CO129-484 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1924 [1-7] — Page 483

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allowance of £100 as Executive Engineer and the special allowance of $1200, he should draw a non-pensionable

allowance of £3600.

14.

The next sub-department to be considered is

that which deals with the construction and maintenance of

roads and general works. During the past twelve years the

whole nature of the road system of the Colony has been

changed. In 1912 the only roads of any width suitable for

motor vehicles were those on the low levels in the City of

Victoria and a few comparatively short pieces of road in

Kowloon. There is now an extensive system of roads

throughout the island and many miles of wide roads are

under construction in the Kowloon Peninsula. The work to

be performed during the next ten years in the island will

consist of a limited amount of actual construction of new

roads, the widening of existing roads and the improvement

of the surfacing generally but especially in the City of

Victoria. In the Kowloon Peninsula and in the New

Territories an immense amount of work is in prospect. It

is unnecessary in this despatch to go into details, but

I can state with confidence that the cost of road construct-

ion in Kowloon and of fitting the whole road system for

heavy wheeled traffic will require expenditure which may

amount to several million dollars.

15.

The senior officers in charge of road

construction and maintenance and general works are Mr. H. E.

Goldsmith and Mr. E. W. Carpenter. They are both officers

of great experience and efficiency in this class of work,

but differ in their professional attainments. Mr. Goldsmith

has devoted much time to the technical side of road

construction and maintenance, and is the author of several

works on the subject. Mr. Carpenter has proved himself to

be a competent road engineer, who gets on well with his

subordinates and with contractors, with the result that the

works