HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
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Chinese. It is our hope and belief that sufficient qualified candidates will be forthcoming, and that the appointees will prove themselves worthy of these positions of greater responsibilities now offered to the Chinese community for the first time in the history of Hong Kong.
Under Public Works Extraordinary on page 104 appears the item "Dredging", the estimated cost of which is $320,000, and the provision made for next year is $224,000. In the Notes on Public Works Extraordinary prepared by the Hon. Director of Public Works it is stated that a portion of this cost will be borne by the Admiralty and the Hong Kong & Kowloon Wharf & Godown Co., Ltd. As the sum involved is large, it would interest the public to know the respective amounts of the contributions from these two
sources.
While I am still on the subject of Public Works Extraordinary, may I take this opportunity to express, on behalf of the Chinese Community, our grateful thanks to Your Excellency for the sympathetic manner in which you have dealt with the position to allow the existing bathing pavilions at North Point to remain where. they are. Though Your Excellency was unable to grant the request in toto, you have permitted the pavilions to remain until the beach is required by the Government for public purposes. This concession is much appreciated by the public, and is proof of Your Excellency's solicitude for the welfare of the community. My colleagues and I realise that sooner or later these pavilions will have to move elsewhere, and we also cannot think of any more suitable site than the Saiwan Beach contemplated by the Govern- ment. We hope, however, that before giving notice to the bathing clubs definitely to move from North Point, the Government will have a motor-road, sufficiently wide for buses, constructed from Shaukiwan to Saiwan Beach. If funds permit, this new motor-road could, with advantage, be extended so as to link up with the Shaukiwan-Sheko road at Big Wave Bay. I respectfully commend this suggestion to the consideration of the Government.
The Honourable Senior Unofficial Member has stressed the necessity for anti-malarial measures to be adopted at the Shing Mun waterworks. I strongly endorse his remarks, for a malaria outbreak of a serious nature in Shing Mun Valley would delay the completion of the works, which should on no account be permitted when we are still suffering from annually recurring water shortage. The possibility I have mentioned is by no means remote, for it might be recalled that when the Kowloon-Canton Railway was being constructed, an outbreak of malaria at Shatin Valley considerably impeded the progress of the work.
In regard to the new Government House, the Chinese members, having examined the proposal in all its aspects, acquiesce in the abandonment of the present house and site, and the location of
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