[
    {
        "id": 238403,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-055 - Sir Bowring - 1856 [3-5]",
        "page_number": 225,
        "title": "CO129-055 - Sir Bowring - 1856 [3-5]",
        "content_text": "cti and rammed with dry lime before laying the footings. Foundations of all walls to be of concrete 2 feet thick, external walls 2 feet thick with rubble masonry, lowest course of which is to be four feet wide diminishing in regular offsets. Walls of 1 brick are backing @ 1/% to have lowest Course 3 feet wide two feet below ground surface also diminishing in regular offsets.\n\nLOCAL - dow sills @ F.. 62½ S. feet hearth. A plinth of smooth dressed ashlar is required for all exterior walls from ground level stone fixed @ 1/8\" to level of floor to project 1 inches and to have one inch of arice chamfered, the stones smooth dressed of plinth not to be less than 1:6 high and 10 inches thick. Ashlar steps to alternate headers and stretchers, headers to be doorways @ 1/% in length the entire thickness of the wall, locker\" 72 feet external with rough dressed rubble masonry walls to the dimensions shown in the drawing; at 72 granite caps & splay to bring the stairs. Verandah @ 1/8\" intervals of about 10 feet and in such position bases for brick columns @ 12-6\" are to be made through the 500 C. feet granite plinth course of 9 inches x 4½ inches leaving 3x girders @ 1/- as may be pointed out during the execution of the work; openings for cast iron ventilators which will be in double sets above and below floors.\n\nPage ?\n\n2. s. 175 2.3 20. 11. 3.6. 3. 6. 4.13.9 3./2. 5. 8.- 45.-. W 800 фа } 25. 28213 Forward A 289 28 218",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-055 - Sir Bowring - 1856 [3-5].txt",
        "external_url": "",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 242322,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-064 - Sir Bowring - 1857 [8-10]",
        "page_number": 208,
        "title": "CO129-064 - Sir Bowring - 1857 [8-10]",
        "content_text": "## THE FRIEND OF CHINA AND HONGKONG GAZETTE.\n\n### VICTORIA, SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1857.\n\n**Chinese Calendar, Hà Moon, 5th Day: DIARY. MEMORANDA**\n\n| Day | Astronomical Data |\n| --- | --- |\n| Sunday,... | H❘ Sets 4. P.M. 5,37 634 |\n| Monday,... | 11.16! 1,01 |\n| Tuesday,... | 5.27 6.34 1: |\n| Wednesday,... | 1,564 632 2.5% 30$ |\n| Thursday,.. | 28 Ted |\n\n**VINE SERVICES SUNDAY**\n- St. John's Cathedral-6.45 and 11a, M. and Gr.\n- Union Chapel-63d 7? P. M.\n- Beamers Chapel--1 \n\n## SUPPLEMENTARY SHIPPING LIST\n\n### ARRIVALS AT HONGKONG\n\n- July 24, 11 M. Sir. Fury, Com. Leckie, from Canton\n- July 24, Fr. Gun-boat Drogenos, Co Berry, from Lantao.\n\n### DEPARTURES FROM HONGKONG\n\n- July 24, Nova, Porter, Shanghai.\n- July 24, Clipper (Hong). Marxen, East Coast\n- July 25, H. Mail, towed by the Coromandel for the river.\n\n### POSTAL OPPORTUNITIES.\n- For Macao: Monday, per Feina at Noon; Tuesday, per Willamette at Noon, and per Spark at Ten.\n- For Indian England: per Shanghai to-morrow at 8. Supplementary mail closes at 7.30.\n\nIn the Estate of HENRY DAVIS, of Victoria, Hongkong, Merchant, deceased,\nAre from ZIND SOZAMING and Natives \nA DREYER & Co. \nFreight and Back Vans, \nHongkong, 1st April, 1857.\n\n## FOR SALE.\n- CLARE CHAMPAGNE, BRANDY, and French PRESERVES.\n- VAUCHER FRERES. Hongkong, 6th April, 1857.\n\nFROM NEW YORK DIRECT Received per \"Iotspur,\" and for Sale by the undersigned,\n- 100 Boxes Family Soap,\n- 100 Boxes Scented Water Soap,\n- 50 Tins Corn Meal,\n- 50 Boxes Spero Candies,\n- Baker's Buns \n- 5 Cons Superior White Lead,\n- 20 Half barrels White Beans,\n- 20 do. Split Peas,\n- 50 do. Crushed Sugar,\n- 2600 lbs. Sill's Butter in 16 lbs. Kegs,\n- 50 feet Oakum,\n- 100 Tins Black Varnish,\n- Marlinspikes, Caulking Irons and Mallets,\n- Axes, large and small, Paint, Tar and White-wash Brushes,\n- 20 Entire American Cider Vinegar,\n- Pump and Harness Leather, Cotton Canvas,\n- And from Manila: 500 Coils Steam and Manila Rope,\n\nTHOMAS HUNT & Co \nHongkong, 1st July, 1857.\n\n## JUST RECEIVED\n- PATENT Water Cements,\n- Fresh Prunes in Gums, Fresh Raisins in and boxes.\n\nTUOS HUNT & Co. \nHongkong, 20th June, 1857.\n\n## FOR SALE\n- TWO Second-rate FIRE ENGINES complete, from London, ON VIEW NEAR MAG EWEN & Co.'s \nHongkong, 15th July, 1857.\n\n## NOTICE.\nAll Persons having Claims against, or being Indebted to, the late Estate, are requested to forward particulars of the same to the undersigned forthwith \nHENRY RUTTER Administrator.\n\nHongkong, 17th March, 1857.\n\nIn the matter of the Estate of the late MR JAMES SMITH of the Firm of Smith & BLAW, of Victoria, deceased.\n\nNOTICE-All Persons having Claims on the said Estate are requested to forward particulars of the same to M. JAMES W. BRIMELOW, But all Persons indebted to the said Estate, are requested to pay the respective amounts thereto to the said James W. Brimelow,\n\nD. LAPRAIK \nARD. S. DIXSON \nExecutors.\n\n承辦人得忌時麗 \n北力晏度路士吉德 \n士布林羅收入是荷 \n兩亦如嫩交還與未 \n人欠到達士銀 \n朱士布林羅處或各 \n各人債目祈送到 \n·士藏身故如有欠到 \n羅公司之未士朗時 \n廠者未士氏蹲布林 \n\n## NEW ADVERTISEMENTS.\n\n### NOTICE.\n\nQUOTATIONS. \nEXCHANGE AND BULLION. \nHongkong Bank Corporation on \nLondon, 4, 1, Truliai - Gold to Sycee, outis-Date Sycee, Nominal! Pres Laves 24 335.36 per Tael and at at 319 821 d. Canton...\n\nIt is now upwards of a month since we furnished the public with a report of the trial of Tan cute of Tarrant v. Ah Lum the poisoner. The Jury, a special one, awarded the Plaintiff $1,010, it will be remembered, subject to the Judge's decision on the low point raised by Defendant's Counsel; and our readers, no doubt, are desirous of knowing what has been the result of the matter, and how the disputed point has been arranged. But though, as we have remarked, it is upwards of a month since the trial was reported, from that day to the present we have not heard a word of the threatened kroviment;---so, as the time allowed for the mo time was for some time expired, the verdict of the Jury stands. So much for the verdict whether the award will be forthcoming, or whether we shall obtain even a refund of the costs out of pocket \"are problems the solution of which has yet to be told of \n\nThe Editor of the China Mail, in strictures exhibiting the most extraordinary feeling of sympathy for a suspicious character it has ever been our lot to read, has told the world that, owing to the unjust confinement to which Ah Lum has been subjected, being unable personally to look after his office--he, Ah Lum, is now declared to have become Bankrupt and will have to pass through the Insolvent Court\" and, adds the Editor with an evident hug of gratulation, there will possibly (the italics are ours) be some \"difficulty in recovering the amount of damages.\" Possibly there may--but, at all events, we are placed, by the verdict of one of the most respectable juries ever empanelled in this Colony, in a position to challenge the Insolvent's Balance sheet; and should it be, as we shall not be surprised to find, that Ah Lum's bankruptcy is due as much to his very proper stoppage at business here as to some astounding malversation in the shape of lawyer's fees, or payment of hireling scribes the facts will duly be made patent to the public, and, it will be hoped, produce a salutary effect that the Jury's award will not be altogether lost \n\nThe arrival of the mail prevented the intention of noticing in our last issue a very interesting letter in the Hongkong Register of Tuesday, signed a Catholic Missionary, and of which the intelligent Redacteur of that paper thus remarks.--- \n\nWe publish better from a Roman Catholic Missionary. in reply to some observations by a contemporary as to what ought to be the course of the French in China in his opinion. We don't of course agree with the remarks of our contemporary but we entirely agree with the letter which we publish. Neither the fact nor the spirit are in good taste, and an easy answer could be time to both were worth while which is not. \n\nWhether the letter in question is a reply to our observations--whether it is \"bad taste\" (as one reverend Father disclaims it)--or whether the subject is worth while to notice are all points on which we shall leave our readers to form their own opinions. Here is a translation of such parts of the letter necessary to an understanding of it, and appended is an extract from the speech of His Lordship the Bishop of Victoria, on the 5th of May last, the spirit of which, it rejoices us to find, is entirely in consonance with the honestionsa which May last, the spirit of which, it rejoices us to find, is not our contemporary does not think it worth while to notice. \n\nTranslation, \n\nReferring to the Anglo-French alliance on the China question--the author of the article accuses the French of a desire to impose their religion on Canton by means of bayonets, amusing it (religion) to serve their ambition.\"This alliance so surely desired by Great Britain rests, it is true, on different interests. Now, as well as in 1841, one noble neighbours are pressing the granting of their commerce. Now, as well as in 1841, France defends is the cause of humanity and \n\nas fafmontas nigha 50 - Fella 24 y. \n\nSHANGHA 15th July -On London 7, The-On Calcutta Theme dava sight Rs. per 1 Palnation, which is only possible on religious principles. de-Draft on Hongkong 29 porced sc. MANILA, 5th June - London, da iglu 4,3 -day sigur 4.9-On Hongkong and carest submit in this country to many obstacles--that Before 1841 the commerce of England had to premium golden Siang 50 pre eit pra \n\ndo-Spa isa and Mexican chopped dollars per \n\nOPIUM, \n\nRosatoma, 5th July, Palan 5520, New Para $590, New Bennes $575, Mal $515, \nMacao, 6th July New Itna $545. Old Patna $525, New Bars $575, \nGames-No Market. \n\nSHANGAR, 1 July--Malwa 400 Trots, New Patna, A Tacle \n\n### FREIGHTS AND TONNAGE.\n\n- CANTON-SHANGHAE, £3, the Tea, a £6.6 for Silk--To New York, 10 per ton of 40 cunt.\n- Also London, Sugar, £3,10, Hemp £4,10 To United States Arabia 23,,10 \n\n### HONGKONG-THE FIRE\n\nFour days after the Fireman's report of the conflagration on Wednesday last--it commenced a little before eight, in or outside the easternmost of Lane dare storici houses in a detached block between the Taipingshan Temple on Hollywood \n\nintroduction at some merchant like being altogether repelled by the Chinese authorities--the pino inspired by the English power has been, it is true, to cause of the war of 1841 The result of the treaty \n\ngive an entire sanction, at all events to make trade more free. is for the benefit of all nations, and to deliver trade from all obstacles, that England presses herself forward with such insisting force most noble is her project and ardently do we desire success to the undertaking, \n\nLong before 1841 your illustrious ancestors were halflence to the successor of Saint Peter--and Quitted to us in the same faith, and by a common wish with us they defended the Liberty of conscience of their brethren in the east against the ferocious despotism of musselmon persecutors, there were even then Catholics in China; and in alternate peace and persecution their numbers have successively multiplied. \n\nIn France profited by the fact of England's acting, though timidly, under similar circumstances \n\nEDWARD WEB has this day been admitted Partner in our Firm \nDENT, BEALE & Co. \nShanghai, 1st July, 1857.\n\nNo. 20 Rua Campo, Macao. \nSHAW'S HOTEL Board and Accommodation, Billiards. \nBy M Il saaw. \n\nThe lower part obtained was rendered inst by mason of the stone formations known as Bridges's folly. The lower part of the house loyally destroyed was a carpenter's shop, and it was from the large and valuable pute of China pine square in the yard adjoining the shop, that the flames were continued wall between nine and ten o'clock. How the fire originated, no one has yet discovered it is singular that it should have occurred within a few yards of the last fire, and in a carpenter's timber yard again. The value of the property destroyed will be about a thousand pounds sterling, and it is said an old man perished by suffocation in one of the \n\nFrom 1841 to the present time, imprisonment and torture have not ceased be the lot of Christians (in China) and area their blood has been spilt and it is for that blood France comes and demands reparation to prevent a repetition of past horrors, And the more extended freedom of conscience en-\n\nWe have heard doubts expressed of the truth of the story told of that gentleman's in miles. The tale, it is said, has never been properly authenticated. - F. C. \n\nThe writer of one of the letters to which we have referred says,--- \n\nand your gracious Queen and our beloved Emperor have thought to unite their endeavours in order to a \n\nI am told that the Chusan Mandarin which Sorira told greater chance of success to their (general) establishment a pier, has era on board his in in such loose con \n\nGarment figs (England, par U.M.O, epizm-France \n\nthe last faar mancha tha to snout naw 80 his font or legs\"--and he slit, antur at the 4:5, I saw the To impose cur religion, cramming). \n\nMantarım yestoniy, He says that Zaring los contoamgut religion by means of the bayonet is out of the or bord le ha 99 ext 20 men cited and focio question, and the honourable author of the article book about $7900 in Cash. Bu on occasion his fricade publ need not be alarmed. \n\nOn our side we Mal0 to have him released, bat Sostro took the money and \n\nLed.\" are far from being alarmed about the Missionaries \n\nof the religion founded by Fancy the eighth and In addition to their ambroglio with the Perin Elizabeth on the contrary, the zeal will exclleguese, the French have a sinal fate with tho ours. Perhaps, indeed, they will be the first ab noted Apak. appears, the nature of which har jects of our zeal perhaps they will become our over, we have yet to hear This is all the Herald brothers by the faith, as they are alresly by feel tel's of it: - ings of regard, respect, and charity.\" \n\nAt the 58th Anniversary Meeting of the Church Missionary Society, held in Exeter Hall on the Morning of Wednesday, the 5th of May 1857, the President, the Earl of Caichesser, in the Chair; the first Resolution having been moved by the Lord Bishop of London, and seconded by the Dean of Carlisle, the second Resolution was moved by the Lord Bishop of Victoria; and the Bishop spoke as follows- \n\n\"Now, My Lord, what is the reason that I have dwelt so much on these encouraging features of the \"Chesping ove ment? It is not, of course, that I wish the assembly to carry away with them the first notion that I look upon this body of men is, in any kind sense of the word, Christian. I know the vague screw, the wina jasjsącko, with which the term \"region\" Christianity\" apst be applied to see a system as I have been referring ( I have no confidence in the personal boaters eftlus rebellion; but I cannot help thinking that God, who in His providence has permitted a may want containing within it so many elements of exerbal truth, mus necs invenit to accomplish indinvely, by means of the The pin Rey lotion, so.he great and mercatene wis Sa China. Its act. \n\nA pak's finct of Wank roast hoals are lying off the sol zato, aqua the lacteria, blockade by 17. I. Corete La Ca pricieuse. They have taken several of their gate ashore, and threaten to take the city of Ningpo, and hadre French men of war attack them. 41 Montes, the Porteced Consul has demode) indemnity from the Chinese nothontie waved as the Intendat, Aigners, exco Portuganun, were 11-ing in parket \n\nThe Earl of Elgin and suite left this port in the Shannon on the 16th instant--the flarer Master reporting Calcutta as the vessel's destination. Quid meant General believes that the Shannon is gone to Peking, and gives as his reason for believing this, the fact of Mr Wade, Chinese Secretary Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary, being ordered to be very diplomatic when embarking, and by no means to let it be known when he was bound to or when he would be back, Mr Wade is the gentleman sent by Sir John Bowring to Cochin-China in 1855 will be remembered, and who was left by the Raider without even a servant on the bank of the River below Hue, where he remained, recognized by the Cochin-Chinese government, until the Radler came back for him Should it really be that the Shannon has gone direct to the Pelbo, better selection for letter carrying in the Svenson's barge could not have been made, and we congratulate His Excellency the Ambassador on the possession of such an able instrument. Mr Wade's experience as a Chinese Custom house officer will not be lost in negotiations at the North. \n\nPROVINCIAL.\n\nThe great apesaluter Tuksen it is said is convonal in the Commissioner's enquiry.— Ibid. \n\n### PEKING.\n\nThe Peking Gazette have reached us up to June 15th, but contain nothing of special interest. The business of the Empire seems to go on as quietly and regularly as ever, but the state of the finances continues to be the absorbing topic at head quarters. Contributions are proposed on all hands, and in places where the accounts have been left in disorder by previous officials of 1855, a minute investigation is insisted on, and deficiencies are to be made up within a stated time. -- \n\nLord Canning has justified the belief which we have been induced to form of him. He lives in days which have more significance than years in the career of many of his predecessors and all his acts are momentous. Since he took the conduct of affairs into his own hands, criticism has been disarmed. All the resources of the country have been gathered up and made the most of, and every corner of the Empire within and without has been ransacked to furnish aid in India's great extremity. No means have been left untried to satisfy the hungry soldiery, and to keep the rebels without a shadow of \n\nThe 79 Native of hry presented an arze, praying that they might be permitted to march to the North West to shore in the lafore and Dulate the loyalty of the Europeans, and within a very few hours his Lordship made his appearance at Barrackpore harangued the troops drawn out to receive him, and did more good perhaps by the utterance of a few single phrases fresh from the heart, and clothed with the authority of his high station, than would have been expected from the reigation of a score of General Orders which but few read and lower still autoreland.. \n\nA Rent Fortune has kindly sent us a copy \nYau's organization of a squadron at Faishan, to of his new work' —Fortune's residence among the Chinese-inland, on the corest, and at sea, \n\nof the 18th instant\" We now learn that, under the being a narrative of scenes and giventures \n\nrenowned chief Le, the rebels gave battle to the \"during a third visit sa Cuius, from 1983 to \n\nImperialists under General Kwin nea: Sewking, * 1856--inclu hag wations of many untional and gained a complete victory--only three boats \n\nproductions and works of art, the callure of \n\nscoping to Canton to tell the result, of carrying Silk & with suggestions on the present \n\nLe's bravado challenge to Yah to come on again \n\n• war.” A book of 450 pages netava. —we have soon as it could get couly. Le's force is stid to not as yet had sufficient space time to give auber 100,000 fighting mon, and 1,000 war ves more than a cursory glance at its roulents; suf- seis, and His Excellency Le's bead quarters aro Betear, however, to enable us to ratify the trail-i now at the district city of Bet. The first class city \n\nof Secking is in very straitened eramstances. faless of the very able review of it in the Mone News at the 10di ult. To residents in Shanghae and Ningpo the work will be peculiarly and men, bae ked a hard batte with Imperialist necepeptable--most of the locities describd woops from Tw-chow, and having gained the vic being those which juries troat those places tory 11. E. e compelling the whole of the surround- are now been aing ordery occurrruos Eng cuantry people to sabm to his rule. Fearing and encompassing the use of car British alat men in colowing is an abstract of the country travelled for the provincial city itse, Yeh is calling in a the Tauschow men, and has stational a thousand of over by Mr Fortune during the perid of the \n\nthem in the South eastern suburbs. The lendore of story. \n\nthe Ninety six villages 150, base bed to send their Chapter I gives the voyage from Hongkong to Shanghae in the Steamer Ganges, -II, the quota of armed men--between two and three to Shanghae to Ningp by boat, and thence \n\nBanner-men, Manchus, and the Lieutenant Gover- to Yuhang on the eastern side of the Yang \n\nnor's guards, altogether about three thousand, ace woopad on the heights beyond the northern wolf. Kiang (the over skirting Ningpe) a distance \n\nThe Hak has of Ko ineng and Six other dis of Bome forty miles by boat and chair--back to Ningpo, and on to the old city ut Traken, tricts have united, and are burning and destroying abontwelve miles from Ningpo, on the branch wherever they go. Canton is the great point to escaps Lo, and there the poor starving wroches of the river conning to the northward. Horn-\n\nA Ningpo in his boat, in Casper VI. we \n\nThousands, wäinen and childen Temporary A letter in the Penang Gazette says - Almat Gad Mr Fortune at Teung, the celebrated \n\nrunt sheds have been erected for them at Chefing 1,000 to 1,500 Chicamen lure had their heads monastery ab at a dog in unites from the Yu. \n\non the south of the river, and them are daily take off by the Dynks who are in arms in all bang spoken of in Chauer Hero ur \n\ndalinge out of congee and rice, supplied by the directions. The Chinese had hald' possession of For was laid up with fever, and bad tɔ sự - aut \n\nauthorities, in gasathies just suficient to ward off the town for about two days, befare the mermer öü cure. to Chine-e medheal treatidens Dr \n\ndisentation. The City is divided into five grand Jantes Brooke arrived, and wern in the fires and Chapter Vils of a return to 8 g divisions, and those agin into sections, within about the town. The Bret shot from the wormerly which ehe bodied tour patrol night and day long 18 pounder cleared the fort, and in a short time. The fear of a rising within the walls to vary they were all swarning out of the town, the steam- great--each en draade his neighbour, ander at the time hard at work with gun such rifies, every ermutenanes is depressed. Few says which did considerable execution. Every day br the icporter can rentize their sad position with- loads of hatuls were arriving Sock, Drak \n\nout being in like predicament. On one hand they were flocking to in Qarsunds and eating the Chin \"feat the approach of the western barbarians name in all directions. They are all cleared not \"on the other the northern and western rebels and of the Sarawak territory, only 150 ne so en DỀ added to both is treachery at home\" Truly some 2,000 to 3,500 having recaped. All th \n\npursued this line of argueal; int I have dve up this foster because I view with considorable apprehension the fature corse of British and French diplomace, the Bast There are very resultar angers now environing the path \n\nnexion with Chan, In China, we who at a distanca e46- tarsly watched the progress of Live gerat European WAY İN which our counter bua been recently engagent, coad with a great degree of satisfaction of the Anglo-French allowe We porused with the keepest colorant the inteliigance luxught by mal anal of the rivalum nad lenda of a couturies being buries in the tombe of the heroes who fel at Alma and In- kermann; and I certainly would not now say one word in depreciation of the character of that able z in who sways the destinies and wichts the trapetisi sceptro of Prano. Baltas will any, test it in davio to my aan mini that the French have a large foot in the Bash; that thng baye no roumawiał interests to vota mer and fister in those masteroms, and that their time too often serval as a kind of rovarg s pred Musinnary phion over the broad waters of the Faci fic, iving en layout to at, at Tahiti, the dip.ad eba Kolla aastat ja redressing the inaainy grievances of the Jeans propagandists thoughout the west. And when I re- member that the Romish propagandi-ts in Chian have always viewed the Tae-ping Revolution via peraline slicka nad Me like-when i renninber that in the early stages af din renale lion linge native Reteruses, ju neging than iloitars, and not yet being skilled in tar den of making a disuneti n with- \n\n### FRENCH PORTUGUESE.\n\nThe Atten by the Portuguese orcha me at Nagpo monopoliza the boat traffic between that port and Shanghae, resulting in an armed collision with one Frenchoren, was told of in one of car numbers some two or three months ago, the 2qbble being referral to the high authorities of the respective nations at Macan. \n\nFrom the proceedings of the French War Ves- sele Marceau and La Capricesse since, it would now appear that the Governor of Marni hat nu thorized the seizure of certain vessels wherever found, and in porsaance of the resolve we ern freas the North-Chisa Herald of the 4th and ch instant that first the Schooner Aurora was taken, and then the Tarcbas 166 and 44. The Chinese portions of the crews of there vessels, with the usal humanity, were instantly handed over by the French to the tender arcles of the Sergh Menilarius,and were soon disposed of, of course. The Portuguese are still in eustody and will be brought to Mucas for trial in uil due time we suppose. \n\nby leters of a week's later date than the infantion reported in the Herald, we find that \n\non called Seiro, spoken of as a great deg peraio, gave himself up to the Freach on the 13th instant, and that thrun of his comrades, hid in the fee houses on the banks of the river, were also caught the sun day. Sonire it appears had been carrying 9 Mandarin about with hire that he had \n\n### Chapter XIII.\n- takes the reader from Tez-tsing to the village of Pururchse and on into the Quartz valley and Temple, 2000 teet alus tar level of the son, where, in the month of October, before the Hongkong summer is well over, the air is \"piercingly sild.\" The same chapior describes a boat voyage of some peril from Ning to Shanghae. \n\n### FOOCHOW.\n\nIt was rumored abroad somewhat extensively that he founded on the arrival of the Lieutenant Governor to Jeeva for the upper provinces, but Fes story had no foundation. The Goverant Gentral is now in his pe par place, and we hope that the may continue to fill and a loze it. \n\n### Friend of India Jane A \n\nit is vary sad. Oh, Sử Jaha Bowring--Sir Chinese women went over safe, about 200; and of all the bool they got in Sarawak, the pasere John Bowring--what an amount of misery ban tkou to answer for ' \n\nvery litla now,\" One of the rusas of trying to get quit of the Dyaks ws to throw money he g The The Chinese were macahing in body of about 2000, eluding 700 women and childies, and the Dyeks hovering stout them, nerasionally making a dash at a corner, det iching 40 a 50 from the main body, and whipping nineir heads with great seal. The Chinese have had t terte lesson En Satown. Their inawer of going ab eat it won to take held of a Chimwatan by his vel, nad whip off bis hand with great dexterity'; one blow suffired, I hardly expect the slaughter will scop here; the Dyaks, having their blood up and expecting the \n\nWe have been favoured with the perusal of a letter from this port dated 7h uirino, received per averiand courier. From it we learn that a man- darin of high rank has arrived there from Palting on his way to Canton where it is ranured he is to \n\nCe left the capital 2. be second in rank to Yeh. \n\nout a man is left.\"--Dady News, June; 10. \n\nQ \n\nor 3 months since, but had made a siren tous route in consequence of the troubled state of the country. Es proceeds in Arany on his way to the South. \n\nThe rebels have retired near to the borders of Chapter XIV. takes Me Fortune back to Tse-\n\nthe province. hey are reported to be quiet, attire to trave a deal of booty, parave them sill kee again, and narrates abe partientors of a jar. Suoma \n\nSmall supplies of Ton from distant dis ney from Ningpo to Sletoghar by the infultricts had arrived and to reso had gone up to par- \n\nThe Duren in Jaray —The nėščiai įvursal of te via Ya-yar, Noskalon, Tiyenin. chrce, but as the season i'r the first chep had pa99- \n\nthe Hague of the 5th casains a long tepat to ne aland that for the se oud was far advanced, few Kanpoo, Yedhow, Chapes and Ping-hoe. Shanghee in the Silk country, by Carim, \n\nChapter XVI. spus with journey for fine toux were expected and not a large younity of King Halland from Myer, Minister of Cole medium xds, the second crop being 1 sjured from is, and M. Gevers. Minister of Pareiga A Forte, zolucive to Japanese affairs, and his Majesty has Page, Nantsing and Houchowfoo. Lo Chup the fact of the first faves por having been gathered. ter XVIII, Mr (ortane runebes be greated From the ear districts ton hd cute in more free-approved of Annexed to the report are fee distance inland, viz the town of Marcoee,ly since the dispersion of the rebels. \n\nsome orty miles west fira Hoochosloo, and the same chapter gives his return to Shanghae, Chapter XXI contains the last of theur. neyings, was winding up business tour to Nings po, the valley of the Nine stones, and Tras Asing again--finally, a return to fonghong and voyage to Calcutio \n\nMexican dollars were a 10 per cent disconat There was nothin, doing la Opkom sture the tax of 20 per chest and brand-China Herald, July, 11. \n\nThe Cairngoras was to leave on the 4th instant,pa Rad to!load, concluded on the 30th of Jan \n\nary, 1896. Three articles, amongst other things, a futt ship, having 1,000 tons of new you on board. She would be the first away--two or thre, ather Slipmats that the Dutch shit be allowed to excreike their worship tronly, and that they shall no longer yeable ware wearly laden- \n\nRico centinued dear bat'the weather was favora- \nbe subjected to the impious cartas of trampling ble for crops. \n\nunder got the image of our Saviour on the croes, They aleo eunal that the Dutch shall be permitted to trade in the open ports, and to get to and parsip ee from Japanese traders. Also to take her wives and children to the wil perts The trucks funter. declare that the importation of foreign and the ex portation of Japanese money shall be allowed; that the Japanese government may levy madarité im. pon, Trungit, and export duties; and, betly, that The Dutch it Nangas ke any misintan free relations with foreigners, both on board veganf• and at Deco \n\nThe report adds, that the Japanese green en has declared asel\" resdy to raciale vrea tea with all foreign governments that may wish top them--Avid. \n\nSo innch for an answer 10 the question which will be added by Chua Residents of \"where dad Me Fortune go to when fast here ?\" In our j next paper we shal: furnish some illustrationsį of the notices\" mentioned on sho ate pagod \n\n(From our Overland Nlition of to day.) From the official announcement in our last that there would be no second Mail Seaner from China this month, Subscribers to tlus journal will not have expected their customary paper. Mr Wal ker the ... Co's. Superintendent, however, with a consideration for pulite interests deservist Gach commandation, promptly chartered the Grsi vanbie Steamer to bundthe Road jun away from the heaving down huik-which he has placa on the Shanghae ins; aking thence tho Shang Adi; mud that vasset, deep as she can swim with alk, now goes to Gaile with the muit. May cephyr smooth as be glossy cargo speed her way through tive most dangeroza period of the year in lue China Sea. We pray this under some nusideration for the interests of underwriters. \n\n## SHANGHAE\n\nAn Imperial Commnissioner named Warg, triv \nhers (Saanghae) on the 7th instans quite unex- pected by the dohorities. \n\nis said he has corng to examine into hn causes of the low state of the public trensary funds, and to tnvestigate certain disbursensule made en ac count of purchases of rice fur the govern went some moatas back, -ay well as to squeeze the marchana and the Toatai ton, to raise fimis to help the pa sing exigences of the looper al Government. We! hear 50,000 weis was demanded from each of tha \n\nmeharts doing the largest business, and that it will probably be compromised for The 5,000 \n\nIt is rumored that Ho Kweling, the fately ap pointed Govarour-general of the Two Keang, is the originator of the present enquiry, on proteaze of not being satisfied with the manner the prisent Intendant, B. E. Las, has been performing tha functions of his post. We have no doubt, Theres fore, that it wit be eney for the Emperial Commis elouer, if his instructions are to that eflist, to tay of sone hold weak poll in the multifarious trans risgrace. We should, however, regret much, sho actions of flis Excellency Lan to bring him into that be the result of the investigation, both for the \n\nThus the despatch of the last mail, military there appears reason für believing that balure we operations about Canton have bem and \n\nCatcmpt possesion of the walls, the rebels will \n\nhave concladed the business for 13. Our Prurin interests of foreign merchants end the Clainese. cial reporter's news it will be seen are alarming. i \n\nFu has been fourteen years a man-larin \n\n### THOUGHT.\n\nThere is a luxury in earnest thought The unthinkang kaka dream of floppy har Who, holding sweet cornuates will himseti, Roving the fèlie ofiscality, \n\nFees het sa labelincas, though ali stEYA, Ngreaves at etalless avai jinde of looke \n\nDoes has lotless med. The daisied eid, The garden of the wood, alike shall be Fer dina struly ; everything aro \n\nThe flower, the tree; the titing, the running brooks,— Aure to bin asterials for clight, AB curists a pure veliges to atm, \n\nYea, nevor fi ing pleasure. Grieť may ce Deal's cold echipe conceal his fail-erfed jar, Rickness may pale uus e vak, lone plach this pace, Be thought tall be fat luns on Ristie Tomas of earth's disygietrose a chara Te all the hatefulensing to sleep \n\nAnd lighten evʼn the heaviest (sail afilis. \n\nUpwards and Quinards. By & W. PARTRIDGE,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-064 - Sir Bowring - 1857 [8-10].txt",
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        "id": 293452,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-167 - Sir Kennedy - 1874 [1-8]",
        "page_number": 112,
        "title": "CO129-167 - Sir Kennedy - 1874 [1-8]",
        "content_text": "## THE CHINA MAIL.\n### HONGKONG, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 1874.\n\n## THE AMENDED WATERWORKS PROJECT.\n\nComing then to the probable needs of the Colony as regards drinking and washing purposes, we should regard an average of 10 gallons as sufficient. No doubt the European portion of the community use very much more, but the average must be calculated on the whole population; and with every sympathy to teach the natives better habits, it will, we fear, be a very long time before the habits of Chinese coolies become assimilated to those of European gentlemen.\n\nFour gallons per diem is as much as even the cleaner inhabitants of the native quarter use per head; let us say five, and that would still leave a similar surplus on over 90,000 individuals to the benefit of the European quarter.\n\nOf course, this must be accompanied with a really efficient supply of salt water, for public sanitary purposes and for use in cases of fire. But, granting that this latter could be secured, it certainly seems that ten gallons per head per diem would be sufficient.\n\nAs the case now stands, a sum of £233,000 is asked for, to furnish a constant allowance, all the year round, of 15 gallons of water per head; and the only two questions to be settled (assuming this to be the lowest estimate) are: Does the Colony absolutely require the water, and, can the Colony afford to pay the money for it.\n\nIt is no doubt quite true, as H. E. the Governor stated in Council, that when he arrived in Hongkong the necessity of a better water supply was a foregone conclusion. But its most ardent advocates spoke and wrote with the proviso that the expense should not be overwhelming. If, therefore, there be any hope of obtaining a cheaper supply, all the year round, by utilizing the sea water for sanitary purposes, such an idea certainly seems worth consideration. It may indeed then be found possible to give up the Tytam project in favour of Aberdeen. It has been universally admitted that the only objection to the former is its cost, but there can be no doubt how strongly that objection weighs in the public mind.\n\nIt must not be forgotten that, for a long series of years, a vast number of houses have been paying taxes for which they only did not receive even the faintest equivalent. Owners therefore naturally fear the imposition of yet higher taxes of which, at best, it would be some years before they could reap any benefit. If Mr Price can possibly hit upon a plan which will supply a sufficiency of water for the purposes named, at a reasonable cost, he will be one of the greatest benefactors the Colony ever had.\n\nWe quite sympathise with all he has said about doing the work thoroughly; but even a good thing may be bought too dearly. It is much to be regretted that the Council have not said: \"Tell us what can be done for £150,000.\" As it is the Surveyor General is quite right in recommending a thorough scheme. It has yet to be proved that so able an engineer as he has shown himself can suggest nothing within the means of the Colony.\n\nThe readiness evinced by the Surveyor with the desire of H. E. the Governor General to do all in his power to meet the feeling of the community regarding the cost of the water supply scheme, has undoubtedly caused a favourable impression. He has at least shown that no desire to glorify his department at the public expense has prompted him to advocate a costly scheme, and his latest amendment deserves careful consideration.\n\nThe document in which he specifies the possible reduction on the original estimate having been already published in full, we need deal only with its net result in discussing it. We are reluctantly obliged to say that we share the opinion expressed by the unofficial members as regards the latter question, while by no means satisfied as regards the former. Or, to put the matter more accurately, while we believe a supply of water to the extent named to be a necessity, we do not believe that it must necessarily be fresh water. It would certainly seem to us that the suggestion of Mr Ryrie as to raising salt water to flush the drains and put out fires is worth serious consideration.\n\nThe points to be aimed at are: What is the smallest efficient supply of water for potable and lavatory purposes and, what supply of sea water at a high level would be sufficient to do all that is necessary in the way of flushing drains, watering streets, and in fact doing everything which rather requires water as a liquid mechanical force than as an article of diet or a solvent. As regards this point no very great difficulties are presented. A very small reservoir at a high level, fed by a steam force pump on the Praya would amply suffice for all necessary purposes.\n\nThe reservoir need not be large, inasmuch as it would be quite a matter of indifference if it became nearly empty every now and then, provided it was filled in time for periodical needs. Nor need the cost of such a construction be very heavy. One holding some 10 or 20 millions of gallons would probably suffice, and the dam would be almost the only expense, as the pipe service would be very limited.\n\nPage 108",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "page_number": 290,
        "title": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "content_text": "Low Level project, as it is estimated can be completed for £50,000, keeping in view the probable extension of Works at some future date: at the same time authorizing the Governor to take steps for borrowing the money, telling him how & where the loan is to be negotiated. If in London, it will be desirable to point out more definitively than has hitherto been done (or perhaps even what provisions the loan Ordinance should contain), in order to adapt it to the present wants of the money. A sort of prospectus should also be sent home—sufficiently brief to add to the Advertisement, and sufficiently comprehensive to be understood by the general reader—setting forth the financial condition of the Colony for the last seven years as shown by Imports-Exports-Revenue-Expenditure, and Debts; so that lenders to the project may judge for themselves as to getting repaid, with interest.\n\nMarket.\n\nThere is a W. Australian Loan Act which can serve as a model—with perhaps the addition of a provision for the issue of Debentures in case the money is not fully paid at any time.\n\nI will be happy to help contingent upon being supplied with a general outline in this modified form.\n\nWhere and how to say that as L'famanos is in a position to write about the scheme for building the Praya Wall, he will also address the subject of the finances, meeting the outlay for both works, whether...\n\nUntil we know what the War Office/Admiralty will do, we cannot...\n\nPage 287\n\nU 16/11\n\nBGF 11/11/15\n\nThere is\n\nthee ale 11821.\n\n \n\nhas been re-organised into proper paragraphs, with minor corrections to spelling and spacing. The original text's meaning and content have been preserved as closely as possible.",
