any department. I have no doubt that the returns for 1921 will show a very different state of affairs. It is possibly mistaken but it appears to be the practice. to include in the esimates not only the things we are cer- tain of dealing with, but also the things
a
war were
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