Enclosure No. 2.
PUBLIC WORKS ON LOAN.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.-With the permission of the Council I should like to speak on this and the next four motions together. A reference to Appendix VI.B. of the printed Estimates for 1931 will show that the anticipated expenditure on Public Works which was to be charged to the Surplus Balances of the Colony pending the raising of a further loan was as follows:
Shing Mun Valley Water Scheme, 1st section Aerodrome
$235,000
200,000
Aberdeen Valley Water Scheme
895,000
Shing Mun Valley Water Scheme, 2nd section
230,000
Vehicular Ferry
650,000
Total
$2,210,000
These works have at various times been approved by this Coun- cil and the proposed expenditure was referred to in the discussion on the Budget for 1931, but no formal resolution was taken to give legislative sanction to the expenditure for the current year although, as honourable members are aware, the work has been going on in the meantime. It is to regularize the position that these motions are being proposed to-day.
Some nine months have elapsed since the printed estimates were drawn up and it is therefore possible to make a closer estimate of the amount likely to be required this year. This explains the difference between the amount now asked for and the amounts shown in the printed estimate. More money is asked for in connexion with the Shing Mun Scheme, 1st section, the Aerodrome and the Vehicular Ferry; less will be required for the Aberdeen Valley and Shing Mun 2nd Section schemes. The figures depend largely on the pace at which the various works proceed and to some extent on changes in design which are inevitable in the carrying out of large works of this nature. The increase in the Aerodrome estimate is largely due to an increase in the size of the hangar now under construction of which the Air Ministry has undertaken to bear half the cost.
The decrease in the Shing Mun Valley 2nd section estimate is due to the fact that the Secretary of State's sanction has so far been confined to the work on the Filters, sanction of the whole scheme being held up for the present pending expert consideration of the designs.
The total amount asked for is $2,538,000 as against $2,210,000 in the printed estimates, but considerably less was spent from Surplus Balances in 1930 than was estimated for and, as honourable members are aware from my remarks when introducing the Supple- mentary Supply Bill at the last meeting, the state of the Surplus Balances is very much more satisfactory than could have been anti- cipated when the Estimates for 1931 were framed. This small in- crease need therefore cause no concern.
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