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    {
        "id": 296563,
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        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "page_number": 293,
        "title": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "content_text": "290\n\nthe initiation of a new \"Worths, the Sanitary or General ...\n\nof any additional ...\n\nwho ...\n\ncould be authorized to make detailed surveys upon which accurate estimates could properly be obtained.\n\n3.\n\nMeanwhile Your Lordship placed me in possession of Mr. Price's Report, which was submitted to Mr. Rawlinson. That eminent Engineer concurred generally in his Report, giving support to Price's views regarding the Pylam Project, but recommending an alternative scheme which would reduce the outlay to £136,400.\n\n6.\n\nThe ground was thus cleared of irritating unsed questions as to details of construction & design.\n\nThe best locality for the new \"Worths\" was determined. Mr. Price, ably supported by members of his Staff (Mr. Danby), executed his detailed survey of The Pylau Valley and the line of country which the conduit should follow to bring the water into the City, and the result of his investigations is clearly elaborated in the final Report which I have now the honour to lay before Your Lordship.\n\nIt will be seen that the Surveyor General submits two schemes, termed respectively \"The High Level Project\" and \"The Low Level Project,\" and their advantages and ...",
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    {
        "id": 296564,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "page_number": 294,
        "title": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "content_text": "291\n\nexecutive\n\ncomparative cost formed the subject of full consideration at the last meeting of the Executive Council, at which by my request \"Messrs\" Nipie and Keswick, Member of the Legislative Council, attended\n\nThe Surveyor General was also present and explained to the Council the details of his two Projects and the distribution of the present Supply of Water. The Council had, too, the satisfaction of considering with his aid the admirable drawings which accompany his Report, and I believe that nothing was wanting to enable them to deal with the whole question in its entirety.\n\n9.\n\nThe conclusions arrived at were as follows:\n\n(1). That it was of the highest importance to obtain an increased supply of water\n\n(ii). That the High Level Project which would only provide for increased supply of 3/4 gallon per head at a cost of £39,000, being a project incapable of future extension or enlargement, be set aside\n\n(iii). That it would be advisable to undertake the Low Level Project, though at present in a modified form only.",
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    {
        "id": 296565,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "page_number": 295,
        "title": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "content_text": "292\n\n(iv). That the Council should contract a loan to meet the attendant expenditure to be paid off by an increased Water Rates\n\n10.\n\nThe Low Level Project estimated at a total cost of £122,600, can as explained by the Surveyor-General be advantageously entered upon at a reduced cost £30,000. This entails cutting out from the account the expenses of building a dam and reservoir, and leaving those important works for construction at a later date, when the Council is better able to stand so heavy a charge.\n\nThe supply of water thus obtainable would practically be nearly the same as that now derived from the Pokfulam Works, viz:- three and a half gallons per head daily (as a minimum) supply during the dry season. And hereafter when at a later date the other works at Pokfulam can be completed the volume of stored water will be sufficient to ensure an average of thirteen gallons per head during the same period.\n\n19.\n\nIn order to obtain this additional and much wanted supply the cost is, I have stated, £50,000 or $250,000, and this compares...\n\n...\n\n2",
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    {
        "id": 296569,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "page_number": 299,
        "title": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "content_text": "Details of the Construction of the Proposed New Works in Tytom Valley. Low Level Project\n\nThe works required for this Project originally designed consisted of:\n\n1. An Embankment 98 feet high with the Outlet and overflow works.\n\n2. A Conduit Tunnel to convey the water supply to Victoria from the Tytam Valley through the ridge of hills which divide that Valley from the Northern slope of the Island.\n\n3. An Open Conduit and 18 inch Iron Main from the Outlet of the above Tunnel to the City.\n\nThere is no longer any need to enter into any description of the Embankment and Outlet works, since the Colonial Government has decided for the present to do without a storage reservoir, limiting itself to bringing the contents of the Tytom Stream.",
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    {
        "id": 296571,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "page_number": 301,
        "title": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "content_text": "298\n\noverflows and also catchpits to arrest the progress of the deposits of sand liable to accumulate. The Syphon head or inlet of the main will be kept 33 feet above its outlet extremity which will be in one of the existing City Tanks situate at a height of about 300 feet above the level of the sea. The Main will be 18 inches\n\ninternal diameter, the pipes of ... feet long and\n\n13\n\n1/4 of an inch thick. They will be laid under\n\nthe Race Course and part of\n\nthe\n\nCity,\n\nalong\n\nthe Public Streets\n\nand the top of the pipes will be\n\n1.5\" below the surface of the roads.\n\nAir Valves will be fixed at\n\nevery\n\nthe summit of\n\nhill and washout Valves at the bottom\n\nof every depression\n\non\n\nthe line of Main.\n\nThe Conduit and Main will be so laid out\n\nthat if future demands exact a greater head of\n\npressure, that is to say water, this can be had at\n\nsmall Cost,\n\nby adding a few extra\n\nlengths of pipe to\n\nextend the Main higher up the hill on which\n\nthe Conduit is constructed.\n\nThe whole of the foregoing works were designed\n\nas portions of the Low Level Project in its integrity and therefore when at a future day the Embankment\n\ncomes to be built and an impounding reservoir, at Tytam is made, they will be found fully adequate.\n\nThe delivery Capacities of both Conduit and main have been carefully calculated to accord with the largest storage supply obtainable.\n\nThe Constructional details of the tunnel,\n\nthe Conduit and their Minor\n\nadjuncts have already been the subject of a correspondence between the Crown Agents and Mr. Rawlinson, and as upon all these professional points there is perfect accord, there will be no need for me in this Memorandum to go\n\nover the same ground again.\n\nThe accompanying roll contains the plans\n\nof both the High and Low Level Projects. It was perhaps not necessary to include the\n\nformer,\n\nyet\n\nthe drawings of the Lower which refer to the Embankment and\n\nStorage Reservoir since these works are not to be\n\ncarried out, they are therefore only forwarded home.",
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    {
        "id": 296650,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "page_number": 380,
        "title": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "content_text": "\"... some delay occurred in the Colony during the year, consequently the work was not completed as anticipated.\n\nReference: 1877 (1310818157); \n\nThe sheet increase to the cost is mentioned at 18766 \n\nand at Paragraph 11 of Page 7 of the 83 Estimate, \n\nand is brought to account under the heading \"Reservoir at Pokfulam\" in the item \"Improvement of Water Supply\".\n\nThis work is worth noting as it was done during the year.\n\nM: 122. C.O. 25 00 :07 376\n\nmuch as is pertinent to the passage from the despatch regarding the expense.\n\nIf I understand correctly, last month the Colonial Government contained the potential expense.\n\nIt only remains to approve the general estimates of the Colonial Government, Hongkong, 10th September 1876.\n\nI approve\n\nE certo & Necessary\n\n\"My Lord\",\n\nIn answer to the Water Supply despatchers' urgent memorandum of 4 August 1876,\n\nreferring to pages of Interces pentel repet thewan.\n\nThis refers to when the time comes for carrying out the Low Level Project in the modified form agreed upon (£50,000). The Governor will consider the subject of the financial means to meet the cost, but it will be well explained that the views of this Government are providing for the scheme for the rebuilding of the Drainage Wall, and that it will in all probability be most advantageous to the Colony to raise a loan to give effect to both works.\n\nGR1178/1922/32(III)\n\nPage 7\n\nPage 7\n\n...\n\nThe Earl of Carnarvon:\n\nCher\n\nfor carrying out an improved scheme.\n\nHer Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.",
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        "page_number": 392,
        "title": "CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12]",
        "content_text": "Page 1\n\nthat when the time comes) for changing stones to Low Level, Project\n\nThe Architect agreed (how) at the estimated cost of £…\n\nI will consider the Fulford proposal premises but it is necessary to call, and I may at one stroke\n\nbit… and it will be well for you in soliciting the\n\nSubject to bear in mind that the proposal raises the amount largely suggested by my minute in his dup. 22222 of 10th\n\nA sum of money has to be paid for rebuilding the Praia Wall and that it will in all financial grounds commit truly my judgment.\n\nJustifiability Pros more 388 advantage to the Colony to raise me how to give effect covers, most of both whatever the Expenditure be decided on for the construction the Sea Wall and the Water Works.\n\nPage 6\n\nDavy\n\nHowever, to follow the exact output format as requested, here is the revised response in HTML format without Markdown:\n\nPage 1\n\nthat when the time comes) for changing stones to Low Level, Project\n\nThe Architect agreed (how) at the estimated cost of £...\n\nI will consider the Fulford proposal premises but it is necessary to call, and I may at one stroke\n\nbit... and it will be well for you in soliciting the\n\nSubject to bear in mind that the proposal raises the amount largely suggested by my minute in his dup. 22222 of 10th\n\nA sum of money has to be paid for rebuilding the Praia Wall and that it will in all financial grounds commit truly my judgment.\n\nJustifiability Pros more 388 advantage to the Colony to raise me how to give effect covers, most of both whatever the Expenditure be decided on for the construction the Sea Wall and the Water Works.\n\nPage 6\n\nDavy",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-171 - Acting Governor Austin - 1875 [7-11] -- Sir Kennedy - 1875 [12].txt",
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        "id": 298434,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-174 - Sir Kennedy - 1876 [4-8]",
        "page_number": 358,
        "title": "CO129-174 - Sir Kennedy - 1876 [4-8]",
        "content_text": "357\n\nMilitary Authorities as if has been of late by the Naval uses, and the interest of these two Departments in the abatement of the evil has become identical; it is evident therefore that this is peculiarly a case in which combined action with the Colonial Government would result to the advantage of the three.\n\n17. The project for a proposed new Praya Reclamation abreast of the Admiralty and Ordnance Reservations, designed in 1874 under the auspices of His Excellency the Governor, provides an efficient remedy no less for the silting of the Military Nullah than for that of the Naval foreshore, and as in this project it was, and is still proposed to deal with the Nullah mouth in the manner now alluded to in the last lines of paragraph 6 of the Commanding Royal Engineer's Memorandum, it is inferred that no professional difference of opinion will arise on this point, and that therefore the concurrence and material cooperation of the Military Authorities will be facilitated. The concurrence of the Naval Authorities is already assured and Vice-Admiral Ryder in his Despatch to the Governor, of the 10th of January last, goes so far as to express his fears that great inconvenience will accrue to the Naval Service \"if the scheme for completing the Praya is not carried out promptly.”\n\n18. As I am satisfied that no scheme can be elaborated for dealing in a satisfactory manner with this matter, other than the one referred to, I have the honour to recommend that, in reply to the Memorandum of the Commanding Royal Engineer, the Colonial Government Reclamation Project be laid before that officer for his inspection and consideration, and that the cooperation of the Military Authorities therein be formally invited.\n\n19. The Colonial and Naval Departments being in accord not only as to the general design of the new Project, but also as to all the minor details of construction affecting Naval interests, there appears to be no need for a professional Board to assemble for the purpose of elaborating any fresh scheme until the one in question has first been considered, and the recommendation in preceding paragraph will therefore, I think, fully cover the request of the Commanding Royal Engineer.\n\n20. It would be premature here to enter at any length into the details of the proposed work, and it will suffice to explain that the general plan, herewith submitted, provides for one long sweep of sea wall unbroken by any rectangular projections liable to impede tidal action or promote the deposit of silt. The masonry of the sea-wall will be ashlar in cement backed by concrete, and the material for the construction of the embankment behind it, will be taken as much as possible from the sea bottom in front, so as to increase the depth of approach to the new Praya. The reclamations abreast of the different Government premises fall naturally to the possession of the Departments which are owners of the same. Those accruing to the War Department will contain an aggregate area of no less than four acres, as shown (coloured yellow) in the Plan. The level and spacious quadrangle thus formed opposite North Barracks, alone greatly exceeding the dimensions of the present Military Parade Ground in Hongkong, especially as regards length, thereby enabling a full regiment to parade on it without any inconvenience. In reference to the Plan, I should add that, although it shows the Saluting Battery transferred to the front of the proposed new roadway it is hoped that the necessity for this protuberance may be avoided by the selection of some other suitable site. This point however is one which can only be decided by the Military Authorities. The general plan once acquiesced in, minor points, such as sites for boundary walls or right of way to the sea across the new road could no doubt be satisfactorily arranged.\n\n21. It remains but to consider to what extent each of the three Departments is interested in so desirable an improvement, and what share of the burden may be fairly assigned to them respectively in its realization. The Commanding Royal Engineer is of opinion that the War Department is the chief sufferer from the existing insanitary state of affairs. In this I fully concur and it seems to me that from a health point of view and in the interests of the Troops it would be impossible to lay too great a stress on the importance of doing away with the noxious mud flat or foreshore visible at low tides behind the North Barracks, and of removing the stagnant ponds and offensive accumulations at the nullah mouth which form the subject of the Commanding Royal Engineer's complaint. Further to the East in the vicinity of the Military Hospital and the Arsenal Yard, the Military are equally interested in the reclamation of the same offensive black-mud foreshores the disappearance of which would undoubtedly improve the salubrity of the neighbourhood so thickly inhabited as it is by the Garrison. As regards the Admiralty, their interest is limited to the preservation of the Naval Yard which must eventually end by losing its raison d'être unless stops are taken to avert the fate which awaits it. The Colonial Government is interested in the Project to the extent of attaining a new thoroughfare which will ease the unceasing native and foreign traffic that teems through Queen's Road Central between the Military Parade Ground and the Plaza or Cricket Ground for it is to be noted that although Victoria is a city of nearly one hundred thousand inhabitants, it is strangled at its waist, there being at this particular point but one single public channel of communication between its East and West halves owing to the unfortunate interposition of the Military Lands in its very centre, debarring the formation of new streets. It is indeed impossible to imagine that there can exist a similar instance in the world of so large and populous a city in so deplorable a plight from causes so apparently remediable.\n\n22. The share of interest to the three Departments in the proposed reclamation once decided, the logical inference is that their contributions towards its cost would be in the same ratio.\n\nI have the honour to be,\n\nSir,\n\nYour most obedient Servant,\n\n(Signed,) J. M. PRICE,\n\nSurveyor General,",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-174 - Sir Kennedy - 1876 [4-8].txt",
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        "id": 303776,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-184 - Governor Hennessy - 1879 [1-5]",
        "page_number": 368,
        "title": "CO129-184 - Governor Hennessy - 1879 [1-5]",
        "content_text": "## Page 363\n\n20. As to the Water Works, Lord Carnarvon informed me in his Despatch N. 131 of the 15th October 1877 that he approved of the provision made in the Estimates for 1877 for the Pokfulam Subsidiary Water Works then in process of execution. The money so voted has been spent, and those subsidiary works have recently been completed to my entire satisfaction by Mr. Darby under Mr. Price's supervision and in accordance with Mr. Price's plans. Now that this has been done, and that the Praya works have been pushed forward as successfully last year and this year, I hope soon to be able to address you on the larger water supply scheme called the modified low level project, which it would have been clearly injudicious for me to have attempted to deal with until the existing works were making progress in connexion with...",
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    {
        "id": 304432,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-185 - Acting Governor Marsh Governor Hennessy - 1879 [6-12]",
        "page_number": 375,
        "title": "CO129-185 - Acting Governor Marsh Governor Hennessy - 1879 [6-12]",
        "content_text": "# Document on Water Supply for Fire Extinguishing in Hong Kong\n\nstations were of great value; and fires were on several occasions extinguished by a jet from the hydrant before the arrival of the engines. As far as I remember, things were much in this state when I went on furlough in 1871. But on returning from leave I found that during my absence of eighteen months, the pressure on the mains had decreased to such an extent that it was no longer of much use for the purposes of fire extinction; and besides this, the water was now so seldom turned on in the mains that the street pipes could not even be relied on for the small supply of fresh water necessary for the boilers of the steam engines.\n\nI was informed by the then Acting Surveyor-General that this change was caused by the large number of new pipes connected with the mains for the supply of Chinese houses in different parts of the town. The dearth of water increased, and towards the end of 1873, by order of the Superintendent of the Fire Brigade, the subsidiary posts were abandoned as useless and the hoses returned to store.\n\nFor the last two or three years, the hydrant supply has been so precarious that even for supplying the boilers they are seldom resorted to until every other source has failed. By giving previous notice to the turncock, a good supply may be obtained from the street pipes in certain parts of the town, but in this case, the delay is so great, and the result so uncertain, that its utility is greatly curtailed for the purposes of this Department.\n\nWell, upon that a minute was made to the Surveyor-General:----\n\nRefer this to the Surveyor-General, and ask him what steps he can take to restore the water supply to the state it was in a few years ago as described by the Superintendent of the Fire Brigade.\n\nThen the Surveyor-General immediately reported:-\n\nThere is the same volume of water now as formerly, though of course the allowance per head of inhabitants has diminished by the increase of population since 1869. There was then, as Mr. Creagh rightly observes, great pressure on the mains, whereas now there is none at all. This is owing to the practice which was followed without due consideration up to 1873 of indiscriminately granting permits to lay private water pipes to houses from the mains, instead of reserving the whole of the supply for the public hydrants, where every rate-payer, rich or poor, could have procured his daily provision on the same footing of equality, while the Government could have retained exclusive control over the pressure for cases of emergency like fire.\n\nAt present, the numberless house-pipes everywhere bleeding the mains make it impossible to restore to the latter their former pressure. The chief arteries are in fact in such a state of depletion, that in order to enable the water to travel any distance, it becomes necessary to cut off the rest of the city and to concentrate the whole of the force upon one particular district at a time, each district in its turn being assisted in this manner once during the 24 hours. Permits for house supplies were stopped in 1873, too late to do any good, as enough of them had already been issued to work the present mischief, but as there is so much rebuilding and restoration of the house property going on all over Victoria just now, I think the evil might be somewhat lessened in course of time by declining to re-grant permits to these new structures; this would be tantamount to calling back former permits issued to the old ones.\n\nThe Attorney-General remarks that in all equity parties suffering from the fire should be restored as far as possible to their former position, which opinion would naturally meet on general grounds with everybody's concurrence, but on the other hand, it should also be weighed whether, on the ground of public expediency and looking to the exhausted condition of the public hydrants, the Government might not properly avail itself of the opportunity to assist the latter by declining to renew the permits. It is probable that if we had had water enough on Christmas night the fire would not have spread as it did.\n\nBut of course, the remedy for all this is more water from fresh sources.\n\nUpon that the following minute is made:\n\nThe Surveyor-General's clear and practical report shows how this deficient water supply for fire brigade purposes has occurred.\n\nI agree with him that we must increase our water supply. Looking at present simply to the question of getting more water for extinguishing fires, I should be glad if he would confer with Mr. Creagh, the Acting Head of the Fire Brigade, and the Hon. P. Ryrie (who has from time to time made valuable suggestions to the Government on this subject), and consider the possibility of utilising, more than has hitherto been done, the water in the harbour.\n\nAs the town of Victoria is built on a slope along the water's edge, it might be possible to construct Fire Brigade tanks on the upper levels, or to adopt other means for increasing the supply.\n\nWell, that minute I made on the 1st May, and I am happy to say the three gentlemen to whom I entrusted that important question have made, as it seems to me, a very practical report. They say:-\n\nThe undersigned, having met several times to discuss the question of the insufficiency of water for the extinction of fires in Victoria, now submit as the result of their deliberations the project of high-level tanks and Fire Brigade mains, elaborated by the Surveyor-General in the accompanying plans and estimates.\n\nThey are of opinion that the project would receive the support of the Community, and that the outlay of fifty thousand dollars, though large, is one which--after the experience of last Christmas Day--may properly be recommended to the Executive.\n\nIf the Tytam Scheme for an increased water-supply for general uses be not feasible, they consider that, looking to the danger of destruction which house-property continues to incur, no time should be lost in securing a sufficient storage of water, at least for Fire Brigade purposes, and with reference to such a storage, they desire to point out that the present proposal of special Fire Brigade mains would be none the less desirable even in the event of the realization of the Tytam Scheme.\n\nBy the plan of inter-connected tanks now submitted, it will be possible to concentrate six hundred and thirty thousand gallons on any fire between the Sailors' Home and the City Hall, and as the pressure on the proposed Fire Brigade mains will suffice to send a stream over the tops of the highest houses, the aid of fire-engines will not be required. These, however, would continue to play a most important part in pumping an additional supply from the sea.\n\nThe undersigned, however, can only recommend the project now submitted, on the assumption that the most jealous care will be taken to prevent any connexion between the special Fire Brigade mains and the actual water-mains of the city, as such a connexion would be fatal to the project by destroying the pressure which it should be sought to maintain intact at every fire-plug.\n\nThe undersigned avail themselves of this opportunity to call the attention of Government to the grave necessity of dredging the Praya foreshore, at certain places already indicated by the Superintendent of the Fire Brigade, to a depth sufficient to admit of fire-engines being usefully employed during the hours of low tide.\n\nJ. M. DICK. E. RYRIE.  \nC. V. CREAGH.\n\nHongkong, 17th September, 1870.\n\nI will only add, gentlemen, on my own consideration, before I saw the report, the general conclusions at which I arrived were as follows:--- That the supply of water for extinguishing fires in Hongkong is not sufficient; that the Fire Brigade should be placed under the control of a skilled officer; that a competent engineer should be obtained who would devote his whole time to keeping the engines and other apparatus in proper order; that a larger number of permanently paid firemen should be employed; that the system of using hydrants seems to be well suited for the greater part of the town of Victoria. These were the conclusions at which I myself arrived from the correspondence in my hands, and after having had the opportunity of consulting with those who are really the largest house-holders in the colony, that is, the native community. They take the greatest interest in this subject, and are clearly of opinion that the course you have suggested to-day is that which we ought to follow. I have expressed my opinion in the Council Chamber that the practice of blowing down houses is a barbarous one, and that we should devote ourselves to harnessing the water supply in the first instance, and to the reorganisation of the brigade. I hope we shall do both together. With respect to the question of the expenditure of $50,000 for the high-level water-tanks and the additional salary required for thoroughly competent men, I am of opinion that this is an outlay which the colony ought to undertake. I am not one of those who believe it is your duty--as representing Fire Insurance Companies--to extinguish fires. You perform certain important commercial functions, both for the shareholders and the public in general, but the duty of extinguishing fires I believe to be the duty of the Government; and in coming to me to-day and making suggestions you have fulfilled another function, and a very important one, of Fire Insurance Companies. On the whole, gentlemen, I agree with what you have said, but, without pledging myself to anything you have put before me as to the reorganisation of the brigade. That will depend on the suggestions of the gentleman who comes out from London. Any suggestions you may wish to make at any other time will receive my best attention.\n\nHon. W. Keswick--I would only remark, your Excellency, that the cost of the Manchester and Liverpool Brigades is singularly small. That of Manchester is only $2,000 per annum, and that of Liverpool £2,871. I mention this matter, not that I for a moment object to seeing any expenditure in Hongkong to obtain efficiency, but simply as an instance of how cheaply it can be had at home.\n\nHis EXCELLENCY--You.\n\nHon. W. KESWICK thanked his Excellency for receiving the deputation, and the members withdrew.\n\nPage 374",
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        "id": 306457,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-189 - Governor Hennessy - 1880 [7-9]",
        "page_number": 213,
        "title": "CO129-189 - Governor Hennessy - 1880 [7-9]",
        "content_text": "211\n\n11. The following is a return of the trees planted since 1873, when I assumed office:--\n\nChina Firs, ... 55,849\n\nBombax, ... 2,380\n\nMoreton Bay Chestnuts, ... 1,050\n\nBanyans and India-rubbers, ... 3,039\n\nCasuarinas, ... 1,087\n\nAustralian Gums, ... 500\n\nBamboos, ... 1,200\n\nMiscellaneous, ... 11,400\n\nTotal, ... 76,455\n\nAverage number planted per annum, ... 15,290\n\nsites elsewhere.\n\nit, and which I think the owner would part with not very unwillingly, as he does not appear ever to have turned them to much account. I assess their value at $762.75, and would advise their being entered by the Crown. I am fain to recommend this course only after a fruitless search for suitable Nursery\n\n21. In addition to the outlay in its acquisition, the cost of draining and preparing the nursery, and purchasing seed and materials, will be $1,299, making a total prime cost of $2,061.75, while the ceeding yearly expenditure in labour and material will not exceed $1,610.00, a figure sufficiently moderate, I trust, to recommend the project to His Excellency the Governor's favourable consideration. 22. If not inconsistent with future Gaol Regulations, it might be possible to reduce the estimate by employing long-sentenced convicts, or those whose term of punishment has already passed from the punitive to the reformatory stage, to fill the nursery, dig holes on the hill side and to carry trees, in which case item 4 and half of 6 in the appended Estimate might be struck out and the prime cost reduced to $1,436.75, while at the same time the yearly outlay might, by means of the same assistance, be brought down to $650 as shown in the Estimate.\n\n12. However imposing this array of figures may look upon paper, the result is by no means telling on the ground itself, and it is somewhat disheartening to think that after all, the entire seventy-six thousand trees have only sufficed to dot here and there a few streets and suburban roads, a ravine or two of Victoria Peak, and to cover but sparsely the small, isolated and insignificant patches often the plantation sites shall have receded to greater distances to consider the advisability of incipient forest to be seen on the mountain slopes overlooking the harbour, and which, from the contrast of their greenness and luxuriance, serve, like oases in the desert, only to remind one the more painfully of the glaring bareness of the surrounding hills.\n\n23. During the first two years, the places to be planted out would be sufficiently close in to town to allow of convict labour, if available, being employed with safety, and I think it will be time enough continuing the work with hired coolies. Independently, however, of the class of labour to be used, it is of great importance that the tree nursery itself should be in some district immediately suburban so as to ensure its efficient supervision by myself and my officers.\n\n13. I have made with deep interest an examination of the waste lands of this Colony capable of\n\n24. With reference to His Excellency the Governor's recommendation that the cocoanut palm being wooded, and which are unfit for any better use. Freely excluding paddy-fields, meadows, and ground cultivable for food or other productive purposes, as also foreshores, tidal swamps and all places too rocky, or otherwise unable to support vegetable life, I find the sites available for trees planted in the future. None better can be selected for the sea shores or other salt low lying places of the Island and Kowloon, and its powers of resistance to typhoons is no small qualification in its favour.\n\n14. Looking to the exposure of most of these sites to the force of the North-East monsoon, and especially to the action of typhoons, it would be necessary to plant the young trees somewhat thick from five to seven cents a piece, and we might begin by purchasing and planting five thousand so as to enable them to shelter one another; not less than four should be planted to every hundred during the forthcoming year.\n\nFor ten thousand acres then, we would require open grounds near the Bowrington Canal and in the Bowrington Compound. That neighbourhood The first palm-groves might be appropriately planted in the sandy square feet, or in other words 1,740 trees to the acre. over seventeen million trees, and if our planting operations were continued at their present tortoise speed viz., at the rate of 15,000 trees a year, it would take us eleven hundred years to complete the job.\n\nHealth drive which the European Community has boasted of, owing however to the salt and sandy nature of the soil it has defied whatever attempts may have been made to cultivate it, and it remains to this day unattractive and shadeless.\n\n15. But, although feasible, it may perhaps be too much to aspire to ten thousand acres of woodland. I will, therefore, reduce my figures at once to five thousand acres, an area one third of which may be planted during the term of His Excellency's Administration without entailing any very serious outlay or throwing upon the Department over which I have the honour to preside any additional work which it may not grapple with if assisted, in the proper seasons, by hired or convict labour.\n\n25. It is the opinion of competent professional persons, that by a judicious selection of hardy classes of plants to suit the peculiar conditions of different localities in regard to soil, moisture, shelter from prevailing winds, temperature, and altitude above sea level, there will be no difficulty in\n\n16. Before proceeding further, I should explain that one of the reasons why planting has been hitherto conducted upon such a sorry scale in this Colony, is to be found in the smallness of the Government tree nursery at Sokonpò, which will not hold more than fifteen thousand seedlings and which is, therefore, unable to accommodate one year's sowing and the preceding year's trees at the same time. This will be the more readily understood, when it is borne in mind that the process of transplanting, partly dependent on the weather, extends sometimes over two months, and that owing to the young plants being still in their beds often as late as March, there is no ground available in which to sow the seeds that should be already germinating in February. For this reason for instance, no seeds were gathered or sown by Mr. FORD, the gardener, in 1876, and there will therefore, be no trees to plant next spring, a circumstance sufficiently mortifying.\n\n17. A second though subordinate reason is the inadequacy of the present staff. If our operations are increased, it will not however be necessary to add very largely to the number of permanent foresters, journeymen coolies can be taken on and dismissed as occasion may require; the cost of the and six additional Foresters is given in the Estimate appended,\n\n18. I had at one time feared that the difficulty of getting enough seeds might prevent our sowing as many as half a million each season, but the result of enquiries on this point is satisfactory.\n\nTall ...\n\n26. It is unnecessary to descant upon the benefits which the realization of this project of increased re-planting promises to Hongkong. It is universally acknowledged that the improved health of the Colony is in a great measure due to the little that has already been done in clothing the granite with luxuriant vegetation, and His Excellency will not have failed, in the short time he has been among us to notice how general and fervent is the hope that the Government will not slacken its exertions in the good work.\n\nI have the honour to be,\n\nYour obedient Servant,\n\nJ. M. PRICE,\n\nSurveyor General.\n\nThe Honourable CECIL. C. SMITH,\n\nActing Colonial Secretary.\n\nESTIMATE OF COST OF PLANTING HALF-A-MILLION OF TREES PER ANNUM,\n\n  \n    1. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 1,\n    $209.40\n  \n  \n    2. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 2,\n    196.20\n  \n  \n    3. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 3,\n    306.15\n  \n  \n    4. Draining and preparing ground,\n    500.00\n  \n  \n    5. Fencing waste ground at Bowrington,\n    150.00\n  \n  \n    6. Manuring and preparing same,\n    250.00\n  \n  \n    7. Purchase of 5,000 Cocoanuts, at 7 cents,\n    350.00\n  \n  \n    Total Prime Cost,\n    $2,061.75\n  \n  \n    8. Contingencies,\n    100.00\n  \n  \n    Note.-If convict labour be used, item 4 may be omitted, and item 6 brought down to one-half, reducing the total to $1,436.75",
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        "id": 306802,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-189 - Governor Hennessy - 1880 [7-9]",
        "page_number": 558,
        "title": "CO129-189 - Governor Hennessy - 1880 [7-9]",
