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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
a cost of something like $10,000, to enable the University to cope with the increased number of students. Other minor improvements have been carried out. The University has also spent an ap- preciable sum on the purchase of two valuable collections of books from Hankow and Macao.
It has, however, been a great disappointment to me that my appeal for voluntary contributions to the University on the occasion of its coming of age has met with no success.
I am inclined to think that the residents of the Colony fail to realize what a valuable asset it has in its University, and how essential it is that it should receive all possible support. It has hitherto held a high reputation, but this will diminish and eventually be lost unless greater support is forthcoming than has been the case during the past year or two.
There is a considerable amount of money at present in the Colony in spite of bad times, and I should like to see some of it donated to this institution.
For a University of this kind to have no Chair of Health is a very serious blemish which I hope will disappear in the near future. The Government is already giving the utmost assistance that it can, having regard to its own financial position, and it remains for private effort to supplement this help and make the University an institution of which this Colony may well be proud.
I have already referred to various works provided for under the head Public Works Extraordinary, and I have little to add. The scheme for building Senior Officers' Quarters at May Road is largely hased on economic grounds. Owing to the paucity of quarters, Government incurs a very large bill for allowances to officers, representing, subject to a maximum, the difference between 6 per cent. of their salaries and the rent which they actually have to pay for non-Government accommodation. The construction of further quarters will result in a saving of money.
A sum of $100,000 appears under the head of Anti-Malaria Works and I trust that it will be possible to spend at least the whole of this amount. I have been perturbed for the last year or two at the increased incidence of malaria in the Colony, and there is much to be done. Progress is being made with various preventive works, though it is slower than I could wish: the engineering difficulties are considerable. I may inform the Council that Government has decided to resume the bulk of the low-lying land between Shouson Hill and Aberdeen, now being used as vegetable gardens. There is no doubt that this is a most dangerous breeding ground for mosquitoes and its resumption is unavoidable if we are to make any progress in eradicating the disease. Even desirable improvements have their disadvantages, and I understand that the Malariologist feels that by
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