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8. These Senate recommendations require a capital expenditure of approximately £500,000, and an increase of recurrent expenditure by £64,000 p.a. next year rising to £96,000 by 1953. We were informed by Public Works Department authorities and others that building costs are not rising (chiefly because of the increased availability of cheap labour caused by immigration into Hong Kong from China) and that this is therefore a favourable time for building. Some of the specific proposals for building extensions and siting seemed to us to involve an unnecessary amount of destruction of existing structures; We discussed various detailed points with the Vice-Chancellor and others, such as the desirability of using rather than dismantling the badly damaged Students' Union, of adapting and extending the Great Hall for its original purpose rather than building a new one at a higher level, of locating the new Students' Union next to the existing Gymnasium and so preserving the usefulness of the latter, of constructing a new library specially designed for its purpose on the same level as the Arts Block rather than adapting the shell of the Great Hall to house the library. The Vice-Chancellor welcomed these comments, and it is probable that, subject to expert investigation, most of our suggestions will probably be adopted. We emphasized the importance of having a long-term plan for the efficient and economical use of the whole site, so that later expansion would not be impeded or necessitate the destruction of buildin s now to be erected. The University authorities would welcome informal advice on some of the se siting and building questions, as they arise, from the Inter-University Council and Colonial University Grants Advisory Committee so that they could benefit from experience gained in the home universities and in the other Colonial universities and colleges. We are confident that with the expert advice locally available to the University and by informal consultation with the Inter-University Council and Grants Committee, the capital expenditure will be on sound and economical lines.
We recommend that these capital needs should be met by (a) using in full the £250,000 promised by His Majesty's Government in April 1948 and (b) a grant from the Colonial Development and Welfare higher education allocation of £250,000. We further recommend that as the long delay in releasing any of the £250,000 promised two years ago has caused financial difficulties for th: University, the whole of that amount should be paid over to the University immediately. There seems to be no special advantage in attempting to make an arbitrary distinction between those elements in the capital programme which can be called "development" and those which can be called "re-establishment"; nor would it be very protifable to attempt to decide which particular items should be charged to the first £1 million and which to the Colonial Development and Welfare grant. If, however, it would facilitate the immediate release of the £250,000, this could be regarded as covering the following parts of the programme:-
Main Building
Staff Housing
School of Architecture
Science Building
Students' Union
Survey Camp
Science Equipment Library (Journals)
$1,400,000
1,000,000
270,000
360,000
730,000
30,000
170,000
40,000
$4,000,000
Other/
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