        "content_text": "11. The following is a return of the trees planted since 1873, when I assumed office:\n\n  \n    China Firs,\n    55,849\n  \n  \n    Bombax,\n    2,330\n  \n  \n    Moreton Bay Chestnuts,\n    1,050\n  \n  \n    Banyans and India-rubbers,\n    3,039\n  \n  \n    Casuarinas,\n    1,087\n  \n  \n    Australian Gums,\n    500\n  \n  \n    Miscellaneous,\n    1,200\n  \n  \n    Bamboos,\n    11,400\n  \n  \n    Total,\n    76,455\n  \n  \n    Average number planted per annum,\n    15,290\n  \n\n12. However imposing this array of figures may look upon paper, the result is by no means telling on the ground itself, and it is somewhat disheartening to think that after all, the entire seventy-six thousand trees have only sufficed to dot here and there a few streets and suburban roads, a ravi... incipient forest to be seen on the mountain slopes overlooking the harbour, and which, from the contr...uit, and which I think the owner would part with not very unwillingly, as he does not appear ever to have turned them to much account. I assess their value at $762.75, and would advise their being re-entered by the Crown. I am fain to recommend this course only after a fruitless search for suitable nursery sites elsewhere.\n\n21. In addition to the outlay in its acquisition, the cost of draining and preparing the nursery, and purchasing seed and materials, will be $1,299, making a total prime cost of $2,001.75, while the succeeding yearly expenditure in labour and material will not exceed $1,610.00, a figure sufficiently moderate. I trust, to recommend the project to His Excellency the Governor's favourable consideration.\n\n22. If not inconsistent with future Gaol Regulations, it might be possible to reduce the estimate by employing long-sentenced convicts, or those whose term of punishment has already passed from the punitive to the reformatory stage, to till the nursery, dig holes on the hill side and to carry trees, in which case item 4 and half of 6 in the appended Estimate might be struck out and the prime cost brought down to $650 as shown in the Estimate, reduced to $1,436.75, while at the same time the yearly outlay might, by means of the same assistance, be reduced.\n\n23. During the first two years, the places to be planted out would be sufficiently close in to town to allow of convict labour, if available, being employed with safety, and I think it will be time enough continuing the work with hired coolies. Independently, however, of the class of labour to be used, it is my duty to consider the advisability of planting one or two of Victoria Peak, and to cover but sparsely the small, isolated and insignificant patches when the plantation sites shall have receded to greater distances to consider the advisability of their greenness and luxuriance, serve, like oases in the desert, only to remind one the more painfully of the glaring bareness of the surrounding hills.\n\n13. I have made with deep interest an examination of the waste lands of this Colony capable of being wooded, and which are unfit for any better use. Freely excluding paddy-fields, meadows, and gardens of Kowloon, I would propose to make this tree enter largely into the varieties to be planted in the future.\n\n24. With reference to His Excellency the Governor's recommendation that the cocoanut palm should be more widely cultivated in this Colony where it thrives so well especially in the grounds cultivable for food or other productive purposes, as also foreshores, tidal swamps and places too rocky, or otherwise unable to support vegetable life, I find the sites available for tree planting comprise about ten thousand acres.\n\n14. Looking to the exposure of most of these sites to the force of the North-East monsoon, especially to the action of typhoons, it would be necessary to plant the young trees somewhat thick, from five to seven cents a piece, and we might begin by purchasing and planting five thousand Cocoanuts sprouted in the husk for the purposes of seed may be had in large quantities from Manila so as to enable them to shelter one another; not less than four should be planted to every hundred square feet, or in other words 1,740 trees to the acre.\n\n15. But, although feasible, it may perhaps be too much to aspire to ten thousand acres of woodland, and if our planting operations were continued at their present tortoise pace, viz., at the rate of 15,000 trees a year, it would take us eleven hundred years to complete the job.\n\n25. It is the opinion of competent professional persons, that by a judicious selection of hardy classes of plants to suit the peculiar conditions of different localities in regard to soil, moisture, shelter from prevailing winds, temperature, and altitude above sea level, there will be no difficulty in forming forests of many varieties of trees.\n\n16. Before proceeding further, I should explain that one of the reasons why planting has been hitherto conducted upon such a sorry scale in this Colony, is to be found in the smallness of the amount of Government tree nursery at Sokonpò, which will not hold more than fifteen thousand seedlings, while in respect of climate, its capabilities may be best judged by the fact that firs and cocoanut palms, the typical trees of countries so widely differing as Norway and the Sahara, are here to be seen flourishing side by side.\n\n26. It is unnecessary to descant upon the benefits which the realization of this project of increased tree-planting promises to the Colony.\n\n17. A second though subordinate reason is the inadequacy of the present staff. If our operations are increased, it will not however be necessary to add very largely to the number of permanent foresters; journeymen coolies can be taken on and dismissed as occasion may require; the cost of these and six additional Foresters is given in the Estimate appended.\n\n18. I had at one time feared that the difficulty of getting enough seeds might prevent our sowing as many as half a million each season, but the result of enquiries on this point is satisfactory. Taking it at a prudently low estimate, I find the island and neighbouring islets will yield enough fir cones alone for that number of plants, while my correspondents at Amoy and Foochow advise me that fir cones are also procurable in those places.\n\n19. To turn out as many as five hundred thousand trees every spring, a nursery containing 12 to 15 acres would be required, also the annual services of sixty coolies for one month to collect seeds, as well as sixty coolies for two months to dig holes, to wrap and bind the plants with straw, and to convey them from the nursery to their destinations.\n\n20. Having as far back as the administration of Sir HERCULES ROBINSON disposed of all farm lands within easy distance of the City, the Government unfortunately does not now possess any ground available for a nursery, and for this purpose, it would be necessary to have recourse to a Government resumption of private land. There are some sufficiently large paddy fields at Sokonpo, the property of Mr. GEORGE DUDDELL, and registered in the Land Office as Farm Lots Nos. 1, 2 and 5, which would suit us.\n\nI have the honour to be,\n\nYour obedient Servant,\n\nJ. M. PRICE,\n\nSurveyor General.\n\nSir,\n\nESTIMATE OF COST OF PLANTING HALF-A-MILLION OF TREES PER ANNUM.\n\nThe Honourable Cecil C. SMITH,\n\nActing Colonial Secretary.\n\n  \n    Estimate of Prime Cost.\n    \n  \n  \n    1. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 1,\n    $209.40\n  \n  \n    2. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 2,\n    $196.20\n  \n  \n    3. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 5,\n    $306.15\n  \n  \n    4. Draining and preparing ground,\n    $500.00\n  \n  \n    5. Fencing waste ground at Bowrington,\n    $150.00\n  \n  \n    6. Manuring and preparing same,\n    $250.00\n  \n  \n    7. Purchase of 5,000 Cocoanuts, at 7 cents,\n    $350.00\n  \n  \n    8. Contingencies,\n    $100.00\n  \n  \n    Total Prime Cost,\n    $2,061.75\n  \n  \n    brought down to one-half, reducing the total to\n    $1,436.75\n  \n\nNote.-If convict labour be used, item 4 may be omitted, and item 6 brought down to one-half.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-189 - Governor Hennessy - 1880 [7-9].txt",
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    {
        "id": 307991,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-191 - Public Offices & Others - 1880",
        "page_number": 568,
        "title": "CO129-191 - Public Offices & Others - 1880",
        "content_text": "Moreton Bay Chestnuts, \n\n1\n\nBombax, \n\n11. The following is a return of the trees planted since 1873, when I assumed office:- \n\nChum Firs, \n\n55,849\n\nBanyans and India-rubbers, \n\n2,880\n\nCasuarinas, \n\n1,050\n\nAustralian Gums, \n\n3,039\n\nBamboos, \n\n1,087\n\nMiscellaneous, \n\n500\n\n1,200\n\n11,400\n\nTotal,.. \n\n76,455\n\n15,290\n\nAverage number planted per annum, \n\n12. However imposing this array of figures may look upon paper, the result is by no means so telling on the ground itself, and it is somewhat disheartening to think that after all, the entire seventy-six thousand trees have only sufficed to dot here and there a few streets and suburban roads, a ravine or two of Victoria Peak, and to cover but sparsely the small, isolated and insignificant patches of incipient forest to be seen on the mountain slopes overlooking the harbour, and which, from the contrast of their greenness and luxuriance, serve, like oases in the desert, only to remind one the more painfully of the glaring bareness of the surrounding hills. \n\n13. I have made with deep interest an examination of the waste lands of this Colony capable of being wooded, and which are unfit for any better use. Freely excluding paddy-fields, meadows, and all ground cultivable for food or other productive purposes, as also foreshores, tidal swamps and all places too rocky, or otherwise unable to support vegetable life, I find the sites available for trees comprise about ten thousand acres. \n\n14. Looking to the exposure of most of these sites to the force of the North-East monsoon, and especially to the action of typhoons, it would be necessary to plant the young trees somewhat thickly, so as to enable them to shelter one another; not less than four should be planted to every hundred square feet, or in other words 1,740 trees to the acre. For ten thousand acres then, we would require over seventeen million trees, and if our planting operations were continued at their present tortoise speed, viz., at the rate of 15,000 trees a year, it would take us eleven hundred years to complete the job. \n\n15. But, although feasible, it may perhaps be too much to aspire to ten thousand acres of woods. I will, therefore, reduce my figures at once to five thousand acres, an area one third of which may be planted during the term of His Excellency's Administration without entailing any very serious outlay or throwing upon the Department over which I have the honour to preside any additional work which it may not grapple with if assisted, in the proper seasons, by hired or convict labour. \n\n16. Before proceeding further, I should explain that one of the reasons why planting has been hitherto conducted upon such a sorry scale in this Colony, is to be found in the smallness of the Government tree nursery at Sokonpò, which will not hold more than fifteen thousand seedlings, and which is, therefore, unable to accommodate one year's sowing and the preceding year's trees at one and the same time. This will be the more readily understood, when it is borne in mind that the process of transplanting, partly dependent on the weather, extends sometimes over two months, and that owing to the young plants being still in their beds often as late as March, there is no ground available in which to sow the seeds that should be already germinating in February. For this reason, for instance, no seeds were gathered or sown by Mr. FORD, the gardener, in 1876, and there will, therefore, be no trees to plant next spring, a circumstance sufficiently mortifying. \n\n17. A second though subordinate reason is the inadequacy of the present staff. If our operations are increased, it will not however be necessary to add very largely to the number of permanent foresters; journeymen coolies can be taken on and dismissed as occasion may require; the cost of these and six additional Foresters is given in the Estimate appended. \n\n18. I had at one time feared that the difficulty of getting enough seeds might prevent our sowing as many as half a million each season, but the result of enquiries on this point is satisfactory. Taken at a prudently low estimate, I find the island and neighbouring islets will yield enough fir cones alone for that number of plants, while my correspondents at Amoy and Foochow advise me that fir cones are also procurable in those places. From Canton, I have not yet sufficiently reliable data to say whether seeds are to be easily had there, but I see no reason why they should not be. At all events, all doubt as to the sufficiency of seeds is now dispelled. \n\n19. To turn out as many as five hundred thousand trees every spring, a nursery containing 14 or 15 acres would be required, also the annual services of sixty coolies for one month to collect seeds, as well as sixty coolies for two months to dig holes, to wrap and bind the plants with straw, and to convey them from the nursery to their destinations. In addition to this, the services of six permanent Foresters to act under the Head Forester as already stated would be necessary to keep the nursery in order. \n\n20. Having as far back as the administration of Sir HERCULES ROBINSON disposed of all farm lands within easy distance of the City, the Government unfortunately does not now possess any ground available for a nursery, and for this purpose, it would be necessary to have recourse to a Government resumption of private land. There are some sufficiently large paddy fields at Sokonpoò, the property of Mr. GEORGE DUDDELL, and registered in the Land Office as Farm Lots Nos. 1, 2 and 5, which would suit, and which I think the owner would part with not very unwillingly, as he does not appear ever to have turned them to much account. I assess their value at $762.75, and would advise their being re-entered by the Crown. I am fain to recommend this course only after a fruitless search for suitable nursery sites elsewhere. \n\n21. In addition to the outlay in its acquisition, the cost of draining and preparing the nursery, and purchasing seed and materials, will be $1,299, making a total prime cost of $2,061.75, while the succeeding yearly expenditure in labour and material will not exceed $1,610.00, a figure sufficiently moderate. I trust to recommend the project to His Excellency the Governor's favourable consideration. \n\n22. If not inconsistent with future Gaol Regulations, it might be possible to reduce the estimate by employing long-sentenced convicts, or those whose term of punishment has already passed from the acute to the reformatory stage, to till the nursery, dig holes on the hill side and to carry trees, in which case item 4 and half of 6 in the appended Estimate might be struck out and the prime cost reduced to $1,436.75, while at the same time the yearly outlay might, by means of the same assistance, be brought down to $650 as shown in the Estimate. \n\n561\n\n23. During the first two years, the places to be planted out would be sufficiently close in to town to allow of convict labour, if available, being employed with safety, and I think it will be time enough when the plantation sites shall have receded to greater distances to consider the advisability of continuing the work with hired coolies. Independently, however, of the class of labour to be used, it is of great importance that the tree nursery itself should be in some district immediately suburban so as to ensure its efficient supervision by myself and my officers. \n\n24. With reference to His Excellency the Governor's recommendation that the cocoanut palm should be more widely cultivated in this Colony where it thrives so well especially in the grounds and gardens of Kowloon, I would propose to make this tree enter largely into the varieties to be planted in the future. None better can be selected for the sea shores or other salt low lying places of the Island and Kowloon, and its powers of resistance to typhoons is no small qualification in its favour. Cocoanuts sprouted in the husk for the purposes of seed may be had in large quantities from Manila at from five to seven cents a piece, and we might begin by purchasing and planting five thousand during the forthcoming year. The first palm-groves might be appropriately planted in the sandy open grounds near the Bowrington Canal and in the Bowrington Compound. That neighbourhood is the Hyde Park of Hongkong and has been for the last quarter of a century the only evening health drive which the European Community has boasted of, owing however to the salt and sandy nature of the soil it has defied whatever attempts may have been made to cultivate it, and it remains to this day unattractive and shadeless. \n\n25. It is the opinion of competent professional persons, that by a judicious selection of hardy classes of plants to suit the peculiar conditions of different localities in regard to soil, moisture, shelter from prevailing winds, temperature, and altitude above sea level, there will be no difficulty in forming forests of many varieties of trees. Of the productiveness of the ground under a moderate amount of fertilization and tillage, we already possess ample proof in the vegetation we have reared, while in respect of climate, its capabilities may be best judged by the fact that firs and cocoanut palms, the typical trees of countries so widely differing as Norway and the Sahara, are here to be seen flourishing side by side. \n\n26. It is unnecessary to descant upon the benefits which the realization of this project of increased tree-planting promises to Hongkong. It is universally acknowledged that the improved health of the Colony is in a great measure due to the little that has already been done in clothing the granite with arborescent vegetation, and His Excellency will not have failed, in the short time he has been among us, to notice how general and fervent is the hope that the Government will not slacken its exertions in the good work. \n\nI have the honour to be, \n\nYour obedient Servant, \n\nThe Honourable CECIL C. SMITH, \n\nActing Colonial Secretary. \n\nSir, \n\nJ. M. PRICE, \n\nSurveyor General. \n\nESTIMATE OF COST OF PLANTING HALF-A-MILLION OF TREES PER ANNUM. \n\n  \n    1. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 1,\n    \n    209.40\n  \n  \n    2. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 2,\n    \n    196.20\n  \n  \n    3. Resumption of Farm Lot No. 5,\n    \n    306.15\n  \n  \n    4. Draining and preparing ground,\n    \n    500.00\n  \n  \n    5. Fencing waste ground at Bowrington,\n    \n    150.00\n  \n  \n    6. Manuring and preparing same,\n    \n    250.00\n  \n  \n    7. Purchase of 5,000 Cocoanuts, at 7 cents,\n    \n    350.00\n  \n  \n    \n    Total Prime Cost,\n    $2,061.75\n  \n  \n    8. Contingencies,\n    \n    100.00\n  \n  \n    Note.--If convict labour be used, item 4 may be omitted, and item 6 brought down to one-half, reducing the total to\n    $1,436.75",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-191 - Public Offices & Others - 1880.txt",
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    {
        "id": 319407,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-204 - Acting Governor Marsh - 1882 [11-12]",
        "page_number": 411,
        "title": "CO129-204 - Acting Governor Marsh - 1882 [11-12]",
        "content_text": "## 406 \n164931 \n**RECP** \n\nCong \n\nInr 6. Chadwick to the Crown Agents. \n\nPark Cottage \nEast Sheen \n4th September 1882 \n\nTo \nThe Crown Agents for the Colonies. \n\nGentlemen \n\nI have the honour to submit for transmission to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies the following Memorandum on certain tidal observations, made in connection with my mission to Hong Kong. \n\nOn my arrival at Hong Kong I found that the office of the Surveyor General had no information on the subject of the tides; that mean-sea-level, and the heights of high- and low-water, neaps and springs, was not known with accuracy. \n\nFor the preparation of any drainage project, involving a sea outfall, an accurate knowledge",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-204 - Acting Governor Marsh - 1882 [11-12].txt",
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    {
        "id": 333398,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-231 - Acting Governor Marsh - 1887 [1-3]",
        "page_number": 220,
        "title": "CO129-231 - Acting Governor Marsh - 1887 [1-3]",
        "content_text": "nclosure D\n\nHONGKONG.\n\nNo.\n\n1217\n\n877.\n\nand rising only to low water level.\n\nFrom what was said to me\n\nby the Surveyor General on the subject,\n\nprepared to take his proposals with favourable consideration provided a battery\n\nGreen Island.\n\nis Established on\n\nIn the meantime I shall\n\n: feel obliged if your Excellency will favour me with such comments on the practicability and cost of the Commanding Royal Engineer's and Major Whitmore's several\n\n· proposals for blocking the channel as you\n\nmay\n\nmake\n\nconsider\n\non all\n\nSubject\n\nmy\n\nWh\n\nto Enable me to\n\nnecessary report when\n\nJuly informed\n\n- particulars in connection with the\n\nin all its be\n\nbearings.\n\nI have the honour to be\n\nSir\n\nYour Excellency's obedient Servant (84) W. G. Cameron\n\nMajor General Commanding in China & St.\n\nNo. 20.\n\nAPPROXIMATE ESTIMATE OF COST OF CONTEMPLATED PUBLIC WORKS.\n\nPresented to the Legislative Council, by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, on the 4th February, 1887.\n\nPage 363\n\nPage 363\n\nPage 363\n\nPUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT,\n\nHONGKONG, 18th January, 1887.\n\nSIR,\n\nI have the honour to transmit you the enclosed approximate Estimates of the larger works and buildings which the Government has in contemplation or which have been under consideration.\n\nThe Honourable F. STEWART, LL.D.,\n\nActing Colonial Secretary,\n\n&c.,\n\nI have the honour to be,\n\nSir,\n\nYour obedient Servant,\n\nJ. M. PRICE,\n\nSurveyor General,\n\nAPPROXIMATE ESTIMATE OF COST OF NEW PUBLIC WORKS,\n\nNew Prison,$400,000.00\nSlaughter House,50,000.00\nSupreme Court and Offices,75,000.00\nPraya Junction,438,000.00\nDrainage of Happy Valley,25,000.00\nNew Central Market, New Western Market,150,000.00\nPolice Buildings Extensions,200,000.00\nGap Rock Light House,100,000.00\nKelletts Bank Breakwater,90,000.00\nHONGKONG.\nFilter Beds, Service Reservoir and Water-mains, Sanitary Works,150,000.00\n170,000.00\n600,000.00\nTotal$2,448,000.00\nEqual to £408,000.0.0\n\nJ. M. PRICE.\n\nSurveyor General,\n\n*This amount may be increased to $50,000 or $60,000 by works of ornamentation and landscape gardening according to the scale on which it is contemplated to carry out this project.\n\nPage 364\n\nPage 364\n\nPage 364",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-231 - Acting Governor Marsh - 1887 [1-3].txt",
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    {
        "id": 333611,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-231 - Acting Governor Marsh - 1887 [1-3]",
        "page_number": 433,
        "title": "CO129-231 - Acting Governor Marsh - 1887 [1-3]",
        "content_text": "# PUBLIC \n## Enclosure \n### MEETING TO CONSIDER THE CELEBRATION OF THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE \n\nA public meeting was held yesterday afternoon at the City Hall to consider the best and most suitable means of loyally celebrating the Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen and Empress. There were present the Chief Justice, Sir George Phillippo; the Hon. F. Stewart, Acting Colonial Secretary; Hon. J. Russell, Puisne Judge; Hon. A. Lister, Colonial Treasurer; Hon. E. J. Ackroyd, Acting Attorney-General; the Right Rev. Bishop Burdon, Commodore Morant, R.N.; Colonel Ryan, R.A.; Colonel Storer, R.E.; Hon. P. Ryrie, A. P. MacEwen, J. Boll-Irving, and C. P. Chater; Colonel Anderson, 58th; and most of the principal British residents, including representatives of all classes and races of Her Majesty's subjects.\n\nOn the motion of the Hon. E. J. Ackroyd, His Honour the Chief Justice took the chair.\n\nThe **CHAIRMAN**-Gentlemen, as most of you are aware a preliminary meeting consisting of many of the leading residents of the colony was called to consider whether or not something should be done to celebrate the Jubilee year of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen. At that meeting it was resolved that a public meeting should be called and that the sentiments and feeling of the community should be elicited more publicly than could be done at a small meeting, and it was resolved that a public meeting should be called for this day at half past four o'clock. I have been asked to propose the first resolution, and although it is somewhat unusual for the Chairman of a public meeting himself to propose a resolution, yet seeing it is one in which I am certain you will all concur, I have no hesitation in acceding to the request. The resolution I am asked to propose is: \n\nThat the Jubilee of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen shall be celebrated by her loyal subjects in Hongkong.\n\nIn moving this resolution, gentlemen, it is unnecessary for me to dilate at length upon the many virtues that Her Majesty possesses and that she has shown both in her private and public life. They are all well known to you, as they are to every member of the British community and to nearly every member of the civilised world. (Applause). It were almost unnecessary for me to do any more than to refer to the eloquent words of my hon. friend, Mr. Chater, which have been made public in the Legislative Council when he moved his resolution. But, gentlemen, it may be as well to remind you that, as far back as the memory of most of us can go, Her Majesty has been seated on the throne of England, that during the whole of these fifty years during which Great Britain has advanced in the most remarkable way, Her Majesty has been at the head of affairs, and that during the whole of that time she has shown herself from her girlhood upwards to be one whose virtue we must all admire, as a loving daughter, as a most loving wife, as a devoted mother, and an excellent grandmother to her children's children. In her private life she has been almost irreproachable and her conduct has been such as to draw forth the admiration of nearly the whole world. (Applause). In her political life, whatever may have been her likes or dislikes, she has always shown herself a constitutional sovereign, ever willing to bow to the wishes of her people. (Applause). And now, almost at the close of fifty years, we are met, as it is usual to do in all classes of life, to celebrate what has been called the Jubilee year. Gentlemen, I think you will have no hesitation in agreeing to the resolution that I have the honour to propose to you-\"That the Jubilee of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen shall be celebrated by her loyal subjects in Hongkong.\" Of all her loyal subjects in the world, I am sure there are none more loyal than her subjects in Hongkong. (Applause). Nor do we propose to confine our rejoicings to her loyal subjects alone, but we would ask all those of different nationalities who are not Her Majesty's subjects to join with us in celebrating this most auspicious occasion. Gentlemen, there remain three or four questions that have to be considered at this meeting, and although they have been considered at a preliminary meeting and resolutions on the subject will be proposed to you, yet I may say that this meeting is not bound by the resolutions that are to be proposed, but that any person here present may propose any amendment he thinks proper, and it will be open for the meeting to declare its wishes.\n\nThe first question for consideration will be what sort of celebration shall take place on this occasion-shall it be a fête and general rejoicings alone, or whether in addition to that some permanent institution of some description or other should be called by Her Majesty's name. The next question that the meeting will have to consider will be as to when this celebration should take place. Now we all know that celebrations are taking place in different parts of the world at different times as it suits the convenience of the inhabitants. The most appropriate day would certainly be the day fixed in England, the 21st of June, the day of Her Majesty's accession. The next most appropriate day would probably be Her Majesty's birthday, the 24th May, and perhaps the most appropriate day after that would be the Prince of Wales's birthday on the 9th November. But there have been objections taken to the celebration taking place during the summer, and it has been thought by some that probably the better course would be to postpone it until the winter. And I may say that if there was any prospect of the fleet being here to take part in our rejoicings it would in my opinion perhaps be advisable to postpone it. But the question is an open one for the meeting to consider.\n\nThe next question you will have to consider is, supposing it is decided to have a permanent memorial of Her Majesty's Jubilee, what shape that permanent memorial should take. Both publicly and privately several forms which this institution should take have been suggested. The first, and one that is deserving of a great deal of attention by this community, as it seems to me, is the proposal that we should contribute to the British Indian and Colonial Institute that is going to be founded in England. And the proposal comes before us backed with the greatest weight. It is a matter in which the Prince of Wales, the heir apparent to the throne, has thrown his whole heart and soul, and one to which, as he says, Her Majesty has given her most hearty approval. It has not, I am informed, found much support in this community. It has been urged that this Colony is a mere depot for goods in transit. But I think it is open to consideration whether we are not also a great distributing centre, and whether it would not be of advantage to us to have some place in London where we could exhibit what articles we can procure and also give information as to what articles we can sell. The project has received Her Most Gracious Majesty's approval, no doubt from her desire to bring the colonies and the mother country and India into more intimate commercial relationship. But, as it seems to me, such a proposal if carried out in its integrity, would promote the commercial interests of the whole world, because not only would British manufacturers and British dealers in produce come to this institution to see what the Colonies and India have to sell, but they would also come to consult the wants of the various colonies and countries of the world. However, as I understand it, Her Majesty, with that graciousness which has always characterised her, does not wish to force any measure down the throats of any community who are opposed to it; and she is quite willing, as I understand, to sanction an institution of any kind which will be of service to her people in the different colonies.\n\nThen supposing we come to the conclusion that the British Colonial and Indian Institute is out of the question, there have been placed before the public and have been discussed privately certain measures which have approved themselves to various individuals. One of the schemes is the conversion of the Wong-nei-chong valley into a public park to be called the Victoria Park. And no doubt there is a great deal to be said in favour of it. I for one would disapprove of the valley being converted into a garden and shrubbery. I think that when there is so little level land in the colony, we should utilise it to the best advantage.\n\nPage 2 \n`IRECR`\n`BECE 18 APR 87`",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-231 - Acting Governor Marsh - 1887 [1-3].txt",
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    {
        "id": 334121,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-232 - Acting Governor Marsh Acting Governor Cameron - 1887 [4-5]",
        "page_number": 405,
        "title": "CO129-232 - Acting Governor Marsh Acting Governor Cameron - 1887 [4-5]",
        "content_text": "10. The portion tinted green is at present, during the hours of low water, an objectionable foreshore extending out over 300 feet. The original reclamation project of 1883 had comprised this foreshore in the area to be filled in, but the great cost involved ultimately led to the curtailment of the project and only the land shown, tinted red, has been filled in.\n\n11. It is also recommended that the area already reclaimed (coloured red) be raised in the form of a slope to an additional height averaging three feet throughout, with a view to keeping the proposed new sewers and house drains well above sea-level and in order to give them a gradient or fall towards the sea, sufficient to impart due velocity to the flow of sewage along the main drainage arteries shown in blue lines on the plan.\n\n12. The sewerage of the new district could not be emptied into Causeway Bay for in this circumscribed corner of the harbour there are no tidal currents capable of carrying the noxious effluents out to sea. The contents of all main drains must therefore be gathered into one intercepting sewer and taken along the Shaukiwán Road in the direction of North Point and there emptied into the tidal current.\n\n13. In order to reduce the size and cost of these main sewers and of the general intercepting sewer, it is not intended to lead any storm waters into them. Rain drainage may be allowed to escape into Causeway Bay.\n\n14. It is doubtful whether Causeway Bay lots would be taken up, in any great number, unless this distant suburb is brought into cheap and speedy communication with the City. To meet the contingency a tramway is proposed as essential to the success of the scheme. I would have advocated the laying of a tramway from Whitfield Station to Kennedy town had the junction of the Praya along the water frontage of the Military Cantonments and Naval Yard been an accomplished fact, but in view of the uncertainty of this work being carried out at once, I limit myself for the present to the recommendation of a line from Whitfield Station along the Praya to a terminal point at the corner of the Blue Buildings. When the Praya junction is completed the tramway can be extended to Kennedy town.\n\n15. The proposed new township will be intersected by streets sixty feet wide and the Chinese system of back-to-back houses will be rendered impossible by the interposition of ten feet lanes between each row of houses. The allotments will be 15 feet wide by 60 feet deep, these being the favourite dimensions of the native house builder. Each allotment will hold therefore only one house. Assessed for premium at the prices obtained at the recent auction sale of similar lots adjoining Whitfield Station, the 1,200 lots may realize an average of 20 cents a square foot or $180 per lot, and the total to be derived from premiums will therefore be $216,000.\n\n16. Based on the Crown rents of the Whitfield Station lots, i.e. $125 per quarter acre, the 1,200 allotments representing as before stated an area of 274 acres will bring in to the Colonial Treasury an annual revenue of $13,750.\n\n17. It is estimated that the rates and taxes on the 1,200 new houses will come to about $20,625 bringing the total annual receipts up to $34,375. The purchase money i.e. $216,000 together with the first year's annual rents and taxes would therefore amount in all to $250,375.\n\n18. The cost of filling in that portion of the ground which is shown, tinted green, on the plan will be $70,000. The cost of a sea-wall along the sea-frontage is estimated at $35,000 while the cost of raising by another three feet the present reclamation shown tinted red will be $20,000. The main sewers and intercepting sewer are estimated at $90,000 and the formation of the new streets at $20,000. The total outlay on reclamation and sewerage works will thus amount to $285,000. In general terms and allowing a wide margin for unforeseen contingencies it may be assumed that the amount to be received in premiums when all the lots are sold, plus the first year's annual Crown rents and the house rates leviable will balance the prime cost of the works.\n\n19. With regard to the tramway from Whitfield Station to the Blue Buildings I hope shortly to submit estimates of cost of construction, maintenance and working. It is open to doubt however whether the cost of the tramway could equitably be debited to the reclamation project inasmuch as the line would be a municipal improvement of benefit to the entire general public and not of benefit solely to Causeway Bay.\n\n20. But even if the tramway is not chargeable to the Causeway Bay project, I am none the less of opinion that its construction might legitimately be defrayed from the Fund to be derived from land sales, since its realization would tend more than anything to improve the value of all private leasehold estate and of all Crown lands from Shaukiwán to Wautsai. If well and substantially built and managed by competent hands, the tramway should not only pay for itself but should yield a moderate profit to Government while to the working classes, provided the fares are kept at the lowest standard, it will prove an inestimable boon.\n\n21. It is not impossible His Excellency the Acting Governor may be told that nobody will build at Causeway Bay, and that if landlords do build in that locality, no tenants will be found to occupy the new houses, notwithstanding the advantages of a tramway. There might be some ground for these fears if it were the intention of Government to take no steps to abate overcrowding, but as the Government will not continue an unmoved spectator of the dangerous massing of the people in the houses of the Central districts of Victoria and as a large number of crowded tenements in these districts will each in its turn be compelled by law to disgorge a large proportion of its inmates, there will be no alternative left for the people but to build more habitations. There are no sites for houses in the centre of the town, and it follows therefore that the inhabitants must gravitate towards the suburbs.\n\nI have the honour to be,\n\nSir,\n\nYour obedient Servant,\n\nJ. M. PRICE,\n\nSurveyor General,\n\n398",
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        "id": 337408,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-238 - Governor Des Voeus - 1888 [7-8]",
        "page_number": 439,
        "title": "CO129-238 - Governor Des Voeus - 1888 [7-8]",
        "content_text": "(33)\n\n436\n\n(32)\n\nI am however to point out that these estimates of cost are to be taken as only approximate. They will be subject to revision when the competitive tenders are received for the contracts, and they may also require to be modified in accordance with whatever directions Her Majesty's Government may give in respect of the contemplated works in the event of their approval of the scheme as a whole.\n\nAs the shipping and landing facilities of the Port would be too seriously obstructed by the carrying out of the reclamation works along the entire line of foreshore, I am to request you to be good enough to inform the lot-owners that only two, or at the most three of the sections can be undertaken at the same time, and that commencement will probably be made with those sections at the extreme ends.\n\nWith a view to carry out that part of the general scheme which consists of the widening of the present Praya roadway, His Excellency finds that it will be necessary to repurchase from the Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company, Limited, a portion of the reclamation conceded to them in 1886 before the question of a continuous reclamation was mooted; and as this necessity has arisen only in connection with the present scheme, His Excellency is of opinion that the cost, involving a sum of $104,000 should be added to the general cost of the work, and borne proportionately by the different owners of frontage, the Government included. The amount of this cost has therefore been added to the estimates of total cost above given.\n\nHis Excellency notices that, making a liberal allowance for the cost of the work to be done, the private lot-owners will be charged an estimated sum of $2,146,298, in return for which they will receive for their private use and ownership twenty-six and one-fifth acres of building sites (charged only with an annual Crown Rent of $800 per acre) which according to the present market price of land means an estimated total value of $7,910,821, in other words that they will reap an estimated profit of $5,764,593. This estimate however is based on the present value of frontage land, and would probably require to be increased if the fact were taken into account that there would be deep water along the whole of the new frontage thus rendering the land upon it free of the unwholesome exhalations which proceed from the present foreshore, and also saving great expense in lighterage and in the cost of wharfes by affording free access to vessels and boats.\n\nBut however this may be, as the profit is likely in any case to be far larger than would be the compensation awarded by arbitrators to the existing owners of frontage for the loss of that frontage and the conversion of their marine lots into inland lots, His Excellency deems it possible that Her Majesty's Government may be of opinion that the whole of the work should be done at the public expense for the public profit, and this view, His Excellency thinks, will be rendered the more probable in proportion to the difficulty of coming to terms with those to whom so great a concession is offered. Indeed, speaking for himself and without reference to the opinion which may be formed by Her Majesty's Government, with whom rests the ultimate decision, His Excellency does not regard universal concurrence in the scheme on the part of the lot-owners of such importance as to outweigh the advantage to be gained by the public in carrying out at its own cost the reclamation in front of the lands of the dissentients.\n\nIn this connection with a view to obviate wrong inferences in the future, His Excellency desires it to be understood that if this scheme is sanctioned on the terms proposed, the marine lot-holders will obtain the reclamations in front of their lots, not as a matter of right, but simply as a privilege the concession of which happens to be convenient. The foreshore belongs to the Crown; and to the Crown alone belongs the right of reclamation and of ownership in the land reclaimed, the only obligation attaching to the latter being that of compensating the frontage-owner for the difference, if any, between the value of his marine lot and the value of the same land converted into an inland lot by the reclamation in front of it.\n\nAs the Governor is anxious to lose no time in transmitting the plans, estimates and other papers connected with this project to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, His Excellency desires me to request you to be good enough to favour me with the final reply of the lot-owners interested at your early convenience.\n\nI have, &c.,\n\nFREDERICK STEWART,\nColonial Secretary.\n\n(13.)\n\nHONGKONG, 4th July, 1888.\n\nI have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter, No. 836, of the 23rd June last in which referring to previous correspondence on the same subject, you informed me, by direction of His Excellency the Governor, that the preliminary surveys of the fore-shore and sea-bed undertaken by desire of the Marine Lot-holders and paid for by them in connection with the Praya Reclamation Scheme were completed, that plans and estimates for the work were forwarded therewith and in which further you requested me to ascertain as speedily as possible the final reply of the Marine Lot-holders interested to the Government proposals.\n\nI have now the honour to inform you, for the information of His Excellency, that, at a meeting of the marine lot-holders held at the City Hall on Tuesday, the 3rd instant, the plans and estimates were laid before them and it was unanimously resolved to accept the proposals of the Government embodied in your letters of the 11th August and 18th November, 1887, and in that of the 23rd June, 1888, now under reply, and to authorize the Government to proceed at once with the work the lot-holders undertaking to find the necessary funds under the terms of the Agreement.\n\nI hand you for the information of His Excellency a full report of the meeting and of the Resolutions passed thereat.\n\nThis happy termination of the negotiations so long pending relieves me from all necessity of replying in more detail to the 9th and 10th paragraphs of your letter in which His Excellency gives expression to views as to the position of the Government and as to the rights of marine lot-holders and I have only, in conclusion, to offer my congratulations to His Excellency and to the Government of the Colony on the completion of this Agreement which will as I firmly believe benefit the Government and the public as much as it benefits the marine lot-holders. It will add largely to the available building area in the city thus relieving the threatened congestion of the population and improving the sanitary condition. It will afford immensely increased facilities to the trade and commerce of the Colony, by increasing the depth of water along so large an extent of the marine frontage, by the greater width of the new streets and Praya and by the construction, now for the first time rendered possible, of the low level tramways.\n\nIt will considerably augment the revenue derived from Crown Rents and from the taxation on 1,300 new houses. It will give to the Crown for sale, or for public purposes 5 acres of land worth after all expenses of reclamation are paid, over two millions of dollars. All this will be done at the expense of the marine lot-holders, without responsibility or expense on the part of the Government as a Government, and without raising any of the many troublesome questions about vested rights or still more troublesome claims to compensation that under other circumstances, must surely arise.\n\nI have the honour to be,\nYour most obedient Servant,\n\nC. P. CHATER.\n\nThe Honourable F. STEWART, LL.D.,\nColonial Secretary.",
