CO129-469 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1921 [9-12] — Page 420

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granted in order that the Government might have a free hand when the experi- ment had shown what was necessary ju the future.

BUILDING OVER KING'S PARK.

The hon. member mentioned the open ing up of King's Park for building sites. Hon. members will remember the project we had for building about 40 houses but the project had to be dropped owing to the larger question of the t ansfer of military establishments, and the uncer- tainty as to what areas would be required.

As regards the large sum spent on pro- viding quarters for Government cannot quite follow the hon. member either in his statement or in his request to the Government at the end of it. The houses that are being built are expensive, they are being very well built because it has undoubtedly been proved that to build houses of good material, which will re- quire only a very small outlay annually in repairs, is a far better policy than to put up houses which will always be a heavy expense. Some of the houses we have put up may be considered rather too large, and in some cases I think that is so, but I consider it not a bad thing to err a little on the side of being too large rather than too small. Besides, they are built in situations and in such a manner as to ensure the health of public officers and that possibly will make it unnecessary for officers to take leave as frequently as they have owing to reasons of health. As regards the Government building quarters not already projected. I can give no guarantee because there are good many officers who have no quarters at the present time. The policy of build- ing quarters was started on the suggestion of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and we embarked upon it, and with the housing difficulty arising since I do not think there is any question if sites are available that we shall go on building quarters for public officers until we have housed the whole Service. I do not follow the hon. member's argument at all.

The Hon. Mr. POLLOCK : May I have an opportunity of answering that!

H.E. THE GOVERNOR: You will be out of order.

The COLONIAL SECRETARY: In regard to buildings in the New Territories referred to by the hon. member on my left (Hon. Mr. Lau Chu Pak) very simple regula- tions have been drawn up. The last thing we desire to do is to harrass the people there, but if a man builds a house more than two storeys high we have some duty to those who live in the house to see that it does not fall down upon them. One point which the Hon. Mr. Bird re- ferred to related to the water supply and the necessity of bringing a pipe across the harbour. The time may come when that may arise. I hope the hon. member does not suggest that because the Director of Public Works had thought it might be necessary to make use of the rider mains system in the Western district, that it was due to any shortage of water supply. We have an abundant water supply, but there happened to be a difficulty a short- age of pipe. The means of getting water to that particular district when it was wanted were lacking. The question of bringing water from the mainland may have to be considered in a few years, as His Excellency stated in his speech on the Estimates.

The removal of the Dairy Farm is, I think, not a practical possibility. There are many reasons why it is inadvisable to remove the Dairy Farm from the island where there is such a vast population and where it has been carried on

so satis- factorily. We may, however, get con- viderable areas at Pokfulum for building without injuring the work of the Dairy Farm in any way,

With regard to the proposal to build houses along the railway from Hunghom

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