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        "id": 337876,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-239 - Governor Des Voeus Acting Governor Stewart - 1888 [9-12]",
        "page_number": 271,
        "title": "CO129-239 - Governor Des Voeus Acting Governor Stewart - 1888 [9-12]",
        "content_text": "# \nThe **SURVEYOR-GENERAL**-It would be a very desirable thing, but at present I do not think it is intended. It would double the expense. The laying of mains is very expensive. We have a small instalment this year, for which $60,000 is put down in the extraordinary works. I imagine that, after the new mains are laid down all over the city, it would be a very important question for the Government and Legislative Council whether a separate set of fire mains ought to be laid down.\n\nThe **ACTING COLONIAL TREASURER**-I should like to know if the distribution of the water will be the same as at present, the Tytam water being simply attached to the Pokfulum distribution, or if there is to be a separate system altogether.\n\nThe **SURVEYOR-GENERAL**—It will be the same system.\n\nThe **COLONIAL TREASURER**-Then it will be of little use to the Fire Brigade.\n\nThe **SURVEYOR-GENERAL** said there would be new mains laid in streets where there were no mains at present.\n\nThe **COLONIAL TREASURER** pointed out that the great difficulty which existed at present was that when a fire took place they did not know whether there were mains or not near the place.\n\nThe **SURVEYOR-GENERAL**—The difficulty at present is that there is only one part of the city supplied with water at one time. When the Tytam water is on you will have a distribution all over the town at the same time.\n\nThe **COLONIAL TREASURER**-It was said that it would be possible with the Tytam water to do without or reduce the number of fire engines. I pointed out that that would be impossible.\n\nThe **SURVEYOR-GENERAL**-It would be very rash.\n\n**Hon J. BELL-IRVING** said he thought it was a very important thing that the Government arrangements should be complete, particularly as he might mention that the disbanding of the Volunteer force was under consideration.\n\nThe **CHAIRMAN**—From what the Surveyor-General says I understand that there will be a supply of water in every street in the town.\n\nThe **SURVEYOR-GENERAL**—There will be a system of mains laid down to the Praya. There will be a great central main down the Queen's Road with branches along all the streets. I do not apprehend that Tytam water will be used for the extinction of fires on the Praya.\n\nThe **COLONIAL TREASURER**-The tide may be so low that we are forced to use it. There are numerous houses above the level of the Tytam supply. What would be the estimate for a separate system of mains from the highest points to Hollywood Road?\n\nThe **SURVEYOR-GENERAL**-I could not say off-hand.\n\nThe **CHAIRMAN**-Perhaps you can give us some idea.\n\nThe **SURVEYOR-GENERAL**-I cannot give an estimate. It is very rash to give estimates off-hand.\n\n**Hon. P. RYRIE**-And on the present system how much more will be required for mains?\n\nThe **SURVEYOR-GENERAL**-Another $66,000 ought to see us through.\n\nThe **COLONIAL TREASURER**-I must say I do not attach much importance to the new Tytam Waterworks as far as the Fire Brigade is concerned.\n\nThe **ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE**-It must be a great advantage if it means a constant charge of the mains. It is of great importance to attack a fire when it first breaks out, when a few buckets of water may put it out. It must be a great advantage to be able to rely on a supply of water of sufficient pressure instead of finding when you screw on the hose that there is no water or not a sufficient pressure.\n\nThe **ACTING COLONIAL TREASURER**-It will be an undoubted advantage, but not such as to warrant any radical change in the present system.\n\nThe **CHAIRMAN**—As soon as we have the Tytam Water we will be in a position to state what will be required to make the Brigade efficient.\n\nThe **ACTING COLONIAL TREASURER**-There was a project approved by the Legislative Council some years ago to supply tanks at considerable distance up the hill. It is more than ever necessary in view of the growth of the town.\n\nThe **ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE**-Where shall we have the Tytam water supply?\n\nThe **SURVEYOR-GENERAL**-On the 2nd November, I hope. I said November in my original statement. It will be the 2nd or perhaps the 3rd.\n\nThe Estimates were approved.\n\n## WORKS, BUILDINGS, ROADS, STREETS, AND BRIDGES\n\nThe Estimates under these headings were passed without discussion.\n\n## MISCELLANEOUS SERVICES\n\nOn the item \"Commission to Crown Agents $3,000,\"\n\n**Hon. J. BELL-IRVING** asked if there was any chance of the contracts being thrown open to tender in the Colony.\n\nThe **CHAIRMAN** said he was afraid not. It was a matter that had been discussed many times. He thought on the whole that the Colonies were satisfactorily served by the Crown Agents.\n\n**Hon. P. RYRIE** said that there was considerable discussion on this point when Mr. Jackson was in the Council. Mr. Jackson spoke very strongly on the matter and urged that it should be brought to the notice of the Secretary of State.\n\n**Hon. J. BELL-IRVING** said he thought local firms here should be given a chance of tendering. They could probably supply what was required just as cheap as it could be bought at home, and the commission would be saved and probably discount also.\n\n**Hon. B. LAYTON** said it would also be a great saving of time.\n\nThe **ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE** asked how the sum put down in the Estimates---$3,000--as Commission was arrived at. What percentage of commission did the Crown Agent get?\n\nThe **CHAIRMAN** said that an allowance was given them as apportioned by the Secretary of State.\n\n**Hon. J. BELL-IRVING** said that the discount went into the pocket of the agents.\n\nThe **ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE**-They do not appropriate the discount.\n\n**Hon. J. BELL-IRVING**—Do you know that as a fact?\n\nThe **ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE** said he was quite certain that any discount received was not appropriated by the Crown Agents. It was most certainly credited to the Colony. The Crown Agents sent out the vouchers for payment, and it would be malversation of office on their part if they appropriated the discount. They certainly would not be allowed to get any advantages out of the purchases made by them on behalf of the Colonies.\n\nThe **CHAIRMAN** said he thought one reason of sending home was the fear that the Government here might be hampered with local interests.\n\nThe **ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE** said there might be a combination here to raise prices. There might have been a \"corner\" made in cement when the Surveyor-General was going to begin the Tytam water works.\n\n**Hon. J. BELL-IRVING** said he thought they would find they would be served just as well locally in every way. If they had a list of the home prices they might compare them with those of the local firms.\n\nThe **CHAIRMAN** said he could supply a list of the more important items. He was quite sure that if attention was called to it that the Governor would mention the matter in his despatch.\n\nThe Estimate was then agreed to.\n\n## LOSS IN EXCHANGE ON FAMILY REMITTANCES\n\nThe **COLONIAL SECRETARY** said this item had been touched upon by the Governor in his message when he alluded to his desire that something should be done owing to the increased cost of living, rent, etc., at present in the Colony. Government servants engaged prior to 1877 were on a different footing from those engaged since that date. They were allowed to remit money home at the rate of 4s. 2d. for the benefit of any member of their family or in payment of an insurance policy, the amount so remitted not exceeding half of the salary drawn.\n\n**Hon. P. RYRIE** said he thought that something should be done with regard to this matter. He thought there should be no distinction made.\n\nThe **CHAIRMAN** said when the alteration was made it was presumed that those who were under ...\n\nPage 207",
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    {
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-241 - Governor Des Voeus - 1889 [1-7]",
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        "title": "CO129-241 - Governor Des Voeus - 1889 [1-7]",
        "content_text": "## 570\n\nDifference from Mr. Cooper's scheme.\n\nIt will readily be seen, that I differ very essentially from Mr. Cooper's Scheme, in providing outfalls for sewage into the harbour at a number of points, instead of at the four points C. 1, C. 2, C. 3 and C. 4 marked on Plate 1.\n\nAn experience of ten years in the Colony, and having had an office for six years on the Praya front, opposite Peddar's Wharf, and having always carefully observed the course of the numerous cargo boats and traffic by the side of the Praya, convinces me, that there is an almost equal strong current at any point along the Praya from Wellington Battery to Belchers Point, and that there is very little difference in the speed of matter, either Eastward or Westward.\n\nThe float experiments of Mr. Chadwick and Mr. Cooper were confined to particular points, and in no way cause me to alter the above opinion. Therefore it would be far better to discharge smaller portions of sewage at a number of points, and thus diffuse the matter more thoroughly, than greater portions of sewage discharged at three or four points only.\n\n### Strong tideway opposite Chinese quarter.\n\nIt would need but a very slight acquaintance with the Praya to see, that way opposite where the large population of Chinese are, the Praya Wall has been constructed in the deepest water, and consequently in strong tideway, which would effectually carry away any matters discharged by properly constructed and numerous outfalls. At a very little distance from the Praya Wall, ocean steamers are berthed.\n\n### Lesser tideway at certain places.\n\nThere are places, such as opposite the City Hall, Commissariat Pier and certain places Bowrington, where the configuration of the Praya would naturally lead one to expect slack water; even at such places, I consider, that by suitable length of outfall, there is amply sufficient current to diffuse the small amount of sewage discharged at those places.\n\n### Objection to outfall at Bowrington Canal.\n\nAt Bowrington Canal especially, there exists a large foreshore caused by the deposit of silt washed down the Wong-nei-cheong Valley. The outfall, proposed by Mr. Cooper at C. 4, is essentially wrongly placed for a collecting sewer, as admitted in the report by the recommendation to carry this discharge by pumping to North Point.\n\n### Advantage of numerous direct outfalls.\n\nAn advantage in having numerous direct outfalls is, that sewage would be more rapidly discharged into the sea from its place of production. I estimate that from no part of the City would the sewage take longer than two hours to be dispersed into the sea. Sir Robert Rawlinson in his \"Suggestions,\" says: All sewage should be disposed of, if practicable, on the day of its production. This would not be the case with low lying intercepting sewers; and in a tropical climate, it is essential to have the most speedy discharge.\n\nAn important fact which must not be forgotten in considering the matter discharge into the harbour of the sewage of this City, is, that practically no faecal matter exists. The disposal of night-soil being carried out by the bucket system.\n\n### Disapproval of increased number of Water Closets.\n\nI disapprove of any increase in the number of water-closets, which should only be allowed in the Hotels, Clubs, or large Public Institutions. There is not therefore the liability of having floating matter brought down by the sewers into the harbour.\n\n### Proposed new reclamation advantageous to outfalls.\n\nI have made no mention of the proposed reclamation from the Harbour in front of the City and shown on Plate No. 1, as it is obvious that the sea wall would project into deeper water, and greater tidal currents, thereby diffusing the discharge of outfalls still more rapidly. The work of constructing such outfalls would be a simple matter in building the new wall, which will be in from 15 to 40 feet depth of water.\n\n## Intercepting Sewers necessary to Mr. Cooper's Scheme.\n\nThe employment of four outfall points only, necessitates the construction of intercepting sewers, low-lying and of very flat gradients, such as 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 1,700.\n\n### Construction costly.\n\nThe construction of these sewers would be extremely costly, the soil is made ground, practically sand free to the sea, the trenches would be continually flooded and heavy pumping would be required; in many places, without close piling, no pumping would contend with the sea.\n\nBesides, granted that the sewers were constructed, they would be \"backwatered\" every high tide. During the South West Monsoon (especially when typhoons are in the neighbourhood) the sea level remains abnormally high for days together, there being no rise and fall of the tide, and during such times the sewers may be called upon to work under pressure.\n\nIt must also be remembered, that these intercepting sewers by not having a free outfall, can never be emptied; silting, in this case, must take place, necessitating, either very heavy flushing, or periodical cleaning out of the silt pits.\n\n### Gas from Discharge of intercepting Sewer.\n\nA source of danger is also created by the sewer becoming an elongated tank with slow velocity, constantly giving off sewage gas, which must be discharged somewhere, and no doubt the tendency is for it to be distributed up the tributary sewers.\n\n### Experience of Brighton intercepting Sewer.\n\nI would here like to give the experience at Brighton of the low level intercepting sewer. In a paper read before the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Borough Surveyor of Brighton gives as his opinion, that, for a town like Brighton, the system of pipe outfalls into deep water was a good one, and that, from a sanitary point of view, they were not better off, after having built the seven miles of intercepting sewer, than they had been with the outfall pipes previously laid. The outfall pipes mentioned were taken to a lowest depth of 8 to 16 feet and discharged into the sea.\n\n### Mr. Monson on intercepting Sewers.\n\nIn the same discussion, Mr. Monson made observations applying to large intercepting outfall sewers generally; he objected strongly to the large quantity of sewage gas that was being constantly driven off, and that the sewage was blocked by the tide and consequently sludge was freely deposited, the ventilators that were put in could be of small area compared with the volume of sewage, and he believed, that the resident medical men considered the scheme the reverse of satisfactory.\n\nThe intercepting sewers, running along the Praya East and West, will have to cross at right angles all the numerous Praya outfalls, which are at various levels. The sewers cannot go over or through them, and going under will necessitate a considerable depth at the beginning. The only alternative is to resort to syphons, of which only two or three are proposed. With sewers at such flat gradients, on either side of the syphon, very considerable difficulty will be experienced from deposit.\n\n## Combined System for Chinese districts.\n\nIn recommending the adoption of the Combined System for the purely Chinese part of the city, I am, besides following the recommendation of Mr. Chadwick to use such of the sewers as are suitable for the conveyance of sewage, utilizing the large amount of new drains, constructed by the Government subsequent to the date of Mr. Chadwick's report.\n\n### Chinese utilizes existing Sewers.\n\nIn a speech delivered by the Surveyor General at the Meeting of the Legislative Council held on the 5th November, 1886, the following words occur:\n\nWith regard to the words that have fallen from the hon: member opposite with reference to Sanitary Works, the hon: member may be aware, or he may not be aware, that the Government of the Colony has been for the last three and a half years assiduously engaged in reconstructing the main sewers of this town upon modern sanitary principles. From the returns which I hold in my hand I find that during the last three and a half years in the Western District of Victoria 2,450 yards of main sewers have been constructed, in the Central District 1,900 yards, and in the Eastern District 3,100 yards, making in all 7,450 yards of new main sewers, or, roughly speaking, about four and a half miles. Besides this, many other works of improvement in connection with main sewerage have also been carried out, and these improvements have been pushed forward for the last three and a half years and are still being unremittingly pushed forward from day to day as part and parcel of the comprehensive scheme for the main drainage of the city adopted four years ago. The main drainage works of Victoria, however, are something like Rome, they are not to be built in a day. At all events, the statistics I have quoted to the Council will show that considerable progress has been made in the main drainage works. Having said this much on the subject of the main drainage of the town, I come to the cognate subject of house drainage, and here I am able to agree with any hon: member at this table who may lift his voice against the actual condition of things. House drains are to the main sewers what the veins are to the arteries in a man's body. The Government have been engaged in restoring the arteries to proper working order, and it devolves upon the...",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-241 - Governor Des Voeus - 1889 [1-7]",
        "page_number": 580,
        "title": "CO129-241 - Governor Des Voeus - 1889 [1-7]",
        "content_text": "## \n6. If the sewers of the yellow district could reach the sea without traversing the districts tinted pink, the case would be different, and something might then be said in favour of a complete dissociation of the two systems, but this is impossible as the pink section of the town interposes as a barrier along the whole length of the city between the yellow section and the harbour. Mr. Lagn's map does not represent correctly the two districts. The distribution of colours is erroneous; it should have been so made as to accord with the line of demarcation provided for in the European Reservation Ordinance, which is the only true division. In the Central portion of his map, Mr. Leigh shews the yellow extending down the hill-slope as far as the water's edge, and also at the extreme right-hand of the map shews a second yellow district stretching along the shore as far as Causeway Bay. Both these yellow sections, excepting the comparatively small patch comprising the City Hall, the Cricket Ground, the Naval Yard, and the Military Cantonments, should have been shewn tinted pink between Queen's Road and the sea, because within their boundaries there is no legal restriction against native structures, and because there is every probability, in view of the continued influx of Chinese from the mainland, of the ground being covered by such structures partially if not wholly. Nor are even the Military Cantonments themselves altogether safe from a similar fate, for there is actually a scheme under the consideration of the War Office for the sale of a portion of the Military lands for Chinese building purposes in order to raise funds for the erection of European Barracks on more important sites elsewhere. Mr. Leigh should therefore have shewn one long littoral strip of pink colour embracing the whole of the lower city, except the patch above mentioned, and if he had done so, it would have been patent to anybody at the first glance of his map, that the Separate System sewers of the yellow portions having to be carried through the pink portions, had best be utilized by the Chinese as well, for the disposal of their foul waters.\n\n7. At page 4 of his letter, Mr. Leigh states that his opposition to the Separate System is due to three different reasons. His first reason is that it will not be possible to separate the rainfall from the sewage of native tenements. He says, in this connexion, that the rain from the roofs and backyards of houses cannot be led away as proposed by Mr. Cooper, by means of Surface-gutters passing from backyard to backyard, because the owners of the houses will be likely to stop up the gutters at the communication-holes in the divisional walls between the backyards, or else because leaves or sticks may choke up these communication-holes with the result that the ground floors would be flooded and trouble caused. Therefore, Mr. Leigh proposes, in lieu, that the storm-waters should escape as at present through the foul-water drain of the house. But at page 13 of his letter, Mr. Leigh describes the foul-water drain of the house as being generally choked up with vegetable matter, fruit-skins, and other solid refuse. On his own shewing, therefore, he takes us from the frying pan into the fire, for it will be clear to the merest tyro in Sanitation that Mr. Cooper's open surface-gutter can be kept unobstructed far more easily for the escape of flood waters than Mr. Leigh's varicose underground house-drain. But in fact, there are no grounds whatsoever for Mr. Leigh's apprehensions that the house-owners will stop up the rain gutters. The Chinese are very neighbourly among themselves and would not be guilty of such silly acts of aggression towards each other, more especially as the passage of the surface gutter across a backyard does a tenement no harm. If any such abuse as that feared by Mr. Leigh did prevail, it could readily be met by legislative enactment. From his recommendation that the heavy tropical rainfall of this climate should be conveyed away through the house drains, it is clear Mr. Leigh does not appreciate the main advantage of the Separate System, viz: the admissibility of small diameters for the house-drains. He attaches no importance to this, preferring to have in the sewage-conduits of the houses and of the streets diameters so large that they shall also be able to take in the heavy and deluging floods of Summer. Yet it is these large diameters, these capacious sizes, exposing so large a floor-surface of sewer and so large a surface of sewage for evaporation, to which we attribute the sluggish flow in the east and west street sewers and the consequent undue exhalation of noxious air from them. Also, in respect of the objection to surface gutters, I should not forget to repeat here that Mr. Cooper's scheme does provide for the admission into the house-drain of a sufficient quantity of the rainfall, and that is only the excess which it is proposed to convey away in the surface gutters. This judicious arrangement, while on the one hand providing the house-drain with a sufficient volume of rain water, will so restrict that volume as to enable it to be carried off by means of pipes of small diameter.\n\n## \n578\n\n8. Mr. Leigh's second reason for objecting to the Separate System is that the scheme divides the City into four drainage districts (page 4 of Mr. Leigh's letter). I am not sure that I have seized the grounds or reasons of this objection quite correctly, as the indictment is so rambling that it is difficult to follow the arguments, but I understand Mr. Leigh to mean that he would prefer six drainage districts instead, as shewn in his map, the out-falls being placed at points marked L. 1, L. 2, L. 3, L. 4, L. 5, and L. 6. Mr. Cooper's contemplated division of the City into four separate drainage areas is in accordance with the natural configuration of the hill-slope and of the spurs and ravines that intersect those areas. The division is a natural division, governed purely by the topography of the ground and the gradients of the streets. Under this arrangement, the town sewage will be conveyed by easy inclines to certain points of out-fall away from the more populous centres of Victoria and discharged where the tidal current will soonest disperse it. The proposed inclines will be nowhere so flat as to incur the risk of undue deposits of silt in the pipe-sewers, more especially looking to the volume of descending sewage from the upper levels, which will always maintain the flow through the lower town at a speed sufficient to be self-cleansing. In this respect, Mr. Leigh's Combined System proposes the creation of new main drains running straight down the hill on steep inclines ranging from about one in four to one in ten, but this alternative is objectionable if only because it makes it difficult with such steep inclines to regulate and control the escape of the gases generated in such sewers, a difficulty that is not lessened by the necessarily large sizes to which these conduits would have to be built, since Mr. Leigh would destine them also for the escape of rain-water. Mr. Leigh states also that in lieu of only four points of out-fall, he would prefer many more, and so avoid concentration of sewage matter at so few as four places. There might be something in this contention if the water in the harbour were stagnant, but as Mr. Cooper's proposed outlets of sewage-delivery are swept by tidal currents, Mr. Leigh's multiplication of out-falls does not appear to me to be necessary. But whether necessary or not, the question is disposed of with regard to the Central and Western districts now that we are to have a general reclamation of the foreshore from Murray Pier to West Point; because it is certain that the erection of the new quay wall further out into the harbour along deeper water will tend to improve the velocity of the inshore currents and thus promote the more rapid dispersion of the effluent.\n\n9. Mr. Leigh's third and final objection is to the proposed intercepting sewers. In lieu of these intercepting sewers, Mr. Leigh recommends the direct consigning into the sea of the contents of each descending main-sewer as soon as the latter has been carried down to the Praya level by the shortest route. He impugns the propriety of collecting together the aggregate sewage of several knots or groups of foul water drains, and contends that this gathering in of converging foul waters into one trunk-pipe running parallel with the shore-line will not work, because the incline will be so flat as to preclude flow and thereby choke the trunk-pipe. In the previous paragraph, I have already explained that there will be a self-cleansing velocity, and that as the trunk pipe has been designed to be self-cleansing, the block anticipated by Mr. Leigh will not occur. But again, here the new Reclamation Scheme, which was elaborated subsequently to the Drainage Project, will necessitate a reconsideration of the latter in that branch of it which relates to the intercepting sewers, and as we shall now have in the central and western town a marine pre-embankment in deep water throughout, I am of opinion that it will be found preferable to adopt the modification set forth in the small alternative plan prepared by Mr. Cooper and dated the 29th of December, 1888, which plan, together with a Report from Mr. Cooper in reply to Mr. Leigh's criticisms, is now submitted. In the Eastern portion of Victoria, where no sea-reclamation is contemplated, the first or original scheme prepared by Mr. Cooper would remain unaltered.\n\n## \nMr. Cooper's Report of 29th December 1888\n\nand enclosure.\n\n10. All those passages in Mr. Leigh's letter wherein he urges the increased ventilation of the main sewers in connexion with his Combined Project are, as stated before, concurred in by Mr. Cooper and myself, provided the main sewers are continued in use as foul-water conduits. If sewage, however, is diverted from them into separate glazed stoneware pipe-drains as advocated by us, it will obviously be unnecessary to embark in any system of increased ventilation for channels that are destined to carry only rain-water. The question of the adoption or the rejection of the Separate System must therefore be settled first, and that of the ventilation of the present sewers second, and on this point, I would like to point out that all the ventilation in the world will be useless so long as each private house-drain connected with such ventilated main continues to remain an elongated cesspool of putrid sewage, without fall or without flow. Mr. Cooper and myself have pre...\n\n## \nJune",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-241 - Governor Des Voeus - 1889 [1-7]",
        "page_number": 581,
        "title": "CO129-241 - Governor Des Voeus - 1889 [1-7]",
        "content_text": "# CHADWICK'S Report\n\nferred to advise the reconstruction of defective house-drains as the first remedy and increased ventilation of mains as the second. Mr. LEIGH joins issue with us, and clamours for the increased ventilation of mains while he relegates the removal of the noxious house-drains and their substitution by properly built ones to a second place in the order of importance. To illustrate my point by a simile: Mr. LEIGH brings into the room a dead cat far gone in decomposition and then with his handkerchief to his nose begins to clamour about the defective ventilation of the room.\n\nOur reply is a simple common-sense reply; we say: \"As however wide we may open the door and window to improve the ventilation, the smell will not disappear, your best plan will be to remove the cause of smell first.\" With regard to defective house-drains however, it may be stated that the Public Health Ordinance, having now made sanitary reform compulsory, a marked improvement may be expected within the next few years in the drainage of native tenements, and this together with the ample ventilating facilities shown in Mr. COOPER's proposed pipe-sewers under the Separate System, will provide the true remedy for the evil odours complained of.\n\n## 11\nAt 5 of his letter Mr. LEIGH proposes to reserve exclusively for the passage of through-streams from the Mountain side,--all the present drains of a larger size which traverse the Chinese districts. No sewage is to enter these larger main drains, but duplicate sewers are to be built alongside of them for the escape of the local rainfall in the particular district subserved, and for the district sewage combined.\n\nThis looks to me very much like the Separate System, and if Mr. LEIGH acknowledges in respect of the larger main-drains the advantage of dissociating foul waters from storm floods, why not extend his support to the lesser drains which are only in one degree less subjected to the same conditions, and at once espouse Mr. COOPER's propositions? But Mr. LEIGH's proposition of large sized double-barrelled main drains down the same valley lines besides being clumsy and complicated will involve if adopted, an outlay so large as to represent in this particular feature alone, about one quarter of Mr. COOPER's entire estimate of cost, and if to this outlay we add the expense of providing new combined sewers in all those streets which at present do not possess them we shall find that Mr. LEIGH's estimates of cost will exceed those of Mr. COOPER with the difference that under the carefully elaborated plans of the latter we shall acquire a thoroughly comprehensive and effective system of town-drainage while under the crude and imperfectly thought out schemes of the former we shall have attained only a disjointed one of inferior value.\n\n## 12\nAs reference is made in more than one passage of Mr. LEIGH's letter to more recent drainage improvements effected under my supervision, it may remove misconceptions if I explain that these works have comprised the construction of new drains in streets where none existed before, the reconstruction of main drains on straight lines. Where in the earlier days of the Colony they had been built on tortuous lines (as for instance at Jervois Street and Bonham Strand which Mr. LEIGH describes as still existent though they were properly rebuilt as far back as five years ago) and the extension of the town drains higher up the hill where they terminate in open chimney shafts, and that all these works would not be by any means superseded or rendered useless for the purposes they were designed by the adoption now of the Separate System, inasmuch as sound drains are as great a necessity for the escape of storm waters as are sound sewers for the escape of foul-waters.\n\n## 13\nLong before Mr. COOPER's Separate System Project was submitted by me to the Colonial Government I had carefully weighed over in my mind all the considerations now put forward by Mr. LEIGH, and it was only after a very careful deliberation of all the pros and cons both in respect of the Combined System and the Separate System that I resolved to support as strongly as I was able the carefully prepared plan of Mr. COOPER. I am convinced that the Separate System for the Chinese districts of the City, with its proposed glazed stoneware pipe mains of limited diameter, laid in straight lines on moderately steep gradients and with all its accessories in the shape of ventilating grates, turning Chambers, Manholes etc, and its carefully determined volume of flow--is in the present circumstances of the Colony infinitely preferable to a continuation of the Combined System-under which we are tied to the conveyance of sewage through granite sewers of unduly large size, laid to unduly steep gradients and on lines that are full of bends and twists and which are constructed of a material less adapted to stimulate flow in the more level streets than the smooth glassy surface of stone-ware pipes. I came to my conclusions the more readily that I recognized how much there remained yet to be done in the reconstruction and repair of the actual net-work of granite drains before we could hope to make the combined system attain even a moderate degree of efficiency, all of which meant an expenditure of public money that would go a very long way to establish the Separate System in its entirety if we elected to adopt this rival system in lieu. Also I particularly considered the question of the interception feature of Mr. COOPER's scheme-with its system of over-flows--and the positions proposed for the out-falls, and have been convinced by a careful investigation of the float experiments that the points selected were the most judicious, furthermore I have considered in respect of the proposed new sea wall to be now built along deep water that due regard for the safety of that structure during typhoons requires that the number of sewer outlets should be as limited as is consistent with the efficiency of the sewerage arrangements of the town and I am therefore in favour of the smallest number of openings possible.\n\n## 14\nIn the foregoing remarks which relate purely to the native districts of Victoria, I have made no allusion to the higher or European levels because in respect of these I understand there is complete unanimity of opinion.\n\n## 15\nIn conclusion I would submit that I am of opinion no advantage will be gained by the acceptance of Mr. LEIGH's professional offer to furnish competing plans and specifications of his own for a Counter project of public drainage because his propositions while far more costly than he is aware of do not hold out to the Colony any promise of the same thorough and effective results that are apparent under Mr. COOPER's carefully prepared designs.\n\nSIR,\nHongkong, 23rd March, 1889.\n\n## Enclosure 3\n**J. M. PRICE, Surveyor General.**\n\n**PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, December 29th, 1888.**\n\nIn answer to your invitation of the 22nd instant I have now the honour to forward you the following observations on Mr. LEIGH's report on the Proposed Drainage of the City of Victoria.\n\nOn page 3 Mr. LEIGH states that the proposed scheme is diametrically opposed to that of Mr. CHADWICK.\n\nOn reference to Mr. CHADWICK's report I find on page 25 in discussing the advisability of admitting rainfall into the sewers he says: \"The principal argument for its admission is that downpours of rain clean the sewers.\" This is worthless.\n\nOn page 49 of Mr. CHADWICK's report, paragraph 11 reads as follows:- \"Plates I and II show methods of draining some common types of houses according to the principles just enunciated. Provision is made for the removal of slop water only, but, as stated in the report, drains fit for that purpose are fit for the conveyance of excreta also, so that when the time comes they can easily receive the additions necessary to fit them for this additional duty. No provision is made for removal of rain water which should be dealt with separately for the reasons stated in the report. The dimensions are, however, ample to receive a considerable quantity of rain to carry off all would be clearly impossible.\"\n\nAt page 33, in paragraph 207 of the same report Mr. CHADWICK says:—“The upper portions of the existing sewers, those above Queen's Road, are, thanks to their great fall, rather than to their design and construction, almost wholly free from deposit. Nevertheless, it would be well to render their inverts watertight, and to accelerate the dry-weather flow through them, by concentrating it in a semi-circular tile, laid on the invert.\" Mr. CHADWICK evidently did not entertain a very high opinion of the old sewers.\n\nMr. LEIGH on page 7 of his report quotes a speech made by the Surveyor General on the 5th of November, 1886, in which he stated that 44 miles of new sewers had been constructed and many other improvements carried out during the last three and a half years.\n\nPage 11",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-241 - Governor Des Voeus - 1889 [1-7].txt",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-243 - Public Offices & Others - 1889",
        "page_number": 27,
        "title": "CO129-243 - Public Offices & Others - 1889",
        "content_text": "## \nMr Price, and are shown on the various drawings furnished by me. I should state that, shortly after the receipt of your favoured letter, I had a call from the Hon. B.P Chater, who appears to have been the originator of the Praya Reclamation scheme, and has taken the leading part in urging its adoption upon the Colonial government and upon the community at Hong Kong.\n\nFor Chater kindly furnished me with replies to questions on sundry matters bearing on the character of the traffic along the Praya, and the conduct of the foreign and coasting trade of Hong Kong, both coastwise and oceanic.\n\nThe project contemplates the erection of a granite ashlar wall backed with concrete, founded just below low water level, on a rubble base deposited from barges. The work would extend over a length of 3,400 yards, running almost uniformly parallel with the present Groutage frontage, and generally at a distance of about 60 feet therefrom, the space between the new wall and the face of the existing seawall being filled solid, and the reclaimed area made available for building plots, as indicated on red and yellow prints on the plans.\n\nIt is proposed to form a new Praya along the entire sea front, and to construct a commodious wide road or esplanade, appropriately situated along the line of the existing Praya.\n\nThe project is fully described by the Surveyor General in the very exhaustive Reports prepared on the subject, dated 15th July 1897, and 14 June of the present year.",
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        "id": 349581,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-255 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1892 [5-7]",
        "page_number": 533,
        "title": "CO129-255 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1892 [5-7]",
        "content_text": "Pokfulam water collected in the manner we now recommend to be adopted in the case of the Faitam supply recommending we do not feel justified in the heavy expenditure involved in the application of chemical treatment for the further clarification of these waters.\n\n12.\n\nA plan prepared by the Director of Public Works is attached shewing how the foregoing recommendation, viz., that a clear water channel be constructed for intercepting the head waters of the Faitan Valley and conveying them direct to the Basin without passing through the reservoir, may best be accomplished. This project consists of about 1400 lineal yards of open channel cut in the hill side contouring the Valley at a level of about 512 feet above Ordnance datum. The portion of this channel, 1170 lineal yards in length above the overflow, will probably not require any masonry or concrete as any slight leakage that may recur will not be sufficient to warrant the additional expenditure that would be incurred by making this portion of the channel water-tight. Such water as escapes naturally finding its way into the reservoir will not reduce the quantity of water available for the supply of the City.\n\n13.\n\nIt is however different with that portion below the overflow, which is proposed to be constructed of masonry and concrete as any leakage from this part of the channel will flow down the valley and be lost.\n\n14.\n\nThe portion lower down has a steep slope immediately above the gauge",
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    {
        "id": 355710,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-264 - Governor Sir Robinson & Public Offices - 1894 [9-12]",
        "page_number": 696,
        "title": "CO129-264 - Governor Sir Robinson & Public Offices - 1894 [9-12]",
        "content_text": "## MEANS OF AUGMENTING SUPPLY\n\n47. Without claiming great accuracy for these calculations, I think it is clear that the supply which the Tytam gathering-ground can afford, may, in some seasons, be very materially reduced, and that it will be desirable, at no distant date, to take steps to obtain a supply from some additional gathering-ground.\n\n48. To some extent this has been already done, by intercepting streams flowing down the hill sides, and by connecting the Pokfulum aqueduct with the Tytam filter-beds. The Pokfulum reservoir is much smaller in proportion to its gathering-ground than the Tytam. Consequently a relatively small rainfall causes it to overflow; and the full supply which the gathering-ground affords could not be utilised if the consumption were limited to the amount that can be filtered and distributed from the Pokfulum works. Now, however, the excess can be carried to the Tytam beds and filtered there, taking the place of water that would otherwise have to be drawn from the Tytam reservoir, and therefore allowing more to be stored than would otherwise be the case.\n\n49. Numerous mountain streams, which give an abundance of water during wet weather, have been partially intercepted and turned into the conduits. The original idea which led to this step being taken, was to enable filtration to be carried on without interruption. It was found that after heavy rain the waters of both reservoirs continued to be so turbid for a long time, as to be unfilterable. The streams, however, became bright within a few hours after the rain ceased. The interception of the streams has not only made filtration possible, but has also made a most important addition to the water supply; and by diminishing the draught on the Tytam reservoir, has increased the amount available for storage. The Director of Public Works informs me that the amount obtainable from both these sources may be materially increased. In 1891, 213 millions of gallons were collected in this manner along the Tytam aqueduct, and 13 millions along the Pokfulum aqueduct; in 1892, 228 millions and 13 millions respectively, or rather more than two-thirds of the whole contents of the Tytam reservoir.\n\n50. The limit of the additional quantity that can thus be collected is the full day's consumption during the five wet months. The water intercepted from streams by the conduits will not flow back to the reservoirs. So the maximum that can be obtained would be the day's consumption, the whole of the water being derived in this manner, none being drawn from the reservoir during the whole five months of the rainy season; 450 million gallons, or about 250 millions more than is now taken from the streams, might be in stock in Tytam, if there were room to receive it. There is therefore no doubt that a considerably larger reservoir could be filled.\n\n51. The Tytam dam, as originally designed, was to have been ten feet higher than it is at present. Provision was made, however, for raising it to the full height if experience showed it to be desirable. Not having the drawings of this reservoir, I cannot say how much additional storage would be obtained. If we take the capacity to vary as the cube of the depth, an extra ten feet would give about 100 millions of gallons, which would be a valuable addition to the stock at the commencement of the dry season, and which in 1893 would have averted the necessity for giving an intermittent supply.\n\n52. For the same reason, I cannot calculate the height to which it will be safe to raise the Tytam dam. The Director of Public Works tells me that he has investigated this question, and, to the best of his recollection, he found that the dam may be raised ten feet. I therefore recommend that immediate steps be taken to raise the Tytam dam to the greatest height which calculation shows to be prudent.\n\n53. In a private letter, Mr. Danby suggests that an additional supply could be obtained from a new reservoir, which is under construction for Messrs. Butterfield and Swire. The top-water of this reservoir is practically at the same level as that of the Tytam reservoir. Its waters could therefore be carried by a pipe into the Tytam conduit. Its capacity is stated to be 150 millions of gallons, and the gathering-ground 300 acres; roughly one-half of that of the existing Tytam reservoir, in each instance. The daily supply which it will afford may therefore be taken at about one-half of that of Tytam, say, one million gallons. The question therefore arises—How much water can the owners of this dam supply, and what price will they demand for it? I do not, however, consider it desirable that any part of the public water supply should be in private hands. I have, moreover, no information as to the condition of the gathering-ground of this reservoir. On the whole, I am of opinion that the Government would do well to develop to the utmost the supply derivable from the present gathering-ground.\n\n54. In the same letter, the construction of two new reservoirs is suggested in the drainage area of the existing Tytam dam above the level thereof. Now the construction of these reservoirs would not increase the total available supply, the gathering-ground remaining the same. They would, however, by increasing the storage, make a greater proportion of the supply available for use. It is open to doubt whether the total storage which would be afforded by these two reservoirs and by the existing reservoir, increased by raising the water-level, would not be in excess of the requirements of the case. If, however, it appears to be unsafe to raise the existing dam sufficiently to increase the capacity of the reservoir to the desired extent, then this project merits attention.\n\n[159430]",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-264 - Governor Sir Robinson & Public Offices - 1894 [9-12]",
        "page_number": 697,
        "title": "CO129-264 - Governor Sir Robinson & Public Offices - 1894 [9-12]",
        "content_text": "# \n\n55. I do not consider that it would be prudent to raise the Pokfulum dam, an opinion with which the Director of Public Works agrees, and which was also, I believe, held by Mr. Price, the former Surveyor General.\n\n56. In view of a future increase in the population and augmentation in the legitimate consumption of water, the means of making a substantial increase to the total water supply should now be considered. It is very desirable that the supply derivable from the present gathering-ground should be developed to the utmost, rather than water should be collected from several gathering-grounds. To secure the purity of the water, it is necessary that the gathering-ground shall be uninhabited and uncultivated. Two gathering-grounds have already been taken up for the purposes of the public water supply, and the waters of others have been granted to private individuals. It is therefore desirable that no more land be withdrawn from occupation than is absolutely necessary.\n\n57. The Tytam reservoir has a gathering-ground of 700 acres. The same stream, at a point lower down, where its bed is approximately 100 feet above the sea, has a total gathering-ground of 1,490 acres, of which 700 contribute to the existing Tytam reservoir. The flow from 790 acres, plus the overflow and leakage from Tytam reservoir, could be collected in a reservoir constructed at a level of 100 feet above the sea. If a reservoir of suitable size were constructed at this point, an additional supply at least equal to, and probably greater than, that which Tytam now affords could be obtained. The available quantity would depend mainly on the capacity of the reservoir, a point which can only be settled by survey.\n\n58. The water of this reservoir would have to be pumped by steam power into the Tytam tunnel. This is not a very serious matter, however. The Ordnance map of Hong Kong shows that no appreciable additional supply can be collected in the lower Tytam gathering-ground of 790 acres, at an elevation sufficient to flow by gravity into the Tytam tunnel. Nevertheless, the evidence before me tends to show that the Tytam valley is the best source from which extensions to the water supply of Victoria can be obtained. The tunnel and conduit are ready to hand, and no alteration to the distributary system need be made. It will not, I believe, be difficult to arrange matters so that the works may be carried out progressively as demand arises. I therefore recommend that the project for the construction of a new reservoir in the Tytam valley be carefully studied, and the necessary surveys should be put in hand at once.\n\n59. It is probable that a material increase to the water supply may be at once obtained from the Tytam valley, without the construction of a reservoir. Even in the dry season, there is a considerable flow of water in the lower reaches of the Tytam stream: how much I cannot say. The Director of Public Works informs me that he left instructions to gauge the flow during the last dry season. Even gaugings taken during October next would be valuable. If it appears that the flow of the Tytam river is about 1,000,000 gallons a day during October and November, then it will be worth while to put up pumping plant at once. If it were possible to pump some 30 or 40 millions of gallons into the reservoir after the beginning of October, the date at which overflow ceases, and the demand exceeds the supply, the reservoir might be kept full, say till January, and a valuable addition to the dry weather stock would be the result.\n\n60. It is premature to go into close calculations as to the power of the engines and size of main that will be required until the sufficiency of the supply which the Tytam stream affords has been determined by gauging. The following figures may be useful to give a general idea of the magnitude of this work. To raise one million gallons in twenty-four hours to the necessary height (310 feet nett), about 80 H.P. will be required, say three engines of 40 H.P., two to do the day work and one in reserve, in all—120 H.P. effective at $600 per H.P. \n| Item | Cost |\n| --- | --- |\n| 120 H.P. effective at $600 per H.P. | $72,000 |\n| 2,000 yards main laid, at $8 | $16,000 |\n| Weir contingencies, &c. | $12,000 |\n| Total | $100,000 |\n\nSuch a plant would furnish an extra perennial supply of 1,000,000 gallons a day, when the storage reservoir is constructed.\n\n61. The Director of Public Works informs me that a large new reservoir could be constructed just below the Pokfulam dam. Though the water from this new reservoir would not go into the Pokfulam conduit, it would be high enough to supply the lower districts by gravity. In this case, however, a new set of filter beds would be required. It would be better, probably, to pump the water into the conduit, as the lift would not exceed 30 to 40 feet. This project should also be studied.\n\n62. I understand that the recent epidemic of Plague has caused a great exodus, and that it is the intention of the Government to pull down and re-build the houses on the infected area. Consequently, a reduction in the population may be reasonably expected, which will continue for some years to come, and a proportional reduction in the consumption of water may be anticipated. Therefore, I do not consider that it is necessary to adopt hastily any plan for augmenting the water supply.\n\n## CONCLUSION\n\n63. My recommendations may be summed up as follows:\n- (a) The provisions of the Water Ordinance against waste should be strictly and vigorously enforced.\n- (b) The Tytam dam should at once be raised to the utmost extent that appears to be safe.",
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    {
        "id": 355712,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-264 - Governor Sir Robinson & Public Offices - 1894 [9-12]",
        "page_number": 698,
        "title": "CO129-264 - Governor Sir Robinson & Public Offices - 1894 [9-12]",
        "content_text": "693 \n\n## DOMESTIC \n\n16 \n\n(c) The dry weather flow of the Tytam stream, at or about the level of 100 feet above the sea, should be investigated, and, if the results are favourable, projects for the complete utilisation of this source of supply should be prepared. The project for constructing a new dam at Tytam should also be studied. \n\n64. In conclusion, I would point out that in 1893 the minimum water consumption at any time was 93 gallons per head per day. I have no information as to the minimum consumption in 1894, but I venture to believe that the Chinese population received far more water than they ever did prior to 1890. If my memory serves, Mr. Price estimated the water supply which the Chinese population received at about 3 gallons per head per day. On this subject, I would refer you to my report on the Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong dated 18th June, 1882, paragraphs 74 to 84. The state of things therein described remained practically unchanged to 1889. Then the water was only turned on from 2 a.m. to 5 a.m., or for three hours daily, the minimum time in 1893.\n\nI am of opinion that nine and a half gallons of water per day, the minimum given in 1893, should suffice if properly applied for all the essential requirements of life, including flushing well-constructed house drains and sewers. I see that a statement was made by an officer of the Works Department, to the Sanitary Board, that only a very small proportion of the house drains in the infected area had been remodelled, and connected to the new sewers. Practically, therefore, within this area, the sanitary condition of the people is little different from that described in 1881 and 1882; unless, indeed, overcrowding had increased.\n\nI have the honour to be, \n\nGentlemen, \n\nYour obedient Servant, \n\n**OSBERT CHADWICK** \n\n| Office or Individual | Date | \n| --- | --- | \n| C Agents | 1894 28 Sept | \n| Treas. | 3 Oct | \n| como | 16:5 bet | \n\n**Previous Paper** \n\n`Freds 15672` \n`Ac Treas. imf` \n\n**Subsequent Paper** \n\n| No. | \n| --- | \n| 171261729 | \n| 17550 21746 | \n\n## (Subject.) \n\n**Silver Coin $200000 Colony** \n\n10 cent pieces proposes to comply \n\n**(Minutes.)** \n\nM. Feifeld 29 SEP JA hands till from this will make for this year $2,100, 100,000 normal. \n\n153057 mome tran Double than suschely; see mounter Auth. Agents turite to Treasuzan usual; & perhaps we might ask has for. Why so large a quality been required theis gean \n\np.W. 7.29/9",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-264 - Governor Sir Robinson & Public Offices - 1894 [9-12].txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 362955,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-275 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1897 [1-5]",
        "page_number": 471,
        "title": "CO129-275 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1897 [1-5]",
        "content_text": "467\n\n7\n\n(2)\n\n(b.) The construction of a carriage road from the Village of Little Hongkong traversing comparatively level ground in a South Easterly direction to the Western shore of Deep Water Bay and from thence along the shore, connecting with the existing road at the North Western corner of the Bay.\n\n(c.) The improvement of the existing road from Taitam Tuk to Taitam Gap and\n\n(d) The improvement of the existing road from Chai Wan Gap to Shaukiwan.\n\nMr. GERSTON STEWART attended the meeting of the Sub-Committee on the 7th instant and explained that he considered that, if this project was carried out in the first instance, say to Deep Water Bay, he was of opinion that it would meet a much felt want by affording an opportunity to all persons of enjoying the Southwest monsoon in summer, and he anticipated that if the road was constructed it would be much used both by Europeans and Asiatics.\n\nHe advocated the completion of the project but, in view of the cost involved, he considered that the Government would have to do the bulk of the work. Looking, however, to the revenue derived by the municipality in Shanghai from a wheel tax, he thought it probable that the revenue derived from a similar tax in this Colony would be sufficient to pay the interest on any loan that it might be necessary to raise to meet the expenditure on this project.\n\nMr. STEWART mentioned, as instancing the popularity of his scheme, that in 2 or 3 days, with but little trouble to himself, he obtained nearly 200 signatures to his letter, which number he could easily have doubled since he forwarded his letter, as he has had further applications to sign from all classes of the community. The road Mr. STEWART proposed should be 20 feet in width, but, if found practicable, he advocated an increased width of 30 feet.\n\nMr. STEWART wished Mr. DENISON's letter of the 30th March and Report on the Proposed Road from Belcher's Bay to Taitam Tuk by Messrs. DENISON and KAM, which he handed into the Committee, to be considered in connection with this project and asked that any further details required as to route and cost of the road should be obtained from Mr. DENISON.\n\nMr. Denison's letter dated 30th March, 1897.\n\nIn this letter Mr. DENISON divides the road along the southern side of the island, connecting Kennedy Town with the existing road along the northern side of the island, into seven sections as follows:\n\nSec. 1. B-C from Kennedy Town to the Waterfall, Aberdeen Road.\n\nSec. 2. C-D from the Waterfall to Little Hongkong.\n\nSec. 3. D-E from Little Hongkong to Deep Water Bay.\n\nSec. 4. E-F from Deep Water Bay to Taitam Tuk.\n\nSec. 5. F-G from Taitam Tuk to Taitam Gap.\n\nSec. 6. G-H from Taitam Gap to Chai Wan Gap.\n\nSec. 7. H-A from Chai Wan Gap to Shaukiwan.\n\nIn their report, Messrs. DENISON and KAM advise an alteration in the route over a portion of Sec. 4, viz., from Repulse Bay to Stanley by leaving the present road on the eastern shore of Repulse Bay and contouring the southern and eastern slopes of the hills between Repulse and Stanley Bays.\n\n(3)\n\nMr. DENISON gives the following estimate of the cost of the several sections, the road being 20 feet in width and constructed at a level of from 15 to 20 feet above ordinary high water:\n\nSection 1, $60,000\n\nSection 3, $10,000\n\nSection 4, $5,000\n\nSections 5 and 6, $25,000\n\nSection 4 (amended route), $30,000\n\nTotal......... $130,000\n\nMr. DENISON attended the meeting of the Committee on the 9th instant and explained that he was of opinion that a fairly level road suitable for the passage of wheeled vehicles could be obtained from Kennedy Town to Shaukiwan, excepting from Taitam Tuk to Taitam Gap, round the southern shore of the Island, using such portions of the existing roads as are suitable, for the sum of $130,000.\n\nOver the section from Taitam Tuk to Taitam Gap Mr. DENISON considered the construction of a road suitable for wheeled vehicles to be impracticable.\n\nMr. DENISON had made no detailed survey and estimate and wished it to be understood that without such a detailed survey he did not consider it practicable to make a reliable estimate within 20 per cent.\n\nMr. DENISON concurred in the view expressed by Mr. STEWART that a road 30 feet wide would be better suited for carriage traffic than one 20 feet in width and that the construction of the road would open out building sites and render land in the vicinity of Stanley suitable for the erection of buildings for manufacturing purposes.\n\nMr. DENISON estimated that increasing the width of the road to 30 feet would involve an additional expenditure of $50,000.\n\nOn the 12th instant Mr. DANBY attended the meeting of the Committee and informed Members that he had considered the construction of a road as proposed by Mr. STEWART.\n\nMr. DANBY had, when in the Government Survey Department, been engaged on a similar project for the construction of a 20 foot road from Belcher's Bay to a point about one mile west of Aberdeen, but the project was abandoned as the cost was considered prohibitive.\n\nAs regards the present project Mr. DANBY considered that, speaking generally, the road should be at an elevation of from 75 to 100 feet above sea level so as to be well out of the reach of the sea during heavy south-westerly gales, and that in order that it should be suitable for carriage traffic the steepest gradient should not exceed 1 in 40.\n\nIt was difficult to see how, without the construction of a tunnel at a cost of $400,000, a road suitable for carriage traffic could be constructed from Taitam Tuk to Taitam Gap.\n\nMr. DANBY had considered the construction of this portion of the road on the slopes to the north of the present road and the best gradient obtainable would not be less than 1 in 15, so that carriages could not use it.\n\nMr. DANBY estimated the cost of the road from Kennedy Town to Shaukiwan including the portion from Taitam Tuk to Taitam Gap at a gradient of 1 in 15 at $225,050.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-275 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1897 [1-5].txt",
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    {
        "id": 362959,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-275 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1897 [1-5]",
        "page_number": 475,
        "title": "CO129-275 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1897 [1-5]",
        "content_text": "after Her Majesty, The three resolutions which are now submitted for your favourable consideration have been carefully drafted and I sincerely hope they will practically meet the wishes of all sections. They read:--\n\n\"(1) That the most useful and most befitting manner of permanently commemorating the completion of the sixtieth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria will be to erect a Hospital for women and children and the training of nurses, to be handed over to the Colonial Government, who have undertaken to maintain it in conjunction with and on the same footing as the Government Civil Hospital, and to subscribe towards the completion of the carriage road round the island, the former to be called 'The Victoria Jubilee Hospital,' and the latter 'The Victoria Jubilee Road,' or such other names as may be thought more appropriate by the Committee;\n\n(2) That this Committee take immediate steps to raise funds from all sections of the community of Hongkong for the purposes mentioned in the preceding resolution, and for local celebrations;\n\n(3) That the money so collected, together with an equal amount promised by the Colonial Government, be deposited at interest in the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in the name of the Jubilee Committee, and be disbursed by them after paying for the local celebration - one half towards the erection of the Hospital for women and children and the training of nurses and the other half towards the construction of the first section of the carriage road from Kennedytown to Aberdeen which the Government undertakes to commence forthwith and to carry out the remaining portion of the road until completed.\"\n\nThe erection of a hospital for women and children of all ranks, classes, creeds, and races, managed on the same lines as the Government Civil Hospital, and an institute attached for the training of nurses, will, I think, appeal to Her Majesty's sympathies, inasmuch as they will tend to alleviate the sufferings of all subjects of whatever nationality resident in this her far distant colony. The construction and the completion of a carriage road round the island will undoubtedly be of great utility, and will assuredly confer greatest good and benefit upon the greatest number. There are comparatively few who can afford to live on the higher roads in the City or at the Peak, and the overwhelming majority of the people are compelled to reside on the lower levels throughout the year. During six or seven months out of every twelve the hot and stifling atmosphere of the lower levels of Victoria is extremely trying, and often well nigh unbearable, as the breeze during the summer comes from the south. In his letter to this Committee of 31st March General Black writes \"I need hardly urge the appropriateness of a road to mark a great occasion; roads are the precursors of progress and civilization; they distinguish a rising from a barbarous state. Roads for recreation and health are one of the great wants in this island, &c.\" I feel sure you all heartily concur with General Black. The present road to the south owing to its steep gradient is practically prohibitive, but with a good level carriage road private enterprise would speedily provide a tramway running round to Aberdeen as a beginning at prices which would enable all classes to avail of the southern breezes and the cooler temperature on the south side during the hot months of the year. A really good road 30 feet wide with an easy gradient would be an inestimable boon and would materially advance the welfare of the colonists in addition to developing the resources of the colony on the south side of the island. (Applause.)\n\nMr. GILLIES - Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, it gives me very great pleasure to second the three resolutions just proposed by the Hon. Mr. Whitehead. I am sure that they require nothing further in the way of commendation to recommend them for your approval. Mr. Whitehead has given us a very able and a very clear idea of the advantages to be obtained from each of the schemes that he has just submitted, and I feel convinced in my own mind that there is nothing more appropriate or more popular with the citizens of Hongkong than projects which have just been submitted by Mr. Whitehead. (Applause.) We all know the great interest that Her Majesty takes in the hospitals at home. No doubt they have been brought very prominently before her and we all know that she takes a very deep interest in the sufferings and the well being of her loyal subjects. (Applause.) I may also be permitted to say that everything that tends to promote the health and the comfort of her loyal subjects she is also equally alive to and equally ready to support and give her kindness to; and I think the making of a road is a matter that commends itself very strongly to the people of Hongkong. (Applause). We have only one decent road in the colony for carriages and that is out to Shaukiwan, and I think that if we have a road going out to the southern part of the colony it would serve as an outlet not only for the Europeans but to the Chinese, who may seek a little fresh air after the toils and burdens of the day are over. They want a little refreshing breeze, as we all know that Chinatown is very much cramped and there is very little to be met there in the shape of fresh air. Here on the north side of the island the air certainly does not circulate with that freedom that it does on the south side, and I think that anyone who has made a trip to the south part of the island will bear me out in saying that the air there is most conducive to health. It is bracing and more strengthening than that we get upon the north side. The Civil Hospital, I may mention, is a credit to this colony. I do not think you can go to any city in England and find a hospital conducted on better principles than the Civil Hospital in Hongkong. Everything is done to promote the comfort and bring speedy relief to the sufferer. The patients meet with the best of attention and they receive the greatest care at the hands of the medical advisers, and if you look round you will see that the whole building is kept scrupulously clean and in a better condition, I think, than any hospital at home. In regard to the nursing institute, I think that will supply a want that has long been felt in Hongkong. We certainly know the great benefit of having a female nurse at our bedside in time of sickness and trouble. In the old days when a China boy used to hand you the medicine you were always afraid to accept it; you did not know whether he was giving you the medicine the doctor had ordered, neither did you know that he was giving it at the proper time. Now all this is changed and the ladies at the hospital are almost as good as a medical man himself. They follow the instructions of the medical man and are able to render very great service indeed and their kindness and attention tend very much towards the speedy recovery of the patient. I would remark that I think that all the three projects submitted by Mr. Whitehead here received more general support than any of the other schemes. We have seen more written on these three schemes than on any other project, and I think, judging from that, it proves that the community are more in favour of having this road and the hospital and training institute for nurses carried out than any other projects that have been submitted. I therefore have very little further to say. I think that the good points of these projects have been very favourably put before you in the Press and I have now very great pleasure in seconding the resolutions submitted by the Hon. Mr. Whitehead. (Applause).\n\nMr. EDE asked if the nurses were going to be available for the public, because if the nursing institute was going to be on the same principle as the Civil Hospital and managed by the Civil Hospital, how were the community going to get the nurses?\n\nThe HON. SECRETARY - It is the intention of the Government to obtain nurses from home who will be available for nursing among the general public, and the services of these nurses will be retained until such time as it is found that nurses trained locally are sufficiently well trained to be able to take their place.\n\n471",
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    {
        "id": 381188,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-305 - Governor Sir Blake - 1901 [5-7]",
        "page_number": 716,
        "title": "CO129-305 - Governor Sir Blake - 1901 [5-7]",
        "content_text": "2 ..... tanks have been provided. The original scheme of having sewer outfalls at North Point and Kennedy Town and the pumping system in connection with those outfalls were abandoned owing to the making of the Praya Reclamation and the probability of a Reclamation in front of Praya East. The question of outfalls is fully discussed in Mr. Chadwick's reports of 1890 referred to below. In these reports the outfalls for the Central and Western parts of the City are mentioned, and it is stated that in the Eastern District \"it is proposed to discharge the sewage by means of numerous outfalls into the harbour in front of the district\" pending future developments as to reclamation or otherwise.\n\nMr. Chadwick concluded these reports with the statement that \"the most essential difference between the project now submitted and that prepared by Mr. Cooper is in the number and position of the outfalls but at the time of the preparation of Mr. Cooper's report the Praya Reclamation was not projected.\"\n\nIt is worth noting that Mr. R. K. Leigh, one of the signatories of the Petition, in a criticism he wrote on Mr. Cooper's proposed scheme of drainage actually condemned the proposed intercepting main drain and pumping stations, but now in common with the other Petitioners he complains that they have not been constructed.\n\nThe enclosures B. and C. also show that the statement made in paragraph 19 that among other works no Depôts for Cattle have been provided; that nothing has been done since 1893 to limit the height of buildings (paragraph 22); that Ordinance 34 of 1899 was enacted \"in an emasculated form, the more drastic remedies recommended by the Sanitary Board with a view to the betterment of the Sanitary condition of the Colony having been deleted therefrom\" (paragraph 23); and that nothing has been done since 1894 to improve the Sanitary condition of the Colony (paragraph 25), are without exception contrary to fact.\n\nAs regards Ordinance 34 of 1899 the only important modifications of the recommendations of the Sanitary Board were in respect of the open spaces required in rear of existing buildings and of the restriction of the height of buildings.\n\nThe Board's original recommendations on the first point went far beyond what Mr. Cooper and Dr. Clark himself had suggested to the Commissioners.\n\nDr. Clark, whose remarks are quoted and who has sat on the Sanitary Board, agreed to the alterations, by which the requirements for spaces in rear of existing buildings were modified and to the restriction as to height of buildings made to apply only to houses erected on land sold after the passing of the Ordinance.\n\nIt should be remembered that the difficulty which confronted the Government in these particular matters was the structural difficulty in providing large spaces except on re-construction of the houses and the question of compensation to owners of property if the law relating to the height of buildings were made retrospective.\n\n5. Having briefly dealt with the facts which the statements B. and C. serve to elucidate, we now propose to examine shortly those points in the Petition which we have not yet touched upon.\n\nIn paragraph 7 the Petitioners complain by implication of the want of public baths. We would point out that in comparatively few cities are public baths provided. In many, as in Shanghai for example, they are provided by private enterprise. It is true that Public Bath Houses have not been built here till the current year when they were undertaken on the Governor's own initiative.\n\nIt is not a matter of great surprise that among the larger and more pressing works carried out in the Colony this item did not find a place earlier.\n\n6. The statement quoted in paragraph 9 that Mr. Chadwick had recommended that the ground surfaces of all dwellings should be concreted and that such concreting was not required till 1894 is inaccurate. What Mr. Chadwick recommended was that earthen floors should be prohibited and this recommendation was given effect to by Section 62 of the Public Health Ordinance 1887 which provided that \"the floor of every area and of every basement storey shall be properly asphalted, paved or covered over with a layer of good concrete at least 9 inches thick.\"\n\nThe ground floors of a majority of houses were accordingly paved with tiles till the law of 1894 made an absolutely impervious material compulsory.\n\nEnclosure D. Ordinance 1 of 1886. Ordinance 2 of 1893.\n\nIn the same paragraph the Petitioners refer to the want of an Improvement Fund and complain that one has not been established. In this connection we would invite attention to the enclosed statement marked D. which shows the total revenue and expenditure and separately the expenditure on Public Works Extraordinary for each year from 1883 to 1900 inclusive, together with the expenditure of the second of the two loans raised by the Colony during that period.\n\nIt should also be borne in mind that in 1894 the financial condition of the Colony appeared to the Unofficial Members of Council to be in such an unsatisfactory state that they asked for and obtained the appointment of a Retrenchment Committee with a view to effecting retrenchments in the public expenditure.\n\nThe financial returns in enclosure D. show that the ordinary revenue of the Colony was not sufficient to meet the expenditure on account of public works extraordinary, without having recourse to two loans amounting in all to £400,000. It is difficult therefore to see how an Improvement Fund could have been created except by a further loan or by increased taxation. It would have been undesirable for many reasons to increase the public debt of the Colony and any rise in taxation would most certainly have been unacceptable.\n\n7. With regard to paragraph 10 it may be noted that there was no necessity to offer a premium for the best design of Chinese house, because several designs have been gratuitously offered. A recommendation was made that a block of model Chinese houses should be built in Taipingshan but the enterprise did not commend itself to the Government who had spent over $800,000 of Public Funds in resuming and laying out the property.\n\n8. In paragraph 13 the Petitioners touch on the question of hawking in the public streets. By means of hawkers the poorer classes can obtain food cheaper than they can in the markets. One of the predisposing causes of Plague is want of nutrition, and various Committees which have examined this subject have advocated the retention of the system under a certain control. This control is exercised by the Police, and officers are especially told off to prevent nuisances being created by the hawkers.\n\nThe complaints referred to were made by an individual member of the Sanitary Board, and on investigation were found as far as any actual nuisance was concerned to be exaggerated.\n\n9. In paragraph 15 an extract is quoted from a letter of the Chamber of Commerce in 1894 in which the Chamber stated that there existed a widespread belief that Mr. Chadwick's scheme of drainage had not been carried out on the original lines, and that the separate system had been more generally applied than was intended.\n\nIt will be remembered that in 1889 questions having arisen as to the system of sewerage to be adopted, Mr. Chadwick re-visited the Colony to initiate upon his own responsibility a scheme of drainage. Mr. Chadwick made three reports dated the 1st of July, 1890, and published in the Government Gazette of the 27th September, 1890. To the extract from the report on the sewerage of the High Level district quoted in the enclosure B. we would add the following extract from the report on the drainage of the Lower, Western and Central Districts of Victoria:\n\n\"In the report on the sewerage of the high level district the objections to the use of storm-water channels for the conveyance of sewage were fully set forth. These objections apply with even greater force in the case of the low level district, where, in many places, the storm-water channels are nearly level and accumulate not only sewer-tainted air but also sewage deposit.\n\nThe methods for the improvement of the drainage of this, and other districts, suggested in my report of 1882 have not been tried. This is fortunate, for my subsequent experience leads to the conclusion that they would not have remedied completely the evils which existed then and which still exist. It will now be necessary to re-sewer the whole district with earthenware pipes; and to divert the sewage proper, or dry-weather-flow of the sewers from the storm-water channels, which are not and cannot be made suitable for its reception. The existing stone channels therefore should revert to their legitimate use, the conveyance of storm-water from the surface of the district and from the hills above it.\"\n\nIn his report on the drainage of the Eastern District Mr. Chadwick wrote \"The principles as to self-cleansing sewers, admission of rain-fall and ventilation which have been laid down in previous reports apply to this district with equal force.\"\n\nHe concluded this series of exhaustive reports with the following remarks \"In conclusion I beg to record my obligation to Mr. Cooper...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-305 - Governor Sir Blake - 1901 [5-7].txt",
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    {
        "id": 386138,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-313 - Governor Sir Blake - 1902 [10-12]",
        "page_number": 218,
        "title": "CO129-313 - Governor Sir Blake - 1902 [10-12]",
        "content_text": "of a much easier and less costly character than that connected with the reclamation.\n\nNow in progress. If my calculations are correct, this project, if carried out, will do for the Eastern portion of the Colony all and more than all that the Sanitary Board hoped to be able to accomplish, if their proposals for a Sanitary Trust had met with the approval of the Government.\n\n## Reclamation\n\nI propose that the reclamation of the foreshore of the Wanchai district from Arsenal Street to the East Point Refinery should be undertaken and carried out at the expense of the Marine Lot Holders on the same terms as those on which the present reclamation is being carried out, and under a similar, but slightly amended, Ordinance. This reclamation will involve the construction of a sea-wall 5,180 feet in length, starting from the Eastern extremity of the proposed extension of the Naval Yard and Arsenal, and continuous with the outer face of such extension, following on an easy curve the line of the Eastern Praya at a distance from it of about 145 feet and terminating at the Western extremity of the East Point Sugar Refinery premises, and in line with its northern face. It is calculated that the seawall will give an average depth of 16 feet at low water spring tides along its entire face. The land to be reclaimed within the new sea-wall will be laid out as follows:\n\nThe present Praya will be widened to 65 feet; a strip of building land 120 feet in width, specially designed to take two rows of Chinese houses, four stories in height, not exceeding 60 feet in extreme depth and having 15 feet backyards, will be laid out next to the old Praya along the entire length of the reclamation. Outside of that will come a thoroughfare 75 feet wide, beyond that another strip of building land 150 feet wide to allow of the construction of godowns, and then the New Praya, 75 feet wide. Ten streets, 50 feet in width, will traverse the reclamation from the Old to the New Praya. Plan herewith.\n\nFor the purpose of filling in the land to be reclaimed from the sea, the hills on which the Royal Naval Hospital and Morrison Hill houses stand—Inland Lots 84 and 86—will have to be acquired from their owners (acquisitions which can, I believe, be easily obtained on favourable terms hereinafter detailed), and cut down to the level of Queen's Road by the Eastern Market. This cutting down will not only supply all the stone and earth required for the sea-wall and reclamation, but will give the Colony an additional area of level ground of 1,562,100 square feet, or 35.85 acres, and will open out the whole of the Wanchai district, now shut in on the east, to the easterly and south-easterly winds; a further benefit will be conferred on the Colony by the leveling of the roads leading from the City to the Happy Valley.\n\nThe plan sent herewith shows clearly the area proposed to be leveled both north and south of the Queen's Road and also the method in which the new ground is proposed to be laid out. The project includes the widening of the Queen's Road to a breadth of 75 feet from the Eastern Market to the Race Course and Causeway Bay (an immense benefit in itself) and the piercing of the district by 6 other streets, each 50 feet wide, and running parallel to the Queen's Road and 3 at right angles to it, dividing the land into blocks of such size and shape that only the approved style of Chinese houses can be built on them.\n\nThe land to be dealt with by this portion of my scheme covers, as already stated, 1,562,100 square feet, or 35.85 acres. Of this, Inland Lot 84, Morrison Hill, the property of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., includes 790,614 square feet, or 18.15 acres. Inland Lot 86, the property of the Admiralty, covers 203,014 square feet, or 4.66 acres, and the balance 568,472 square feet, or 13.04 acres is still undisposed of, and is the property of the Government, but is, in its present state, unsaleable.\n\n| Description          | Square Feet | Acres |\n|----------------------|-------------|-------|\n| Inland Lot 84        | 790,614     | 18.15 |\n| Inland Lot 86        | 203,014     | 4.66  |\n| Balance              | 568,472     | 13.04 |\n\nI believe that I will have no difficulty in arranging, if authorized to do so, with Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co. for the surrender by them of the whole of their land on condition that they receive back on the same terms, and at the same rent as at present, about 521,800 square feet of building land, or 11.98 acres, out of the improved area.\n\nAs to the Royal Naval Hospital ground, the acquisition of this involves rather more difficulty and entails a considerable expenditure by the Colonial Government in the first instance—an expenditure, however, to be fully recouped in the end, without interfering with the estimated profit to the Government already referred to.\n\nThe Naval Authorities want a new and improved hospital with more accommodation. They would prefer a site more directly accessible from the water, and farther removed from the Chinese quarter of the City. Flagstaff Hill at Kowloon, now the property of the War Department, would afford ample space for a hospital double the size of the present building, with extensive grounds, the purest air, the freshest breezes at all seasons, and easy accessibility. I estimate that a suitable hospital could be constructed on Flagstaff Hill with every possible convenience for $200,000. This money the Colonial Treasury would have to provide in the first instance, but it could easily be procured locally at 5 per cent. if the Government so wished. As for the ground, the Military have no use for it, and they would gladly exchange it for an equal area more towards the centre of Kowloon. This would entail the resumption of certain lands there which there would be no difficulty in acquiring as the power of the Crown to resume is clear, and the cost would, I think, not exceed $200,000 if resumption was effected at once.\n\nThe total cost of the improvements proposed to be effected is estimated (not including the cost of the new Naval Hospital) at $1,100,000, which is made up as follows:\n\n| Item                                  | Cost       |\n|---------------------------------------|------------|\n| Pierre Perdu Sea-wall                 | $83,650    |\n| Filling in, including Cutting down, Leveling and Laying out of Morrison Hill and Naval Hospital hill | $247,000   |\n| Sewers                                | $441,200   |\n| Carrying out Channelling of Streets, etc. | $149,000  |\n| Contingencies 5%                      | $49,500    |\n|                                       | **$1,047,880** |\n| Say                                   | $1,100,000 |\n\nAll these items are worked out at the present high rates of labour and material.\n\nThe whole of this will be borne by the existing Marine Lot holders in the Wanchai district, who will receive an augmentation to their holdings of 1,492,080 square feet divided rateably among them in proportion to their frontages, the Government, in respect of No. 2 Police Station, being numbered amongst the Marine Lot holders and receiving 71,400 square feet of the above. The cost works out at about 70 cents per square foot of available building land reclaimed.\n\nIn addition to the building land added to the Colony by the reclamation, which is calculated to afford accommodation for 1,331 four-storied houses, there will, by the cutting down of Morrison and Naval Hospital Hills and the hills adjoining on the south, as shown in the plan, be added to the available building land in the Colony, leveled and ready for building 994,700 square feet, or 22.83 acres, affording accommodation for 1,082 three-storied houses. Of this, 521,000 square feet, or 11.98 acres, will go to Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co. in compensation for the land surrendered by them; 472,900 square feet, or 10.85 acres, will be handed over to the Government free of all cost.\n\nThe Colony will, in addition to the building land thus added to its resources, have acquired, if the scheme is carried out, new streets, etc. covering an area of 1,740,600 square feet, or 39.95 acres, of which two-thirds, or 26.93 acres, will be included in the reclamation.\n\nThe value of the land thus placed at the disposal of the Government is estimated at $1,137,050, namely:\n\n| Lot Description                        | Square Feet | Rate   | Value   |\n|----------------------------------------|-------------|--------|---------|\n| Front Lot opposite No. 2 Police Station | 23,500      | $2.00  | $47,000 |\n| Back Lot opposite No. 2 Police Station  | 69,000      | $2.00  | $138,000 |\n| Naval Hill Lot                          | 45,000      | $2.50  | $112,500 |\n| Begal Naval Hill Lot                    | 472,000     | $2.00  | $944,000 |\n|                                         |             | Total  | $1,241,500 |\n\nFrom which must be deducted cost:\n\n| Item                                    | Cost     |\n|-----------------------------------------|----------|\n| New Royal Naval Hospital               | $200,000 |\n| New Site for Military                   | $200,000 |\n| Compensation to Leaseholders for Resumption | $100,000 |\n|                                         | $500,000 |\n\nBalance in favour of Government $687,050 ($1,187,000 - $500,000).\n\nThe Annual Crown Rents for the new building areas are estimated as follows:\n\n| Area Description  | Acres | Rate per Acre | Annual Rent |\n|-------------------|-------|---------------|-------------|\n| Praya East        | 54.35 | $350          | $19,022.50  |\n| Royal Naval       | 11.10 | $600          | $6,660      |\n|                   |       |               | **$25,682.50** |\n\nThe annual rateable value of the houses when built is estimated at $1,158,240, and is made up as follows:\n\n2,413 Houses at $40 per House—a Gross Annual Rental of $96,520; Rateable Value @ 13% = $12,547.60 (for 1,082 houses) and for 1,331 houses $159,571.\n\nThe Government would, therefore, not only have ground to dispose of, of the value of $687,050, but would have an annual revenue of $184,481, which, capitalized at 5%, would amount to $3,689,620.\n\nI respectfully submit this scheme for the approval of the Government and of the Secretary of State.\n\nThe proposals have been carefully thought out, and the calculations are fairly accurate. Our experience with the Praya Reclamation Scheme now in process of execution enables me to judge with certainty as to the character of the work to be done, the cost to be incurred, and the time to be taken, and also as to the benefits to the Colony from the works proposed.\n\nThe Wanchai district will be laid open to ventilation and improvement in a way in which it could not possibly be dealt with before. The removal of the two hills to the Eastward will add immensely to the area of the district, and to the easy accessibility of the districts to the east of it. The reclamation will add further to its area. The proposed new roads and Praya will facilitate the erection of healthful buildings and the improved sanitation of the neighbourhood. The erection of all new houses will be brought under the strictest sanitary rules. This will compel landlords to improve and rebuild in the area now under occupation. An immense addition will be made to the area of the district, and to the income to be derived from it by the Colony at a minimum of expense, and with a minimum of disturbance of existing interests.\n\nBut—and I beg most respectfully to call attention to it—if the benefits indicated are to be derived from this project, it must be proceeded with at once, and vigorously. It must be finished within five years, and with proper measures, it can be done easily in that time.\n\nIt is a much simpler undertaking than the Western Reclamation, but if it is to draw the population from the central part of the City, and ease the pressure of population there, it must be accompanied by some intelligent scheme of tramway communication between the heart and the extremities of the City, which will be cheap and attractive.\n\nOf all things, speed is the most important; otherwise, the steady increase in the population of the Colony will overtake the provision to be made for their accommodation.\n\nPage 214",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-313 - Governor Sir Blake - 1902 [10-12].txt",
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    {
        "id": 390458,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-320 - Governor Sir Blake Acting Governor May - 1903 [11-12]",
        "page_number": 11,
        "title": "CO129-320 - Governor Sir Blake Acting Governor May - 1903 [11-12]",
        "content_text": "# \npectinct from daily Press of 19th October 1907\n\n## \n\nbe lost in bringing the scheme to perfection by erecting this adjunct. Having reached this stage, it was hoped that the fulfilment of the scheme for the Hospital would proceed without impediment. The plans and estimates had been prepared by Messrs. Palmer and Turner, whose original design was considered first in order of merit in the competition which had been held for a building in the Civil Hospital Grounds; but when tenders were invited they proved so far in excess of the estimates that it seemed impossible to proceed further. After much trouble, a tender was finally obtained at a rate within the funds at the disposal of the Committee, and the work has now, as you see, been successfully completed. The total expenditure upon the Hospital and quarters has been $11,891.05, and with the interest which has accrued on the principal, we have been enabled practically to meet this sum. There have, however, been some extras incurred—as is the case in every large building—which you, Sir, have kindly undertaken, on the part of the Government, to defray, our funds being absolutely exhausted.\n\nTurning now to the Road, as I have already stated, one-half of the Fund, amounting to $92,190.69, was allotted for its construction. A considerable period was spent in the making of surveys and preparation of estimates, which were carried out by the Public Works Department, under the guidance of the late Director, Mr. R. D. Ormsby, the work extending from Kennedy Town via Aberdeen, Stanley, and Tytam Tuk to Shaukiwan. When this preliminary work had been completed, Mr. Ormsby reported very unfavourably upon the section of the road which it was proposed to make out of the Fund, namely that from Kennedy Town to Aberdeen, whilst Major-General Black, then General Officer Commanding, raised serious objection to its construction on military grounds. Several ineffectual attempts were made locally to overcome the opposition to the scheme, and finally an appeal to Downing Street on the subject became necessary. This appeal was successful, but the sanction for the construction of the road was hampered in its being laid on a higher level than was originally intended. The carrying out of this scheme was entrusted to Messrs. Denison, Ram, and Gibbs, who devised a suitable route for the road, and tenders were received which came within the means apportioned to it, and the work has been satisfactorily concluded.\n\nHaving thus contributed this section of the Jubilee Road, we now look to the Government to take in hand the completion of the project for a high road that will practically encircle the island, opening up all its many beauties to lovers of scenery and of nature. The total cost of these two works has been $231,163.32, and I may here point out that the delays entailed by the various difficulties encountered have not been without some compensating advantages, inasmuch as the interest accumulated on the Fund materially augmented our resources and has permitted of the original proposals being carried out in a substantial and workmanlike manner.\n\nHaving now stated in outline the history of these two Memorial works, it only remains for me to ask your Excellency to be good enough to declare the Hospital open, to effect which purpose I beg to hand you this silver key. (Applause.)\n\n## \n\nHIS EXCELLENCY, having accepted the key, said—Sir Paul Chater, ladies and gentlemen, I have listened with great interest to your account of the Road and the Hospital that were rightly decided upon as a fitting memorial of that beloved Queen whose memory will always remain green in our hearts and whose name will go down the ages as the greatest amongst the great Queens of history. The difficulties about the Jubilee Road I remember very well. When I came here first, the foundation-stone had just been laid by my predecessor in the presence of a considerable crowd, among them, no doubt, the General Officer Commanding, who instead of opposing the Governor's trowel with his sword—slaying the masons, and carrying away the bottle with the newspapers—placed there for the enlightenment of future archæologists, returned to his quarters, took up the mightier weapon, and wrote that the road was a military danger and must not be. Then I remember the time when the controversy arose whether the road should go by Shaukiwan or by Kennedy Town. The Government, who, as we know, subscribed half the funds, were rather inclined to favour the Shaukiwan Road, which would have given a driving road for about 20 miles. But the Committee were very firm and absolutely declined to have that road from Shaukiwan.\n\nOf course, I need hardly tell you that with their pertinacity they succeeded in dominating the Government on that point. The argument on the one side was that you would have a driving road round the island. On the other side, it was said you would have a road round Mount Davis on which the Chinese would come out in the afternoons and would be seen there in crowds enjoying the lazy south-western breezes laden with the odours of Cheung Chow. (Laughter.) The real secret of the Committee's determination was never openly stated. I do not know how it got about. It may have been that one of the Committee was, like Cassius, lean of soul, and in his sleep did mutter his affairs. (Laughter.) The real secret, I believe, was that the Committee said the Government have undertaken to finish this road and it will take up all the money we have to make this small bit round Mount Davis, and if we do not spend it on that difficult piece of road, we will never see it done.\n\nNow we have a very good 16-feet road there at present. So far as we can see, it appears to be principally for the purpose of affording an opportunity to the Dairy Farm of sending their milk by the higher and lower levels. It has been completed in part at such a level as would probably shorten the wind of any assailant who attempted to take the island that side and leave him an easy victim of the Volunteers or other defenders of that section. (Laughter.) It is true that with the persevering determination that characterises everything in Hongkong, portions of the road after the heavy rains attempted bodily to convey themselves to the sea level, but they were coaxed back into position by Messrs. Denison and Ram, and now it is a good road, and I hope it will be availed of by a large number of people and ultimately will be completed round the island, when I hope it will satisfy all the conditions that were intended.\n\nAnd now, Sir Paul Chater, and ladies and gentlemen, as regards the Hospital: this is a work, I think, against which no caviller could say one word, and I look forward with great pleasure to the unique opportunity of turning the key in the entrance-door of a building 1,000 feet above the foundation stone which was laid, I believe, originally near the Government Civil Hospital. (Laughter.) This building, with its 41 beds, and situated as it is above the vitiated atmosphere of the crowded city, must be, I am sure, a blessing in the future to the poor people who will be accommodated here. It is a fitting memorial to our late beloved Queen, and I am sure we will all join in wishing it God-speed. I have great pleasure in declaring that it is well and duly opened. (Applause.)\n\nThe company entered the Hospital and His Excellency then turned the key in the entrance-door and inspected it.\n\nRefreshments were afterwards served.\n\nPage 12\nPage 20",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-320 - Governor Sir Blake Acting Governor May - 1903 [11-12].txt",
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        "id": 395240,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-326 - Foreign Office - 1904",
        "page_number": 577,
        "title": "CO129-326 - Foreign Office - 1904",
        "content_text": "574\n\n12\n\nthe \"pagode\" were so little advanced, and my bedroom was empty of furniture but full of chinks.\n\nTo the south and west of Chitien is a long ridge with a really fine plantation of tall firs. The railway runs along the level at the foot of this ridge, and part of the embankment is complete. Thence it crosses into a small desolate valley through a very low pass of solid rock, now being cut. From this pass, across the valley, can be seen the Yunnan Plain and Lake—for this (28th May) is the last stage. There are no signs yet of the passage of the line into the plain, though it should not be very difficult; but in the plain itself, here full of pear orchards, work is in preparation for a stone viaduct of 10 metres span. It is in connection with this viaduct that the story went abroad of a demand for Chinese babies—as cement—but these legends are, if only for the moment, happily discredited. Beyond the viaduct I met with no sign of the railway until I crossed the broken hill some 10 miles from Yunnan city. On the western slope a stone quarry has been appropriated, and the fact is announced by an unguarded triangular flag lettered in black on a white ground.\n\nWhat is being done, or contemplated, in the immediate neighbourhood of the city itself I have elsewhere described. What I have, I find, forgotten to mention is that the line is a single line, and once made could not be doubled except at an expenditure far in excess of its excessive original cost.\n\nThe impression most deeply made upon me by my journey was that the \"trace\" selected by the French for their railway is certainly not less difficult than the line of the road between Têngyüeh and Hsiakuan, condemned by Baber's epigram; but that nevertheless they mean to succeed with it, and will succeed. A route from Kunlong Ferry via Yün Chou, Yünnan-i, and Ch'uhsiung to Yünnan-fu would, I feel convinced, meet with far fewer obstacles, except perhaps between Yün Chou and Mitu. The half of this route that I have traversed (from Hung-ai, 10 miles north of Mitu, to Yunnan-fu) seems to my unprofessional eye not only feasible but, except in some half-dozen places, comparatively easy. That this has not escaped the notice of the French, and that they have no intention of allowing Yunnan-fu to long remain their terminus, is evident if only from the railway chart of \"Yunnan-sen\" (my inclosure No. 5).* Here will be seen a dotted line sweeping round to the east and north of the city and labelled \"Embranchement vers Tali.\"\n\nSubordinates, and others who have no need to weigh their words, speak openly of French rights to the reversion of Yunnan—of the whole province at least as far west as Tali.\n\nOne enthusiastic writer some four years ago declared that Yünnan was destined to make up to French colonists for the loss of Canada. In any case it is the undisguised intention of the Tonquin authorities to establish somewhere, on the line of the railway through \"the Plateau,\" a sanatorium for their employés, civil and military. This may possibly be at the highest point of the line, above the Yang-tsung Lake, not far from the sulphur springs; or it may be in the neighbourhood of Yünnan-fu itself, in our western or northern hills. Whatever may arrive, it is certain that all this money—some have reckoned the probable total cost as high as 330,000,000 fr.—is not being spent in order to facilitate the sale in Yunnan Province of Manchester cottons or of Indian yarn.\n\nAs a commercial undertaking the railway cannot pay if it stops short at Yunnan-fu. I do not altogether hold with Mr. Litton that it is \"for a strategic line from Laokai to Yunnan city and nothing else.\" It will in any case tap the plains of Mengtse, A-mi, Posi, and I-liang, besides that of Yunnan-fu; and of these Mongtse and I-liang are not to be contemned. It will, moreover, even without the construction of actual \"embranchements,\" drain all the trade of Eastern Yünnan, and will, unless the Indian Government relaxes its prohibitions, secure the entire carriage of opium destined for Canton. At the same time it is impossible to believe that its projectors did not contemplate its extension beyond Yünnan-fu. Violent Anglophobes, such as Fontenoy's \"in the 'Courrier d'Haiphong,'\" exult in the thought that this French line will ultimately meet in Szechuan a branch of the Russian railway to Hsi-an, and so shut off India from the Yang-tsze Valley.\n\nThese are vapourings, no doubt, but we cannot afford to treat them altogether with contempt. As long as it seemed uncertain whether the project of a French line from Laokai to Yunnan-fu would not be smothered through internal dissensions or Chinese chicanery, an attitude of indifference was permissible to us. We now see and know that the project is being actually carried through, and that Tonquin will, unless something unforeseen prevents, be in railway communication with this city in at most six years—possibly in three. We should not, I submit, continue to sit still, but should without further delay demand a concession from China of the line from Kunlong Ferry to Tali and Yunnan-fu—or, better still, right on to Hankow. I do not think that the Provincial Government here would oppose. They are perturbed at the French advance, before which they know that they are helpless; and the less ignorant among them see that Yunnan Province would have a better chance of preserving its independence, both in fact and in name, if British interests could be played off against French claims.\n\n(Signed) W. H. WILKINSON.\n\nYünnan-fu, May 29, 1904.\n\n13",
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        "document_key": "CO129-330 - Public Offices - 1905",
        "page_number": 266,
        "title": "CO129-330 - Public Offices - 1905",
        "content_text": "## Inclosure 4 in No. 1.\n\n**Correction for altered setting**\n\n1898  \n1903  \n:  \n8  \n\n| Mean of recorded-- | Range. | High Water. | Low Water. |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n|  | Ft. in. | Ft. in. | Feet, |\n|  | 12 6.6 | 8 0·7 | 6 0·0 |\n|  | 6 0.0 | 6 06 | 2 0.7 |\n|  | 6-55 | 2-00 | 4.49 |\n|  | Feet. | Fect. |  |\n|  | 7.14 | 2.48 | 0:37 |\n|  | 0.37 | 6-77 | 2.11 |\n|  | 4:06 |  |  |\n\nCollecting these together we get the following:-\n\n| Year | Mean of Daily-- | Mean Range. | High Water. | Low Water- |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| 1882 |  | 6-80 | 2:08 | 4-72 |\n| 1888 | 0-80 | 2.48 | 4:32 |  |\n| 1893 | 6:48 | 2-26 | 4.22 |  |\n| 1898 | 6-55 | 2-06 | 4.40 |  |\n| 1903 | 6-77 | 201 | 4.66 |  |\n\nIt is plain from these that there is nothing significant either of a lessened range or of a heightened low-water level.\n\nCoast Inspector's Office, Canton, November 2, 1904.\n\n(Signed)  \nW. FERD. TAYLOR,  \nCoast Inspector\n\n## Inclosure 5 in No. 1.\n\nChina Association to Acting Consul-General Campbell.\n\nSir,\n\nAs the Imperial Maritime Customs have undertaken the work of removing the barriers from the Canton River, and as it has been reported that their project does not embrace the entire clearance of all these obstructions, this Committee would like to know to what extent it is proposed to carry out the provisions of Article V of the Mackay Treaty.\n\nAccording to the advertisement inserted in the local papers calling for tenders for the work, it would seem that it is only intended to remove the central section of the Iron (`Sha Lo Tib`) Barrier.\n\nThe Committee would therefore be glad if you will kindly apply to the Imperial Maritime Customs for details of the scheme, in order that they may be placed in a position to judge of the effectiveness of the proposed clearance, so far as the unobstructed navigation of the river is concerned,\n\nSir,  \nI have, &c.\n\n(Signed) R. CHATTERTON WILCOX, Chairman.\n\nHong Kong, October 11, 1904.\n\n## Inclosure 6 in No. 1.\n\nActing Consul-General Campbell to Mr. Wilcox.\n\nCanton, November 5, 1904.\n\nWITH reference to your letter of the 11th October, I beg to inclose, for the information of the China Association, a copy of a letter which has been sent to me by the Commissioner of Customs, forwarding a Memorandum drawn up by Mr. W. F. Tyler, Coast Inspector of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, with regard to the work at present in progress for the removal of the barriers in the Canton River.\n\nThe contents of Mr. Tyler's Memorandum will be considered by the British authorities concerned. In the meantime I should mention that it is not intended by Mr. Tyler that the works mentioned in his Memorandum are necessarily to be looked upon as a final treatment of the barrier question.\n\nThe nine plans accompanying Mr. Tyler's Memorandum have been sent to the Colonial Secretary in Hong Kong, and I would suggest an application to him as your most convenient course for obtaining information in regard to them.\n\n259\n\nSir,  \nI have, &c.\n\n(Signed)  \nC. W. CAMPBELL.\n\nActing Consul-General Campbell to Colonial Secretary, Hong Kong.\n\nCanton, November 5, 1904. WITH reference to my despatch of the 20th August, I have the honour to inclose a copy of a letter received from the Commissioner of Customs at Canton, transmitting Memorandum drawn up by Mr. W. F. Tyler, Coast Inspector of the Imperial Maritime Customs, who is superintending the works at present in progress for the removal of the barriers in the Canton River,\n\nThe scope of these works, which are not necessarily to be considered in any way final, is indicated in the Memorandum and accompanying plans. It is important that technical opinions on the works now undertaken should be obtained from qualified persons, and the removal of the barriers being a matter of immediate consequence to the Colony of Hong Kong, it occurs to me that you may be able to submit Mr. Tyler's Memorandum and plans to an official expert forthwith.\n\nI understand that the opinion of Mr. J. L. Houston, the engineer who is superintending the extension of the Naval Yard at Hong Kong, would be valuable, and, unless you see objection, I would suggest that the Memorandum and plans might be submitted to him as well as to the Colony's expert.\n\nI have, &c.  \n(Signed) C. W. CAMPBELL.  \nI have, &c.  \n(Signed)  \nC. W. CAMPBELL.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-330 - Public Offices - 1905.txt",
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    {
        "id": 415914,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-351 - Public Offices - 1908",
        "page_number": 79,
        "title": "CO129-351 - Public Offices - 1908",
        "content_text": "4\n\nin the junk channel, and at the same time diminishing the water in the ship channel, It is highly probable that the time will come when the ship channel is no longer navigable, and the junk channel not yet open. It may be assumed that Shanghai may will be cut off from the sea for about a year. On the other hand, what is to become of the river if, in spite of the proposed dams or sink-works in the ship channel, the ebb current should not be deflected towards the junk channel, but should circumvent the dams or sink-work laterally, only still more tearing down its bank? We all know how easily the alluvial soil in those parts is moved and dissolved. If a harder obstacle is placed in the river, the latter will circumvent it, as it has done with the defence works, and will turn against its banks. In case that should happen, we should for a very long time have a disturbed navigable course, for to get the \"zinkstuks\" heavily loaded with stones out of the water again will certainly not be an easy task.\n\nIn the article of the \"North China Daily News\" of the 27th August, 1906, it is said, under \"Restraining Works\"; \"The ship channel is, of course, far deeper than the bars, and the restraining works for the purpose of turning the stream gradually into the junk channel will not in any way impede navigation.\" That is to say, the ship channel is first to be filled up to the height of the bar. We should then have a bar of the length of the ship channel. It is quite possible for steamers to pass a short bar at a favourable time, but it is impossible to pass so long a stretch of river; with so little water underneath, a ship would no longer obey the helm, and injuries to ships would be unavoidable. But what of the whole question, after it has been found that the inner bar has disappeared or is in course of disappearing? To-day, therefore, there would no longer be any question of filling up to the height of the bar, but only of creating an entirely new and long bar. If to-day the outer bar is removed, then the way as far as Shanghai will be free for large vessels until the completion of this work,\n\nFrom what has been said it appears necessary that M. de Rijke should give a more detailed explanation, so that it may be possible to see what shape his project has taken on at present, and whether the assumptions on which the foregoing remarks have been based, and which take into consideration the information hitherto available, will hold good also in future. If that is the case, or if the answer does not show that a fundamental alteration of the original project removing the doubts advanced above has taken place, or if it is not possible to obtain an answer without delay, it appears best, in view of the doubtful success, the exceedingly high expenditure, and the steadily improving navigable course (of the ship channel) for the present only to remove the outer bar, and to cease working on Gough Island until all apprehensions shall have been cleared away. By this temporary stopping of the work on Gough Island the result of the whole undertaking will, technically, in no way be jeopardized or prejudiced.\n\nBut if these things are allowed to go on, a good navigable course will, without the least immediate gain, be unnecessarily exposed to the greatest danger—a navigable course the perfecting of which would be feasible within the limits of an expenditure by no means unreasonable.\n\n(Signed)\n\nInclosure 2 in No. 1.\n\nH. SCHNELLHOSS,\n\nMemorandum by German Shipping Firms at Shanghai.\n\nWE, the Undersigned, representing the largest German shipping interest in Shanghai, respectfully beg to submit to the Imperial German Consulate-General the following:\n\nThe chart of the Whangpoo River, published of late by the Whangpoo River Conservancy Board, and the Quarterly Reports of this Board, as well as recent soundings, show that the Whangpoo River during the last few years has continually improved, and this, indeed, to such an extent that the so-called \"Inner Bar\" has almost disappeared, and that there is to-day from the arsenal to the mouth of the river a uniform depth of at least 18 feet at lowest water level; in other words, the result which the work now commenced by the River Conservancy tries to achieve is already almost in existence.\n\nM. de Rijke's scheme, as far as we know, intends to close up the present fairway—the so-called \"Ship Channel\"—and to open in place of it the \"Junk Channel,\" which is at present entirely silted up. If we now compare the opinion and inferences given by M. de Rijke in his earlier Report with the findings given in the Quarterly Reports about the present state of the river, there is, no doubt, reason for grave misgivings, viz., that by the execution of the present scheme the shipping on the Whangpoo might possibly be endangered most seriously.\n\nWe beg to give some extracts from M. de Rijke's Report and the Quarterly Reports referring also to the new chart:—\n\nExtracts from the Report to the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce on the Water Approaches to Shanghai, by J. de Rijke. Dated, Tokio, the 10th January, 1898.\n\nShip Channel Decreasing.\n\n§ XXXV.\n\nPage 12. \"The Ship Channel, through which every sea vessel has still to pass, is decreasing very perceptibly, as can be seen from the cross sections.\"\n\n§ XXXVI\n\n\"It is plain that the Ship Channel at its upper end has everything in its favour for the ebb current to enter it, but by the increasing deposits in its lower end the ebb cannot make its way through...\n\nPage 13. \"The greater quantity of ebb water flows down along the much wider and more capacious Junk Channel.\n\n\"The passage (over the inner bar) might still be kept open for another period, but it should be borne in mind that all the while the general deterioration of the river is going on at an increased rate, and that the Ship Channel is steadily losing in depth and width and in power to maintain itself.\n\n\"So much is now perfectly clear that in case this section of the river has to be improved by regulating works, by which to form one uniform channel instead of the two, that channel must be the Junk Channel, and not the other, the Ship Channel.\"\n\nPage 43. To regulate properly the barrier reach between Kajow and Pheasant Point to one uniform channel, i.e., without interfering too much with the present navigation, and what is of still greater importance, without causing further obstructions to the tide, is not at all an easy work, nor can this be done in a hurry; there is, however, one thing that promises to facilitate this greatly, viz., the natural tendency, already existing, of the main currents to follow the Junk Channel.”\n\nExtracts from the Quarterly Reports of the Whangpoo Conservancy Board, showing the present state of the Whangpoo.\n\nThe Depth all along Ship Channel has much increased, Junk Channel is blocked by increased silting.\n\n(See Quarterly Reports of the Whangpoo Conservancy Board.)\n\nNovember 9, 1906.\n\n\"The extraordinary ebb from flooded lagoons and long-continued high water in the Yang-tsze, beating back the flood tide, has had a bad effect on the Junk Channel—the proposed future fairway, causing it to silt up, while the Ship Channel, which will later on be gradually shoaled, has deepened; this, it is feared, means increased expenditure at a future date.\"\n\nJanuary 26, 1907.\n\n\"The depth of water in the river generally has greatly increased owing to the heavy rains, remarked on last quarter, washing out the channel (Ship Channel), and consequently defence work has proved more difficult. Gough Island reach, where some of the largest works have to be made, has grown much deeper, and the shallowing of the Ship Channel will be much more expensive than at first estimated.\"\n\nApril 20, 1907.\n\nEarly in January, when the flood tides entering the river were regaining strength and finding Junk Channel blocked by increased silting.\n\nsome increase of depth on the inner bar are very satisfactory,\n\n\"A resounding of Gough Island reach shows that the depth all along Ship Channel has increased, while Junk Channel has shallowed.\n\nCompared with previous surveys, the general conditions of the river's mouth and the outer bar is much better than before.\"",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-351 - Public Offices - 1908.txt",
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    {
        "id": 456676,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-425 - Governor Sir May - 1915 [10-12]",
        "page_number": 842,
        "title": "CO129-425 - Governor Sir May - 1915 [10-12]",
        "content_text": "December 24th, 1915.]\n\nCHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.\n\nNEW HARBOUR OF REFUGE!\n\nMEMORIAL STONE OFFICIALLY LAID BY H.E. THE GOVERNOR.\n\nSTORY OF A GREAT UNDERTAKING.\n\n833\n\nof being very restricted in area and very expensive to construct. Finally, on the 4th January, 1908, the Public Works Committee, to whom the question had been referred, agreed unanimously to recommend that the Mongkoktsui site, where we now stand, be adopted.\n\nAs soon as the site had been settled, the necessary preliminary plans and estimates were prepared and, on the 7th March, 1908, a despatch, submitting the scheme for approval, was forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies by Sir Frederick Lugard, a reply by cable being asked for. The scheme was referred by the Secretary of State to Messrs. Coode, Son and Matthews, Consulting Engineers for Colonial projects of such a nature, and, on the 13th July, 1908, a telegram was received stating that the Consulting Engineers considered some modifications in the design necessary and thought them of sufficient importance to justify a consultation with the officer who had prepared the scheme. After further telegraphic correspondence, the late Mr. Boulton, who had designed the work, left for London on the 15th August, returning on the 9th November.\n\nWithout waiting for the final adjustment of all questions, the dredging operation for the breakwater was begun on the 2nd September, 1908. Dredging operations continued until the end of January, 1910.\n\nThe necessary modifications in the design, resulting from the conference of Mr. Boulton with the Consulting Engineers were made and, as the final approval of the Secretary of State, including the approval of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, was received on the 28th January, 1909, the preparation of the detailed drawings and other documents required in connection with the construction of the work was proceeded with, an ordinance authorizing the construction of such works being passed by the Legislative Council in November, 1909.\n\nThe Hon. Director of Public Works said: We are assembled here to-day to mark the completion of one of the largest and most important public works ever undertaken in this Colony.\n\nHitherto, the only place of secure refuge for small craft during the fierce storms which periodically sweep across our harbour has been Causeway Bay, which was protected by a breakwater in 1883. The area enclosed by that breakwater is 57 acres, the greater part of which is, however, dry, or practically so, at extreme low water. The cost of the work was $496,500.\n\nAs the time passed by, it became obvious that the requirements of the Port had outgrown the accommodation available. Unless sampans and junks got sail for Causeway Bay as soon as the approach of a storm was heralded, they were unlikely to gain admission, whilst their early withdrawal, coupled with the fact that they were obliged to remain in shelter until all signs of the storm had disappeared, gave rise to complaints by the shipping firms that their operations in loading and unloading vessels were unduly interfered with.\n\nAttention was called to the matter in December, 1903, when Mr. Gershom Stewart, M.P., who was then a member of the Legislative Council, brought before Council the following resolution: \"That, in the opinion of the Council, it is advisable to increase if possible the means of shelter for cargo boats and sampans during the typhoon season.\" His resolution was passed unanimously, the Acting Colonial Secretary stating that the Government were fully aware of the need for such additional accommodation and that only lack of funds had prevented steps being taken towards providing it.\n\nIt is fitting that Your Excellency should perform the ceremony of laying this Memorial stone as it was during Your Excellency's term of office as Officer Administering the Government, in 1910, that the contract with Messrs. Him Tai was entered into.\n\nI now ask you, Sir, to lay this stone and for this purpose I have to hand you this trowel, mallet and spirit-level, which are the gift of the contractors, Messrs. Him Tai. (Applause).\n\nHIS EXCELLENCY then officiated with the silver tools presented him by the Hon. Mr. Chatham, and declared the stone \"well and truly laid,\" amid applause.\n\nHIS EXCELLENCY said the only regret he had that afternoon was that the late Mr. G. C. Boulton was not there that day. He was an extraordinarily efficient man, and the Colony owed a great deal to him, and most of all for this splendid breakwater.\n\nHis Excellency wished that he was there to see the rest of the work which he designed with such capacity and skill. The Hon. Mr. Chatham had referred, and rightly so, to the good work done by Mr. Jaffé, who carried out the work, with the assistance of Duncan.\n\nOn the departure of Mr. Boulton from the Colony in April, 1910, the works were placed under the charge of Mr. Jaffé and in June of that year, tenders were called for.\n\nAs the project was one of very considerable magnitude and several English firms had expressed a wish to tender for its execution, arrangements were made to enable them to do so and consequently it was not until the 27th October, 1910 that a Contract was entered into with Messrs. Him Tai, whose tender was the lowest.\n\nThough grave doubts were expressed by some as to the wisdom of entrusting a contract of such magnitude to a firm of local contractors, the action taken has been amply justified. Not only has the work been completed within the contract time (3 years), but, in point of excellence and finish, it will bear comparison with any work of a similar kind anywhere.\n\nThis mighty breakwater, with its 830,000 tons of stone, is a lasting memorial to the Chinese contractors, Messrs. Him Tai, and his junkmen, and his coolies. It reflects the greatest credit upon Mr. Jaffé and his assistant, Mr. Duncan, who have supervised it from start to finish and also upon the Contractors, Messrs. Him Tai, who have displayed a praiseworthy readiness to give effect to suggestions made to them for the efficient execution of the work.\n\nThe pier at the southern entrance and platform around the stone were gaily decorated with bunting.\n\nMeanwhile, the selection of a site for the new Harbour of Refuge had been under discussion, the sites considered, in addition to the one finally adopted, being Cheungshawan, Stonecutters Island, Kellett's Bank and Kennedy Town.\n\nI will not weary you with figures but it may interest you to know that the breakwater upon which we stand consists of a mass of stone, 3,325 feet, or roughly five-eighths of a mile in length, 182 feet in width at the base and 44 feet in height.\n\nMr. Jaffé adopted extremely beneficial suggestions for the expediting of the work and these suggestions were so good that they saved the Colony a nice round sum of about £100,000. (Applause).\n\nPage 24",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-425 - Governor Sir May - 1915 [10-12].txt",
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    {
        "id": 477418,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-450 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1918 [10-12]",
        "page_number": 103,
        "title": "CO129-450 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1918 [10-12]",
        "content_text": "# HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL\n\nIt was pointed out that the action was probably about to be dismissed, part heard, and that the shareholder in question would perhaps be ordered to pay the defendants' heavy costs, solely because he could find no more money for the prosecution of the action; whereas from the facts and allegations disclosed in the course of the proceedings, it appeared to be manifestly in the interests of public justice that the case should be carried to a conclusion one way or the other. When the facts disclosed in the winding-up proceedings, and the charges which were made in the action, were thus brought to the knowledge of the Government, they were of the opinion that the charges made, whether true or false, were such as to demand investigation by the Criminal Courts at the earliest opportunity. They accordingly decided to institute criminal proceedings against two of the defendants in the action, and such proceedings were commenced. The intention of the Government was to proceed with the criminal charge forthwith. In the meantime, an application was made to stay the civil action because it seemed unreasonable that the civil action should be dismissed without being fully heard, while the criminal proceedings would raise, to a great extent, the same points. The Court, however, expressed the view that the civil action should not be postponed so as to allow the criminal proceedings to be completed first, and they refused to grant any stay of the civil action for that purpose.\n\nUnder these circumstances, and particularly in view of the opinion expressed by the Court, it was decided that the Government should assume responsibility for the future costs of the Official Receiver, and for such costs as the Court might award against him if the defendants proved successful. In considering this decision, it must be borne in mind that the criminal proceedings, which, on the evidence then before the Government, they were bound to institute, would probably have occupied a longer time than the continuation of the civil action, and would have involved extremely heavy costs to both sides. A minor result of continuing the criminal proceedings would have been that a special jury would have had to sit for five days a week during a long period. This expenditure of time and money was avoided by the continuance of the civil proceedings. To proceed with the criminal charges would have meant the beginning of the whole case de novo.\n\nThe Financial Minutes were then referred to the Finance Committee.\n\n## Papers\n\nTHE COLONIAL SECRETARY, by command of H.E. the Officer Administering the Government, also laid upon the table Sessional papers Nos. 8 and 9 - an abstract showing the differences between the approved estimates of expenditure for 1919 and the financial statements in connection with the estimates for 1919.\n\n## Hon. Mr. H. W. Bird's Questions\n\nHON. MR. H. W. BIRD asked the questions given below. The Government's replies were read by the Colonial Secretary.\n\n1. Will the Government take immediate steps to disconnect the Pokfulum reservoir from the drinking supply of the Colony so that the catchment area of this reservoir may be opened up for building purposes?\n\n**Answer:** As the quantity of water obtained from the Pokfulam reservoir generally amounts to upwards of 250 million gallons per annum, all of which is available by gravitation, the Government is not prepared to dispense with the reservoir. As there is only one system of mains available for the distribution of water to the City, it is not possible to apply the supply from the Pokfulam Works to other than domestic purposes only.\n\n2. Will the Government take in hand the construction of a road connecting the Pokfulum Road with the Craigmin Road round the south face of Mt. Kellett somewhere about the 1,000-foot contour?\n\n**Answer:** A survey has been in progress for some time past for the construction of a road which will bring the City into more convenient communication with the Craigmin Road district than would be the case by the route indicated.\n\n3. Will the Government take in hand the construction of a motor-road to the Peak on the south face of Mt. Kellett, on the lines suggested by the Hongkong Automobile Association?\n\n**Answer:** A survey is also in progress for the construction of a road which will, it is anticipated, form a more convenient motor road to the Peak District than that suggested by the Hongkong Automobile Association.\n\n4. For what purpose does the Government intend to use the area above Wong-neichong Valley previously reserved for Mr. Ede's Portuguese Housing Scheme?\n\n**Answer:** It is proposed to construct a road which will render this area more accessible for residential purposes than at present.\n\n5. Will the Government take in hand the construction of a 20-foot road between the 100 and 200-foot contour from the back of Tai Hang Village round North Point joining the road leading to Quarry Gap, thereby opening up a considerable area of easily developed land?\n\n**Answer:** The Government view the construction of a road in the locality indicated, but at a level of about the 400-foot contour. The construction of branch roads connecting with the Shaukiwan Road will render available the area referred to in the question.\n\n6. In connection with the construction of new roads opening up building sites, will the Government undertake to lay water mains therein so that intending purchasers of land may not have to pay for their water supply out of all proportion to the cost of the building?\n\n**Answer:** Arrangements will be made, as soon as conditions permit and development occurs, for affording a supply of water to areas rendered available for building purposes by the construction of new roads.\n\n7. Will the Government consider a project to move the Government Civil Hospital and Lunatic Asylum from their present situation to a more suitable site at Kennedy Town, where the present Tung Wah Plague and Infectious Diseases Hospitals are located, which would be easily accessible for stretcher cases by motor ambulance, for out-patients by tram, and harbour cases by launch, so that the existing Civil Hospital site, together with the Berlin Mission property, might be available at a reasonable price for the erection of a large number of cheap flats at low rentals?\n\n**Answer:** The Government is not prepared to consider such a project, one strong objection to which is that it would involve a large increase in the population of an already very densely populated district.\n\n## Opium Ordinance, 1918\n\nTHE ATTORNEY-GENERAL asked leave to withdraw the Bill intituled \"An Ordinance to amend the Opium Ordinance, 1914, and the Opium Ordinance, 1917,\" which appeared for its second reading on the Orders of the Day. He said: The Bill proposed to make two small amendments in the Opium Ordinances and it consisted of two substantial clauses and one formal clause. After the Bill had been read a first time and published in the Gazette, certain other amendments to the Opium Ordinances were suggested to the Government, and it has been thought more convenient to withdraw this Bill and introduce a new Bill which will contain the provisions of the present Bill and also the other amendments.\n\nTHE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the Bill was withdrawn.\n\nTHE ATTORNEY-GENERAL then moved the first reading of another Bill intituled \"An Ordinance to amend the Opium Ordinance, 1914, and the Opium Ordinance, 1917.\"\n\nTHE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the Bill was read a first time.\n\n### The Objects and Reasons\n\n1. Section 46 of the Opium Ordinance, 1914, enacts that no ship should be used for the conveyance of opium in contravention of the Ordinance. It also provides that if a certain amount of opium is found on a ship, that fact shall be prima facie evidence of an unlawful use of the ship. The section makes the amount vary according to the tonnage of the ship in the case of steamships. The expression used in the section is \"tons burden.\" Clause 2 of the Bill is intended to make it clear that register tonnage is referred to.\n\nThe term \"tons burden\" was so interpreted in section 3(1) of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, in *The Brunel* (1900) P. 24.\n\n2",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-450 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1918 [10-12].txt",
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    {
        "id": 482840,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-459 - Individuals - 1919",
        "page_number": 262,
        "title": "CO129-459 - Individuals - 1919",
        "content_text": "THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.\n\nADVERTISEMENT.\n\nThe Institution as a body is not responsible either for the statements made, or for the opinions expressed, in the following pages.\n\nLONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S. E., AND GREAT WINDMILL STREET, W.\n\n\"\n\nSECT. II. OTHER SELECTED PAPERS.\n\n(Paper No. 4248.)\n\nHong Kong Waterworks: Low-level Reservoirs and Contingent Works for Pumping Supply.\"\n\nBy DANIEL JAFFÉ, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E.\n\nTHE Island of Hong Kong was ceded to the British Government in 1841, and, during the early years of occupation, the water-supply to the city of Victoria was obtained from wells and from the streams which flow down the slopes of the hills above the city. The supply from these sources must have proved very inadequate during the dry season, but it was not until 1860 that a scheme which included the provision of some storage was embarked upon. The Pokfulum Valley on the south side of the Island (Fig. 1, Plate 1) was tapped for a further supply, an earthen dam being constructed across it in 1866 to form a reservoir of 66 million gallons capacity. The overflow sill at 555 feet above datum (datum is about L.W.O.S.T.) permitted water to be delivered by gravitation to all parts of the city, including the hillsides above it to the height then built upon.\n\nThe improvement in the supply which this scheme effected did not long suffice for the rapidly growing needs of the Colony and the late Sir Robert Rawlinson, K.C.B., Past-President Inst. C.E., who was consulted in 1873, recommended the utilization of the Taitam Valley on the lines of a scheme prepared by Mr. John Macneill Price, then Surveyor-General of Hong Kong. This project, carried out during the years 1883-90, comprised the construction of a masonry and concrete dam to impound 312 million gallons. From this reservoir the water was conveyed by gravitation through a tunnel 1.4 mile long and a conduit of double this length to filter-beds, and thence to a service-reservoir above the city.1\n\n1 Minutes of Proceedings Inst. C.E., vol. c, p. 246.\n\nB 2\n\n258",
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    {
        "id": 489256,
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        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-470 - Public Offices - 1921",
        "page_number": 404,
        "title": "CO129-470 - Public Offices - 1921",
        "content_text": "# Ningpo\n\n201\n\nThe most noteworthy event of the quarter was the unexpected resignation of the Civil Governor of the province, Ch'i Yao-shen, in the middle of June, following impeachment in the Provincial Assembly. A difference of opinion between Ch'i and the Military Governor, Lu Yung-hsiang, as to the appointment of the provincial treasurer seems to have been the direct cause of the former's resignation, which has resulted in a number of officials following suit. Meanwhile, a party has come forward to urge Peking to appoint Lu Yung-hsiang concurrently Civil Governor; in view of Lu's already powerful position, however, it is hardly likely that the Central Government will give him the two posts.\n\nThanks to the activities of the Students' Association, the Japanese boycott is still enforced, and occasional raids are made on shops suspected of selling Japanese goods.\n\nIt is hoped to continue the construction of the Shanghai-Hangchow-Ningpo Railway. Two engineering difficulties have to be overcome, namely, the bridging of the Chien Tang and the Tsao Ngo rivers. As regards the former, a ferry service will be instituted to connect the two lines, while the bridging of the Tsao Ngo is held up for lack of material, of which the large quantities stored for the purpose at Tsingtao were used during the war.\n\n## Chunkiang\n\nOn four occasions during the quarter, public warnings were issued against the activities of \"extremists,\" who, to quote a police circular, had been secretly hatching plots to subvert the Government. That pamphlets of extremist origin were circulated amongst the students of the district there can be no doubt; but as the cause of the unrest seems to be rather a sense of the instability of the Central Government than the hostility of labour to the ruling classes, it is difficult to believe that the movement is more than an effort, failing an appeal to the electorate, to turn the Government out of office.\n\nThe anniversary of Japan's twenty-one demands (9th May) was commemorated by the boys and girls of the various schools, who paraded the city, carrying flags with patriotic and in some cases aggressive inscriptions, as for instance, \"dwarf devils!\" and \"Servile traitors are below the level of horses and dogs.\" Pamphlets describing the unprepared condition of the country in the face of Japanese aggression were distributed in the streets.\n\nAs a result of the appointment of Hsiung Kai-hsien as head of police, the force has been reorganised and considerably reduced. The old uniforms were withdrawn and new ones issued, and 120 men were dismissed from the service as physically unfit. Furthermore, the pay of all ranks has been increased as from the 1st May last, the expenses being met by a loan of 4,000 dollars from the Bank of Communications.\n\nSemi-military organisations such as boy scouts are developing in the Chinese schools, where physical drill and gymnastics receive official encouragement. One school possesses a corps of eighty boys from 8 to 17 years of age, whose drill and general appearance are creditable.\n\n## Tengyueh\n\nIn the preceding summary, a brief account was given of the unrest on the Burma frontier, which culminated at the beginning of March in the attack on a detachment of British military police in the northern Shan States. Since that outbreak, there has been no further attack reported, and all is now quiet on the frontier. Only one of the ringleaders, however, was taken, namely, Tsai Hsueh-Ch'ang, whose capture, it is noted, took place on the Burma side of the frontier.\n\nOn the Chinese side, there is no system of military police, and there will be none until the frontier posts are manned by adequate garrisons in accordance with the Manai Agreement. This is a reform which the Yunnan Government might be expected to undertake.\n\nOn the 10th June, a proclamation was posted outside the south gate of Tengyueh announcing the abolition of the Tuchunship and the assumption by the self-deposed Tuchun, Tang Chi-yao, of the supreme command over all troops in his province. The proclamation summarises in brief the story of misgovernment since the revolution of 1911. Tang is most careful to emphasise the unselfish part that he has played throughout the war of North and South, and particularly in the Peace Conference at Shanghai, which might have been brought to a successful issue, declares the Tuchun, had his aspirations been carried into effect.\n\nEverywhere there is unrest, which may at any time break out into civil war; the country must be saved at once if she is to be saved at all. In the abolition of the Tuchunship, which, in Tang Chi-yao's opinion, is the primary source of all the trouble, lies China's salvation. Yunnan sets the example and calls upon the other provinces to follow suit. Beyond a certain amount of speculation among the merchants, the posting of the proclamation produced little effect in Tengyueh.\n\nIn spite of the urgent representations made by His Majesty's Consul to the Taoyin, nothing has been done to put a stop to the cultivation of opium in this district, with the result that a record harvest has been reaped, and raw opium is now selling at 30 cents per ounce as against 1 dollar 50 cents last year and 3 dollars the year before.\n\nThe attitude of the Taoyin in this matter, as in that of the frontier trouble, appears to be most reprehensible. He is quite content to issue orders and proclamations, which are treated by local officials as so much waste paper. Though aware of the opium-dealing activities of several merchants, he is neither able nor disposed to take proceedings against them. There is little hope of the evil being checked so long as this man with his shiftings, his promises, and his assurances remains in office; meanwhile, the opium trade grows steadily on the main road between Tengyueh and the frontier.\n\n## Yunnan-fu\n\nThe South-Western Confederacy has been considerably weakened, if it has not come to an end, during the quarter. This is an immediate consequence of the activity of the Cheng Hsueh Hui, of which all the chief men of the Kwangsi Party were members. Attempts have been made to embroil Yunnan and Kwangsi, but always without success. Marshal Tang Chi-yao, Tuchun of Yunnan and leader of the South-West Confederacy, broke finally with Li Ken-yuan, one of the Yunnanese commanders, over these intrigues of the Cheng Hsueh Hui, and this split marks the beginning of a more definite policy on Tang's part.\n\nOn the 1st June, the latter promulgated his decision to abolish the Tuchunship. His proclamation (summarised in the report on Tengyueh) gives no true indication of the feelings which actuated him in this step, which was in effect the second move in a project to seize Szechuan, or, at any rate, the financial resources of that province. Marshal Tang's first move had been to secure in April his election as Commander-in-chief of the united armies of Yunnan, Szechuan, and Kweichow, with Liu Hsien-Shih as Vice-Commander-in-chief. The war with Szechuan, which broke out in May, has strengthened Tang's position still further. Although at the end of June, Tuchun Hsiung Ko-wu was fighting hard, his ultimate defeat seems certain unless he can obtain assistance, for the Yunnanese are more than a match for their luxury-loving neighbours.\n\nWhen Hsiung Tuchun has been overthrown, the Tuchunship in Szechuan will be abolished, and according to the Yunnan plan, the provincials are to be allowed to select their own Governor. Liu Hsien-shih of Kweichow abolished the Tuchunship on the 21st June. The day is perhaps not far distant when Marshal Tang Chi-yao will have brought the three provinces under his sway.\n\nSince the break-up of the Canton Military Government, General Li Lieh-Chun, Chief of Staff, has arrived in Yunnan, bringing with him twenty-seven senators and representatives.\n\nYang Tien-Fu, the brigand chief, is still at large, although in May he might have been taken had a determined effort been made, for his fortunes at that time were at a low ebb. He is now as strong as ever and commands a following of 2,000 men, all well-equipped.\n\nEarly in July, a couple of villages in the Yunnan-fu plain, some 8 miles north of the town, were attacked by robber bands. This is the first time that they have ventured so close to the capital.\n\nThere seems to have been a considerable amount of internal discord amongst the forces of the South-West Confederacy in the Shih-nan region; telegrams have appeared in the local press referring to the murders of officers. Marshal San Tien-wei was appointed in April to the post of General Officer Commanding the 1st Hupeh Army in the place of General Po Wen-wei, whose period in office is considered to have been a failure.\n\n## Chungking\n\nThroughout the quarter, interest has centred in the political and military struggle between the Szechuanese and Yunnanese factions. Yu Chi-t'ang, military commissioner... \n\nPage 402 \nPage 5",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-476 - Acting Governor Claud Severn & Governor Sir Stubbs - 1922 [8-12]",
        "page_number": 85,
        "title": "CO129-476 - Acting Governor Claud Severn & Governor Sir Stubbs - 1922 [8-12]",
        "content_text": "— 28- \n\nA considerable amount of surfacing of the hilly portions of the Lai-chi-kok-Castle Peak, Mong-kok-tsui-Taipo, and Taipo-Fanling Roads was done.\n\nDRAINAGE,\n\nThe construction of a nullah at Mong-kok-tsui between the Taipo Road and the Old Kowloon boundary line near Kau-lung-tong was in progress. A beginning was made with the training and diversion of the large stream course to the East of Lai-chi-kok.\n\nWATER WORKS.\n\nDrawings and specifications were completed and tenders invited for the large scheme of filter beds to be constructed at the Eastern end of Bowen Road; the contract had not, however, been awarded at the end of the year.\n\nAn additional rising main was laid to the Peak to enable more water to be pumped up to this district, and the laying of a new 8-inch main was commenced in order to connect Shaukiwan Village with the City supply system; this latter work had to be suspended for a time on account of the alterations to the Shaukiwan Road. As a temporary measure, however, a 3-inch main was put through in order to obviate any difficulties which might arise until the larger pipe could be laid.\n\nFor the supply of an additional engine and boiler, required for the Pokfulam Road Pumping Station, the tender of Messrs. Tangye was accepted, and the foundation plans were received at the end of the year, thus enabling a commencement to be made with the extension of the station so as to provide the necessary accommodation.\n\nTenders were considered for an additional steam pumping set for the Taita Tuk Pumping Station, but in view of the excessive price quoted as compared with an electrically driven plant, the matter was again referred home for consideration by the Consulting Engineers.\n\nThe laying of a 3-inch main from the Wong-nei-chong reservoir to a service tank at Repulse Bay was completed and in service early in the year.\n\nThe work of substituting an 18\" water main for the existing one of 12\" from the Kowloon Filter Beds to Yaumati was completed, except for a short section beyond the 3rd milestone on the Taipo Road where the road requires to be diverted. The replacing of the existing water mains in the Kowloon distribution system by larger ones was continued.\n\nAt the Kowloon Filter Beds, adjoining the Taipo Road, two new beds are in course of construction.\n\n29-\n\nThe taking over and the reconstruction of the existing Water Works supplying the Fanling Golf Club houses and a few other residences in that neighbourhood was completed.\n\nPlans were prepared for a Water Supply at Taipo.\n\nRECLAMATIONS,\n\nAt Aplichau, the reclamation under construction was nearly completed by the end of the year. It will provide a considerable area upon which it is hoped to be able to accommodate some of the old village lot-holders so that this insanitary area may be improved as opportunity arises.\n\nSatisfactory progress was made with the filling in of the tidal flat and the cutting down of the hill between Tai-kok-tsui and Fuk-tsun-heung.\n\nThe work on the Shamshuipo reclamation scheme progressed satisfactorily, the rubble mound and the cement concrete blocks for the section under construction having been completed.\n\nA commencement was made with a reclamation scheme at Cheung Sha Wan in conjunction with the tipping of the refuse collected from the Kowloon Peninsula and Hongkong.\n\nThe Kai Tak Land Investment Company made but little progress with their reclamation at Kowloon Bay. The sea-wall of that portion of it acquired by the Government as the site for the new gaol was completed and the entire area filled in to coping level.\n\nThe reclamation work which is being carried out by the Standard Oil Company of New York at Lai-chi-kok made good progress.\n\nThe Marine Lot-holders fronting Praya East having in May, 1920, agreed to the terms and apportionment of the Reclamation to be carried out by the Government at Wanchai Bay and known as the Praya East Reclamation Scheme, the preparation of the necessary plans and documents were commenced forthwith, and an Ordinance (No. 17 of 1921) to give legal effect to this project became law on the 9th September, 1921. Tenders were invited on the 15th June, 1921, and the lowest one—that of Messrs. Sang Lee & Co.—amounting to $2,766,899.70 having been accepted, an order to begin work was served on them on the 1st November, 1921. The total cost of the scheme to those entitled to participate is estimated at $3,744,319.50.\n\nPIERS.\n\nThe Queen Victoria Street Ferry Pier was practically completed by the close of the year. A contract was let in September for the construction in reinforced concrete of the Public Square Street Pier.\n\nPage 16\n\n: \n\n84",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-541-2 Estimates 1931 14-10-1932 - 19-7-1934",
        "page_number": 198,
        "title": "CO129-541-2 Estimates 1931 14-10-1932 - 19-7-1934",
        "content_text": "Aedesigner\n\n(Honing only at\n\nwin. \"Tugbor). Hon. Mr. K. M. Henderson (Director of Public Works).\n\nHon. Mr. J. P. Braga. Hon. Mr. S. W. Tso,\n\nLL.D.\n\nO.B.E.,tain\n\nSir Henry Pollock Gives Co-Ordinated Views.\n\nTom Tour To\n\nfor\n\nI will refer\n\nto\n\nand quote Hor.. Mr. during the Budget\n\npa of last year Hansard, 1931,\n\nasider that a matter requir-\n\nno\n\nGovernor's Bungalow.\n\nrecently re, u over that is ing put pofion of the address, and I fall baris but the problem\n\nWe hope that the Government will be able to adopt this sugges-tion.\n\nthe\n\nUnofficial\n\nof a\n\nALİY thesunt in this period ef transition a tan, Ulony's deve 1 bment.\n\nAs the\n\n: \n\nMir measur and a half per cent.\n\nI understand We much appreciate the Me-will enable the who\n\nmy opmion he solved, anții we get morandum of the Hon: Director of road which is a mantu\n\nit on to a commercial basia. Hon. Mr. T. H. King (Acting Public\n\nThis principle, of course, Works on Public Works put through and got into ¿per»\n\nOutstanding Events of Year Inspector General of Police).\n\nplies equally to some of the legal Extraordinary.\n\ntion quicker than if the original\n\nWhat should be regarded as the sitions, not forgetting the Polite Hon. Commander G. F. Hole, The Hon. Colonial Secretary, width was adhered to, as we gather\n\nShing Mun Dam.\n\noutstanding events of the past and a variety of other posta. May R.N., (Retired) (Harbour Master). early in his speech, refers to the that the extra widening from the\n\nThe last Item of Public Works, year? First I think the decision this appointment not prove a dead Hon. Dr. A. R. Wellington Government having made a selec- 15 foot mark to the 100 foot mark inch more rgent attention which is referred to in the Hon: of the Government to leave our and to this able officer and may I (Director of Medical and Sanitary tion of Works to be included in would entail dealing with a great (than the vehicular ferry scheme) Colonial Secretary's speech is the currency system alone and allow yet find him occupying the position Services).\n\nthe Estimates for 1933 \"from a deal of rock which would be both ie the re-survey of the Harbour so\n\nnew big dam at Shing Mun.\n\nit to find its natural level, guided to which I think, he should in time Hon. Sir Henry Pollock, Kt., preliminary list several times as slow and expensive work. At the that the long overdue work of\n\nThe prompt commencement of by the laws of supply and demand. rightfully succeed. K.C.\n\nlong.\"\n\nsame time the original scheme of dres ging can be taken ju hand\n\nthis work is of such very vital im- Secondly the publication of the Contracting Out Public Works. Hon. Mr. W. E. L. Shenton. We may add that it would be of 4 100 foot road should, in our with out further delay. I under-\n\nportance to this Colony that the Retrenchment Committee's Report Turning now to the Public Works Hon. Mr. R. H. Kotewall, C.M.G., assistance to Unofficial Members opinion, remain on the Govern- stand that one officer has been de Unofficial Members of this Council representing nine months exhaus-Department I have a few commenta LL.D.\n\nif the Government would let us ment's town-planning Map, as a tailed for this special service. There\n\nfeel that notwithstanding the tive work by three of our promin- to make. We have some large un- have a peep behind the Official cur-project to be carried out in the has been extensive dredging\n\nstatement of the Hon: Colonialent citizens. Some of their find-dertakings before us and I presume done since 1928 and had it not at those Innocents which near future.\n\nSecretary to the effect that \"the ings may not be practical or the Government has carefully cop- have been massacred in the pro- As regards road-widening we re- beer for the reclamation at Kai\n\nGovernment is satisfied that the desirable but it has had the result sidered the desirability or other- Hon. Mr. W. H. Bell.\n\ncess of whittling down the gret that the Queen's Garden link Tack that work might possibly not Consulting Engineers are fully of bringing under close scrutiny wise of contracting out some of the Hon. Mr. T. N. Chau.\n\nEstimates, and we hope that this between May Road and Conduit have been carried out even now\".\n\nour Government more pressing ones Buch Mr. R. A. C. North (Deputy suggestion may be borne in mind Road has not been included in the\n\nOur third additional\n\naware of the situation, and will the whole of Clerk of Councils).\n\nquery; make a beginning in time to ensure undertaking and has already re- Government Civil Hospital and before Estimates for future years\n\narises under item 30 on page 92 of Estimates.\n\nsulted in many far reaching works of a like nature. To fulfill the Estimates\n\nthat the opportunities afforded by are presented.\n\nKowloon Interests.\n\n\"Steam-roller, 12\n\nand the coming dry weather are not economies\n\nreforme. The our programme within the not dig We are glad to find that, so far\n\nAs regards Kowloon, no doubt tons, $20,000\", with the foot-note\n\nthanks of the Colony are wasted\".\n\ndue to tant future, will I think strain our they, the Estimates\n\nindividual members will deal with \"heavy roller required for roads for THE UNOFFICIALS. as possible,\n\nthese gentlemen and Mr. Breen Public Works Department almost next year show the cost of the the subject at greater length. The heavy traffic\" and we would ask the Members, would be guilty\n\nbreach of duty to the Public it and I am inclined to think the to breaking point, it will alo Staff of each Department under Unofficial Members are, however, Hon: Director of Public Works\n\nthey did not urge the Government public have not sufficiently realised necessitate the maintenance of a the heading of that Department, of opinion that the weight of their whether such a roller could not be\n\nmonumental large permanent staff, and many or appreciated their to send a telegram to the Consult-work, possibly due to the fact, that pensionable officers. though we quite appreciate the unanimous representations should made locally.\n\ning Engineers upon this subject. its publication came so late in the point which has been made by the be brought to the notice of the\n\nCrown Leases Ordinance. Colonial Secretary as to such Government in respect of three\n\nIn business matters it 4. As regards the suggested customary\n\nis day. Thirdly the Report of the The proposed new Crown Leange classification not being absolutely matters which they think require Government Bungalow at Fanling\n\nto emphasize the Honourable Director of Medical Ordinance when it comes finally be- extreme importance attached to and Sanitary Services up to date, owing to the circum- immediate attention.\n\non Public fore the Legisative Council, may be (item 104 on page 105 of the WATER SUPPLY URGE. stances which he mentions.\n\nto them in their order of impor Estimates), we understand that it hurry-up telegrams, and, if there we know is receiving the careful tentious as it at present appears. urgency by sending one or more Health in Hongkong. This Report less expnsive, and not nearly so par- tance. First, the subject of the More Cadets.\n\nKowloon Hospital Extension. In this is the intention of the Government\n\never was a subject on which a consideration of the Government The Hongkong Law Society are are surprised that, even connexion we would like to thank to abandon Mountain Lodge as a\n\nS.O.S. message is desirable it is and it is to be hoped that before Government will I think, obtain its ing on behalf of all the Unofficials, tirements from the Civil Service, portunity afforded to us to discussed, at our request, the Hon. Mr. the erection of the Shing Mun long a concrete and far reaching main objects with far less expense\n\nit is necessary to send out more the matter with the assistance of Shenton will deal specially with\n\nscheme will be placed before us, to the Colony, and without interfer Sir. The speech, which I am Cadets, having regard to the fact the Medical Authorities and of the this matter and also with aviation\n\nWhatever reluctance Govern-retaining I hope, the entity of our ing with the rights of private con- about to deliver, represents the that so many have been sent out Officials of the Public Works De-questions, and will also as Chair- unanimous views of my Unofficial during the last 5 or 6 years, and I partment jointly. We\n\nmen of the Society for the Protec-\n\nment may have hitherto enter- present Sanitary Board, but with tract. cannot re- tion of Children make an appeal to colleagues and myself on the would refer on this point to what frain\n\ntained to the sending of such a wider functions. from expressing our dia- Government programme for 1933. was said by the Hon: Sir Shouton appointment at the diverting of increased grant by the Government\n\nthe Government that the proposed telegram, we cannot understand The Estimates contain little Chow, on behalf of all the Un-the Maternity Block from the ori-to that Society may be yet further\n\nthe continuance of such reluc- contentious matter, and we are officials, during last year's Budget ginal use for\n\ntance, having regard to the fact I should now like to dwell for a New Territories, I heartily support satisfied that the finances of the debate (see 1931 Hansard, at top signed, even though that diversion of the work.\n\nwhich it was de-increased, in view of the magnitude\n\nthat the dry season is just upon few minutes on our air communica-it, especially as it is bound up with Colony, in spite of the temporary of page 155). The necessity for may be only a temporary measure\n\nus and that the Colony is even tions which I am inclined to put in the abandonment of Mountafa depression, are in a sound condi- any such increase is still harder defended\n\nBefore leaving the subject of\n\nnow still without any information the front rank for consideration. Lodge and the building of a new of on the ground of ex- tion.\n\nas to when we may expect the For too many years have we been ficial Residence on the Island. Moun to appreciate, seeing that the Hon: pediency. The result is that, at Public Works, we desire to recom-\n\nplans for the\n\nthe fortunate tain Lodge has been distasteful fa Colonial Secretary pointed out, in present, no\n\nnew dam from inclined to rest on maternity case, how-mend to the Government that, in\n\nEngland.\n\nadvantages of our Harbour. Times numerous Governors, as it cưă his Budget speech this year, that ever urgent, can be treated in the stead of maintenance contracts re-\n\nTelegram To Engineers.\n\nare changing, and changing fast, them off from the Colony's adminis- 6 clerical officers were now being Kowloon hospital for lack of ac-lating to Public Works being let for substituted\n\nTo those who have to at- the calendar year from the 1st for Cadets, namely, commodation, and we, therefore,\n\nUntil we get those plans, ob- and if we wish to continue to hold tration. two in the Secretariat, two in the welcome, the inclusion in the January to the 31st December, the viously no progress towards the that premier position in the Far tend on His Excellency during the Treasury and two at the Magis- Estimates for 1993 of a block of contracts for such works for next erection of the dam can be made.\n\nEast which we have hitherto done summer months it takes up a large tracies respectively.\n\nwe must be sure that we are We, therefore, Nurses Quarters, which will pro- year be let from 1st January to\n\nnot part of a business day. The pre- unanimously,\n\nis fast being passed by while we sleep. sent Government House arge that the following telegram Now, are the present facilities at falling into decay and the report vide the Hospital Nursing Staff the 30th September, and, there- with the better and quieter ac-after the 1st October, 1933 to the\n\nbe now sent to the Consulting Kai Tack adequate, possibly for the on the state of the roof of the commodation, which they deserve, 30th September, 1934, and for Engineers by the Government, moment yes, but what will the ball room when it was found to and which should, we consider, similar periods in the succeeding namely:\n\nposition be in five years time? be in a very dangerous condition, release the Maternity Block wholly years.\n\n\"The Unofficial Members of Let us for a few moments study is still fresh\n\nin our memory. for Maternity cases.\n\nCouncil strongly press for in- recent developments. Commercial I have called for the figures to formation as to when the plans of aviation has great possibilities in show what Government money has the new Shing Mun dam may be the Far East, and unless we take been spent in recent years expected to arrive out here, be-time by the forelock and provide Mountain Lodge and Government cause they regard the promptest facilities for what we know is com- House and I am informed that commencement with work on such ing, we shall be left far behind. since 1928 $35,532 has been spent dam as vitally important to the\n\non Mountain Lodge and $190,887 welfare of this Colony.\" (Ap-\n\non Government House. I think plause).\n\n(Continued on Page 15.)\n\nsaid:\n\nFor the sake of covenience of reference, the points made by the Hon. Colonial Secretary, in his able and comprehensive speech, at the last Meeting of this Council, are dealt with, so far as possible,\n\nin the same order as he dealt with them.\n\nAt the outset we have to con-gratulate the Government upon having, at long last, made pro-vision in the Budget for 1933, for a commencement with the new Government Civil Hospital and the new Gaol and the new Central British School.\n\nWe\n\nGenerally we approve of the proposed changes in the Senior Clerical and Accounting Staff and of the scheme of promotions from the Junior Service.\n\nWe also approve of the appoint ment of the Second Assistant AB-\n\nsessor, to attend to the proper rating of tenements, and also of the Inspector of Tenements and\n\nIt 15 satisfactory that the the Senior Clerical Officer who are Colony's 1933 programme can be to assist him in his task. carried through without imposing As regards the considerable in- any additional taxation, and we creases in Personnel in the Police\n\nnew\n\nWhilst approving also of the projected additional Medical Off-cer's Quarters and of a General Ward Block for 3rd class patients, the Unofficial Members desire specially to urge upon Your Excellency's notice the necessity for erecting a new Block capable\n\nOur object in making this re-commendation is to avoid the shift-ing over of contracts to a new Con-tractor in the very middle of our dry season, which is the most favourable climatic period for carrying on with maintenance con-tinuously and without any break.\n\ndam.\n\nAviation Matters.\n\nAir Mail Service. The provision of an Air Mail Service to the Far East is no new\n\nResidence in New Territories. Aa regards His Excellency the Governor's proposed retreat in th\n\nUn",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-559-13 Sir A. Caldecott- visit to Canton 13-9-1936 - 26-11-1936",
        "page_number": 50,
        "title": "CO129-559-13 Sir A. Caldecott- visit to Canton 13-9-1936 - 26-11-1936",
        "content_text": "49 \n\nwhether Hong Kong would agree to a reopening of the question of a Customs Agreement and that an affirmative reply had been sent. I last have addressed you on this subject in a separate despatch. The Generalissimo then expressed complete agreement as to the need for understanding and co-operation and said that he would let it be known that it was his desire that Canton business men should respond to any invitation to visit Hong Kong. There was local opposition to the linking of the Hankow and Kowloon railways (I had not mentioned this project but ever since the broadcasting by the Chinese Press of Sir Cecil Clementi's speech at the Royal Empire Society last December every Chinese official that one meets thinks that one is trying to get at him over this loop line) but he had ordered the completion within seven months of an extension of the Hankow railway to Whampoa. That extension would cross the Kowloon railway on the level, and their connection would follow as a matter of course but without advertisement. The Generalissimo had never heard of the draft Hong Kong-China Customs Agreement of 1930 and consequently did not evince much interest in it. The conversation thereafter became general and Madame Chiang Kai Shek, who is General Secretary to the Chinese Aviation Commissioners, told me that she was thinking of sending South China air cadets to the Far Eastern Aviation School at Kowloon for private preliminary training; if this idea should eventuate it would of course assure the future of the School, introduce a pro-British element into the Chinese Air Force and foster a demand for British planes. I therefore listened most sympathetically. Nothing was said at Whampoa about Japan or the Japanese, except that the Generalissimo in the course of general enquiries about Hong Kong and Malaya asked me how many of them there were in either place. During the whole of the evening Madame Chiang Kai Shek was suffering from severe pain and irritation caused by acute dermatitis, and in bidding her good-bye I expressed my admiration of her pluck in remaining at Whampoa to be our hostess and interpreter when her \n\nPage 50  \nPage 51",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-559-13 Sir A. Caldecott- visit to Canton 13-9-1936 - 26-11-1936.txt",
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    {
        "id": 554007,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-561-7 Hong Kong University 4-1-1937 - 22-9-1937",
        "page_number": 50,
        "title": "CO129-561-7 Hong Kong University 4-1-1937 - 22-9-1937",
        "content_text": "# CORRESPONDENCE \n\n## LOCAL WATERWORKS \n\n### South China Morning Post \n\n#### The University \n\n##### Approval of Further Expenditure Asked \n\n(To the Editor, S. C. M. Post) \n\nSir, There seems to be expectation that people will write about the report of the Special Committee on the University. Not many people are competent to criticise the report, but certain subjects emerge.\n\n(1) Finance. It is certain that the budget must be made to balance, and, whatever this may mean, it seems to be the first need. This may be done by using interest only on gifts of say, a few million dollars, if salaries are to be reckoned in dollars, or a million pounds, if salaries of Europeans are paid in sterling; and when it is obtained, thorough revision of the budget must be made annually. It should not be done at the expense of the public, which we are told means the poor, as all taxation finally comes from the poor. To educate a few well-to-do people at the expense of the poor is a gross injustice.\n\nIt would be interesting to know how many firms or societies provide pensions and pay salaries on sterling basis. The Government can do as it likes, as it simply takes the money, and fixes its own rates. If the Government is to assist, it should be to a limited extent, and perhaps for a definite object, say a contribution for the new Vice-Chancellor's salary, but perhaps not his pension.\n\n(2) Staff. More local staff must be employed, and if the staff made more contribution to the public by lectures and helpful enlightenment it would increase their value. Something is already done. It is astonishing that so few of the professors, lecturers, and non-Chinese staff have learnt a language so simple and easy to learn as Cantonese.\n\n(3) Chinese Studies. It seems that these must be reduced to a low level or else given up, because there are not sufficient Chinese youths willing to really study Chinese classics and philosophy, and Chinese with a few years elementary and lower middle school teaching can read a newspaper, and do a small amount of detective novel reading, which seems to be the extent of attainment in Chinese at the present day. It is said that the University was advised not to open the school unless two million dollars was provided for the purpose. Hongkong cannot compete with Chinese Universities; it is most probable that even their standard is very low. If the University should be closed, Chinese will be the principal losers, and they should consider the subject and definitely decide one way or the other, as to whether they wish to have the University here or not. They are the deciding factor. Another possibility is looming up, but that need not be discussed at present. These items will be sufficient for considerable thought and planning.\n\n### $3,185,000 INVOLVED \n\nEven with the completion of Jubilee Dam the water situation in the Colony is far from satisfactory. Although the Mainland is on constant supply the Island is still under restrictions.\n\nThis position is causing the Government some anxiety, and it is learned that a despatch has been sent to the Secretary of State for the Colonies requesting permission to spend the sum of $3,185,000 on new waterworks. As soon as approval of the expenditure is received from London, it is understood the preliminary stages of the new works will be put in hand. Part of the money will be included in this year's Supplementary Estimates.\n\nAlthough the sum of $3,185,000 is specified in Secretary of State's message to the Government, this represents only part of the sum needed to ensure adequate supply.\n\nWorks which will be pushed on in the immediate future will be as follows:\n\n| Project | Cost |\n| --- | --- |\n| Island and Harbour Supply Mains and Pumping Stations | $190,000 |\n| Improvement and Protection of Harbour Pipelines | $240,000 |\n| New 18in. Harbour Pipeline | $290,000 |\n| New Filtration Plant at Eastern | $300,000 |\n| Additions to distribution system | $100,000 |\n| **Total Island** | **$1,120,000** |\n| Shing Mun-Taimoshan Catchwater | $1,500,000 |\n| Service Reservoir to Kowloon Tsai | $200,000 |\n| Supply Mains to Kowloon Tsai Reservoir | $290,000 |\n| Additions to Distribution system | $75,000 |\n| **Total Mainland** | **$2,065,000** |\n\nPage 50\nPage 51",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-561-7 Hong Kong University 4-1-1937 - 22-9-1937.txt",
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    {
        "id": 580443,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-593-3 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45 12-1-1946 - 27-10-1946",
        "page_number": 134,
        "title": "CO129-593-3 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45 12-1-1946 - 27-10-1946",
        "content_text": "138\n\nendowment. The authorities of the territories from which nearly two-thirds of its students came contributed no grants for its support. It is clear wrong to attempt to achieve an Imperial purpose and leave the full financial responsibility to one small Colony. If the University is to serve as an instrument for mutual understanding between the British and Chinese peoples, the major part of the financial responsibility should properly fall on Imperial funds. The Colonial Government cannot afford, nor can it appropriately be asked to do more than hitherto has been done. A university fulfilling the broad purpose we envisage would be serving the interests of the Commonwealth and not merely the United Kingdom. We hope therefore that consideration may in due course be given to the possibility of enlisting financial help from the Dominions as well as from Great Britain.\n\n(b) Isolation.\n\n21. The University suffered from isolation in various ways.\n\n<<\n\n27\n\n(i) Chinese nationalist feeling reached full tide at the time of the Second Revolution*, i.e. the collapse of the reactionary \"war-lords\" and the establishment of the new central regime in Nanking under the auspices of the Kuomintang. It was, in essence, an inevitable movement of resurgence against the accumulated humiliations and restrictions which had marked China's international relations in the preceding era. The establishment of the Nanking regime was in itself the first step towards more normal conditions, and the process received an immediate and momentous encouragement in His Majesty's Government's declaration, in December, 1926, of confidence in and sympathy with the new regime and the national aspirations it expressed. Since then the anomalies associated with the \"unequal treaties\" have been gradually cleared away. We would not venture to prophesy how Chinese feeling towards us and other countries may develop during the remainder of this fateful century, but at least it can be said that the stage is set for collaboration on terms of equality and reciprocity, and it follows that an opportunity now exists which never existed in anything like the same measure in the past, of which it behoves the Chinese and ourselves to take full advantage, as equal and essentially like-minded members of the family of nations. No one could guarantee that the Chinese sentiment towards a revived University in Hong Kong would remain uniformly friendly and cooperative and undisturbed by any fitful feeling of jealousy or by the influence of extraneous events. But there is, so far as we can discern, no special reason for pessimism on this score. It would, naturally, depend largely on the broad conception of the project, the manner in which it was launched, and the way in which it fitted into the general pattern of our relations with China.\n\n(ii) Situated in a Cantonese speaking area, the University was at a disadvantage in attracting Mandarin speaking students from other parts of China and its graduates were at a disadvantage on language grounds in seeking employment in China. This disability will be greatly reduced by the recent decision of the Hong Kong Government to encourage in its schools the study of the national language (Kwo Yü) which the Government of China is successfully disseminating.\n\n(iii) Moreover, like institutions of higher education in other Colonies, the University suffered from intellectual isolation. Its poverty prevented it from adopting an adequate system of home leave or sabbatical leave for its staff; it could not afford, financially or in terms of staff, to facilitate frequent study leave in China, visiting lectureships, summer schools, and those other forms of intellectual intercourse which would have kept it\n\nII\n\ncontinuously refreshed by vigorous contact with both British and Chinese academic developments. The proper financing of the University would remove many of these difficulties. Other developments also will contribute to their removal, such as the recommendations of the Asquith Commission for staff secondment, annual visits, improved conditions of service for staff, etc., with which the Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies is concerned. The impending reorganization of the Universities Bureau of the British Empire will also assist in reducing this isolation and will facilitate interchange of staff and ideas with the Empire universities.\n\n(c) Competition.\n\n22. When the University was founded in 1911 there were few universities in China. The past thirty years have seen the growth of numerous Chinese universities, a few of which have achieved standards which make them rank as equals with those of the United Kingdom. This development has meant not only the diversion of many students who might otherwise have proceeded to Hong Kong, but also that Hong Kong University was rapidly out-distanced in equipment and resources. We consider that far from preventing a reconstituted University from achieving its aim, this factor could in the future greatly assist it in doing so. There is now a manifold and energetic academic life in China with which a British university could make contact. The opportunities for exchange, for common study, for cooperation in research, create now the conditions in which the maintenance of good understanding on a university level is fruitfully possible. It is, however, an absolute requirement that the University of Hong Kong should in quality and standards be able to meet its sister universities in China at least as an equal.\n\nPOLICY GOVERNING THE UNIVERSITY'S RESUSCITATION\n\n23. We recommend, therefore, that a University should continue to exist in Hong Kong primarily as a centre for Sino-British contact in the sphere of learning and for the maintenance of good understanding with the neighbouring country of China. We have the following six comments or recommendations to add on further general aspects of the policy which should govern the resuscitation of the University on these lines. Detailed and technical points are dealt with in Part III.\n\n(a) Permanence.\n\n24. In the first place, plans must be for a permanent University. Even if, in the immediate emergency, temporary arrangements have to be adopted for buildings, for equipment, even for staffing, these must be regarded merely as first-aid measures and must not be allowed to prejudice, or to serve as an excuse for postponing, permanent plans. Quite apart from the fact that the cheap and the temporary always prove a false economy in university development, a university in Hong Kong could not recruit staff or in other ways attain the standards necessary to represent British scholarship and could not become a centre of learning unless it had the self-confidence provided by the intention and assurance of permanence. The chief purpose it is designed to serve, namely the maintenance of good understanding, is a permanent one, whatever changes may occur in the ephemeral political scene. It should be constructed and planned to survive any change that might take place in the status of Hong Kong; even if a radical change occurred, the University's functions would become more, not less important as a living source of British influence and as an established centre of Sino-British contact. Two practical consequences follow\n\n52226\n\nA 5\n\n139",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-593-3 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45 12-1-1946 - 27-10-1946.txt",
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    {
        "id": 581279,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-594-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45- Advisory Committee report 1-7-1946 - 19-8-1946",
        "page_number": 13,
        "title": "CO129-594-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45- Advisory Committee report 1-7-1946 - 19-8-1946",
        "content_text": "# POLICY GOVERNING THE UNIVERSITY'S RESUSCITATION\n\n## endowment. \nThe authorities of the territories from which nearly two-thirds of its students came contributed no grants for its support. It is clearly wrong to attempt to achieve an Imperial purpose and leave the full financial responsibility to one small Colony. If the University is to serve as an instrument for mutual understanding between the British and Chinese peoples, the major part of the financial responsibility should properly fall on Imperial funds. The Colonial Government cannot afford, nor can it appropriately be asked to do more than hitherto has been done. A university fulfilling the broad purpose we envisage would be serving the interests of the Commonwealth and not merely the United Kingdom. We hope therefore that consideration may in due course be given to the possibility of enlisting financial help from the Dominions as well as from Great Britain.\n\n## (b) Isolation.\n\n21. The University suffered from isolation in various ways.\n\n(i) Chinese nationalist feeling reached full tide at the time of the Second Revolution, i.e., the collapse of the reactionary war-lords and the establishment of the new central regime in Nanking under the auspices of the Kuomintang. It was, in essence, an inevitable movement of resurgence against the accumulated humiliations and restrictions which had marked China's international relations in the preceding era. The establishment of the Nanking regime was in itself the first step towards more normal conditions, and the process received an immediate and momentous encouragement in His Majesty's Government's declaration, in December 1926, of confidence in and sympathy with the new regime and the national aspirations it expressed. Since then the anomalies associated with the \"unequal treaties\" have been gradually cleared away.\n\nWe would not venture to prophesy how Chinese feeling towards us and other countries may develop during the remainder of this fateful century, but at least it can be said that the stage is set for collaboration on terms of equality and reciprocity, and it follows that an opportunity now exists which never existed in anything like the same measure in the past, of which it behoves the Chinese and ourselves to take full advantage, as equal and essentially like-minded members of the family of nations. No one could guarantee that the Chinese sentiment towards a revived University in Hong Kong would remain uniformly friendly and cooperative and undisturbed by any fitful feeling of jealousy or by the influence of extraneous events. But there is, so far as we can discern, no special reason for pessimism on this score. It would, naturally, depend largely on the broad conception of the project, the manner in which it was launched, and the way in which it fitted into the general pattern of our relations with China.\n\n(ii) Situated in a Cantonese-speaking area, the University was at a disadvantage in attracting Mandarin-speaking students from other parts of China and its graduates were at a disadvantage on language grounds in seeking employment in China. This disability will be greatly reduced by the recent decision of the Hong Kong Government to encourage in its schools the study of the national language (Kwo Yü) which the Government of China is successfully disseminating.\n\n(iii) Moreover, like institutions of higher education in other Colonies, the University suffered from intellectual isolation. Its poverty prevented it from adopting an adequate system of home leave or sabbatical leave for its staff; it could not afford, financially or in terms of staff, to facilitate frequent study leave in China, visiting lectureships, summer schools, and those other forms of intellectual intercourse which would have kept it continuously refreshed by vigorous contact with both British and Chinese academic developments. The proper financing of the University would remove many of these difficulties. Other developments also will contribute to their removal, such as the recommendations of the Asquith Commission for staff secondment, annual visits, improved conditions of service for staff, etc., with which the Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies is concerned. The impending reorganization of the Universities Bureau of the British Empire will also assist in reducing this isolation and will facilitate interchange of staff and ideas with the Empire universities.\n\n## (c) Competition.\n\n22. When the University was founded in 1911 there were few universities in China. The past thirty years have seen the growth of numerous Chinese universities, a few of which have achieved standards which make them rank as equals with those of the United Kingdom. This development has meant not only the diversion of many students who might otherwise have proceeded to Hong Kong, but also that Hong Kong University was rapidly outdistanced in equipment and resources. We consider that far from preventing a reconstituted University from achieving its aim, this factor could in the future greatly assist it in doing so. There is now a manifold and energetic academic life in China with which a British university could make contact. The opportunities for exchange, for common study, for cooperation in research, create now the conditions in which the maintenance of good understanding on a university level is fruitfully possible. It is, however, an absolute requirement that the University of Hong Kong should in quality and standards be able to meet its sister universities in China at least as an equal.\n\n## POLICY GOVERNING THE UNIVERSITY'S RESUSCITATION\n\n23. We recommend, therefore, that a University should continue to exist in Hong Kong primarily as a centre for Sino-British contact in the sphere of learning and for the maintenance of good understanding with the neighbouring country of China. We have the following six comments or recommendations to add on further general aspects of the policy which should govern the resuscitation of the University on these lines. Detailed and technical points are dealt with in Part III.\n\n## (a) Permanence.\n\n24. In the first place, plans must be for a permanent University. Even if, in the immediate emergency, temporary arrangements have to be adopted for buildings, for equipment, even for staffing, these must be regarded merely as first-aid measures and must not be allowed to prejudice, or to serve as an excuse for postponing, permanent plans. Quite apart from the fact that the cheap and the temporary always prove a false economy in university development, a university in Hong Kong could not recruit staff or in other ways attain the standards necessary to represent British scholarship and could not become a centre of learning unless it had the self-confidence provided by the intention and assurance of permanence. The chief purpose it is designed to serve, namely the maintenance of good understanding, is a permanent one, whatever changes may occur in the ephemeral political scene. It should be constructed and planned to survive any change that might take place in the status of Hong Kong; even if a radical change occurred, the University's functions would become more, not less important as a living source of British influence and as an established centre of Sino-British contact. Two practical consequences follow.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-594-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45- Advisory Committee report 1-7-1946 - 19-8-1946.txt",
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    {
        "id": 581298,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-594-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45- Advisory Committee report 1-7-1946 - 19-8-1946",
        "page_number": 32,
        "title": "CO129-594-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45- Advisory Committee report 1-7-1946 - 19-8-1946",
        "content_text": "## POLICY GOVERNING THE UNIVERSITY'S RESUSCITATION\n\n### (b) Isolation.\n\n21. The University suffered from isolation in various ways.\n\n(i) Chinese nationalist feeling reached full tide at the time of the Second Revolution, i.e., the collapse of the reactionary war-lords and the establishment of the new central regime in Nanking under the auspices of the Kuomintang. It was, in essence, an inevitable movement of resurgence against the accumulated humiliations and restrictions which had marked China's international relations in the preceding era.\n\nThe establishment of the Nanking regime was in itself the first step towards more normal conditions, and the process received an immediate and momentous encouragement in His Majesty's Government's declaration, in December 1926, of confidence in and sympathy with the new regime and the national aspirations it expressed. Since then, the anomalies associated with the unequal treaties have been gradually cleared away.\n\nWe would not venture to prophesy how Chinese feeling towards us and other countries may develop during the remainder of this fateful century, but at least it can be said that the stage is set for collaboration on terms of equality and reciprocity, and it follows that an opportunity now exists which never existed in anything like the same measure in the past, of which it behoves the Chinese and ourselves to take full advantage, as equal and essentially like-minded members of the family of nations. No one could guarantee that the Chinese sentiment towards a revived University in Hong Kong would remain uniformly friendly and cooperative and undisturbed by any fitful feeling of jealousy or by the influence of extraneous events. But there is, so far as we can discern, no special reason for pessimism on this score. It would, naturally, depend largely on the broad conception of the project, the manner in which it was launched, and the way in which it fitted into the general pattern of our relations with China.\n\n(ii) Situated in a Cantonese-speaking area, the University was at a disadvantage in attracting Mandarin-speaking students from other parts of China, and its graduates were at a disadvantage on language grounds in seeking employment in China. This disability will be greatly reduced by the recent decision of the Hong Kong Government to encourage in its schools the study of the national language (Kwo Yü), which the Government of China is successfully disseminating.\n\n(iii) Moreover, like institutions of higher education in other Colonies, the University suffered from intellectual isolation. Its poverty prevented it from adopting an adequate system of home leave or sabbatical leave for its staff; it could not afford, financially or in terms of staff, to facilitate frequent study leave in China, visiting lectureships, summer schools, and those other forms of intellectual intercourse which would have kept it continuously refreshed by vigorous contact with both British and Chinese academic developments. The proper financing of the University would remove many of these difficulties. Other developments also will contribute to their removal, such as the recommendations of the Asquith Commission for staff secondment, annual visits, improved conditions of service for staff, etc., with which the Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies is concerned. The impending reorganization of the Universities Bureau of the British Empire will also assist in reducing this isolation and will facilitate interchange of staff and ideas with the Empire universities.\n\n### (c) Competition.\n\n22. When the University was founded in 1911, there were few universities in China. The past thirty years have seen the growth of numerous Chinese universities, a few of which have achieved standards which make them rank as equals with those of the United Kingdom. This development has meant not only the diversion of many students who might otherwise have proceeded to Hong Kong but also that Hong Kong University was rapidly outdistanced in equipment and resources. We consider that far from preventing a reconstituted University from achieving its aim, this factor could in the future greatly assist it in doing so. There is now a manifold and energetic academic life in China with which a British university could make contact. The opportunities for exchange, for common study, for cooperation in research, create now the conditions in which the maintenance of good understanding on a university level is fruitfully possible. It is, however, an absolute requirement that the University of Hong Kong should in quality and standards be able to meet its sister universities in China at least as an equal.\n\n## POLICY GOVERNING THE UNIVERSITY'S RESUSCITATION\n\n23. We recommend, therefore, that a University should continue to exist in Hong Kong primarily as a centre for Sino-British contact in the sphere of learning and for the maintenance of good understanding with the neighbouring country of China. We have the following six comments or recommendations to add on further general aspects of the policy which should govern the resuscitation of the University on these lines. Detailed and technical points are dealt with in Part III.\n\n### (a) Permanence.\n\n24. In the first place, plans must be for a permanent University. Even if, in the immediate emergency, temporary arrangements have to be adopted for buildings, for equipment, even for staffing, these must be regarded merely as first-aid measures and must not be allowed to prejudice, or to serve as an excuse for postponing, permanent plans. Quite apart from the fact that the cheap and the temporary always prove a false economy in university development, a university in Hong Kong could not recruit staff or in other ways attain the standards necessary to represent British scholarship and could not become a centre of learning unless it had the self-confidence provided by the intention and assurance of permanence. The chief purpose it is designed to serve, namely the maintenance of good understanding, is a permanent one, whatever changes may occur in the ephemeral political scene. It should be constructed and planned to survive any change that might take place in the status of Hong Kong; even if a radical change occurred, the University's functions would become more, not less important as a living source of British influence and as an established centre of Sino-British contact. Two practical consequences follow",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-594-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University. For extracted photographs see CN 3-45- Advisory Committee report 1-7-1946 - 19-8-1946.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 583500,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-597-2 Estimates 1949 1-3-1948 - 14-7-1949",
        "page_number": 196,
        "title": "CO129-597-2 Estimates 1949 1-3-1948 - 14-7-1949",
        "content_text": "## Recommendation No.1.\n\nParagraph 5 of Mong Kong despatch.\n\n## Recommendation No.2.\n\nFIERS\n\n## Recommendation No.3.\n\nFERTILISER ENTRY\n\nParagraph 7 of Hong Kong despatch.\n\n## Recommendation No.4.\n\nIRRIGATION\n\nParagraph 8 of Hong Kong despatch.\n\n## MEMORANDUM.\n\nThe cost of construction of 24 miles of feeder roads at £100,000 appears to be excessive, but feeder roads are clearly essential to development. In the circumstances, it is suggested that £50,000 might be allocated to feeder roads for the time being, to be spread over the next two years, and that the position should then be reviewed.\n\nHere again, the costs appear to be on the high side, and it is suggested that £50,000 should be allocated for this purpose, to be spread over the next two years, and that the position should then be reviewed.\n\nThe fertiliser factory should be run as far as possible on commercial lines. The project appears, however, somewhat experimental, and in these circumstances, it is suggested that it should be financed on the basis of 50% grant and 50% loan from other sources.\n\nThe estimates for this desirable project are far too low. An irrigation engineer, if he can be obtained at the age level contemplated, will cost, with passages, superannuation, etc., not less than £1,200 - £1,500 per annum. His subordinate staff will involve an expenditure of an equal amount, and for expenditure on works, a sum equal to at least double the total cost of salaries should be allowed if technical skill is not to be wasted. For a five-year scheme, an estimate of £45,000 should be the minimum budgeted for.\n\n## Recommendation...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-597-2 Estimates 1949 1-3-1948 - 14-7-1949.txt",
        "external_url": "",
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    },
    {
        "id": 590000,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-610-1 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 3-1-1947 - 29-12-1947",
        "page_number": 39,
        "title": "CO129-610-1 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 3-1-1947 - 29-12-1947",
        "content_text": "50. D. B. Pitblado (Jay)\n\nYou.\n\n— 1.8.16/189/02\n\ntel. 1727\n\n11-11-47\n\nYes. I do\n\n51A Extract from letter from Dr. Sloss\n\nhot see how\n\nmecan\n\nbung thes\n\nLA\n\nm\n\nMr. Seel\n\n(Oris, on 53723/47).\n\n11-11-47 6-11-47\n\n38\n\nPlease refer to Mr. Mayle's minute of 17th October.\n\nMr. Pitblado's reply (50) to Mr. Mayle's letter to him (49), referred to in that minute, came in on the 11th and was briefly discussed on the 12th when Mr. Mayle and I went over to the Treasury to see Messrs. Pitblado and Serpell about the Hong Kong Salaries Commission Report.\n\nThe draft telegram opposite was prepared yesterday by Mr. Mayle and myself and, as he would be away from the Office to-day and there is some urgency in letting Hong Kong know the position (the Governor has reminded us at 51), Mr. Mayle asked me to put the papers up to you to-day for your preliminary consideration. Mr. Mayle will, I think, be in the Office again to-morrow.\n\nThe draft telegram is, I think, self-explanatory. On further consideration, however, I have queried the sentence about C.D. & W. in paragraph 6, since restoration to 1941 scale can hardly include \"development\".\n\nIn discussion Mr. Pitblado said that he would see no objection to our taking up the proposal for a U.K. grant at Ministerial level, if we felt we should do this. So far as assistance from the U.K. for the larger project is concerned, we have accepted the necessity for shelving the matter (para. 1 of Sir Thomas Lloyd's letter of 23rd August to Sir Bernard Gilbert (40)). This would not necessarily preclude us from pressing the request for U.K. assistance towards rehabilitation up to 1941 scale. But the omens do not seem favourable and such pursuit, if unsuccessful, would only delay further a definite reply to Hong Kong on the present proposed lines.\n\nIn discussion Mr. Pitblado adverted to the point made in paragraphs 3 and 4 of his letter of 11th November whether the Colonial Office and the Governor are satisfied that restoration of the University to 1941 level is desirable from the point of view of Hong Kong. We assured him that this was the accepted view. We think that the closing sentences of the Secretary of State's minute below Sir Sidney Caine's minute of 15th August imply that this course should be followed as far as is practicable, and as concerns the Governor's views we have his specific statement to this effect in paragraph 2 of his telegram No.1592 of 9th October, (46).\n\nInseen\n\n14.11.47.\n\nM'Nayle\n\n1\n\nарид\n\nдень\n\nenerally\n\nand\n\nhave",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "page_number": 71,
        "title": "CO129-610-1 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 3-1-1947 - 29-12-1947",
        "content_text": "G.R. 70\n\nwe are prepared, on the understandings there mentioned, to agree that it is proper for the Hong Kong Government to seek to re-establish the University, and we would be prepared to accept propriety of the necessary capital and recurrent charges being borne on the Hong Kong estimates. This might have repercussions on the general financial situation in Hong Kong which we should be prepared to face as a part of our general relationship with Hong Kong.\n\n8. I do not know how far the Governor has thought of other sources of funds. As we said at the meeting, the readiness of local people to assist financially is some measure of the local keenness for the restoration of the University. We would, I think, accept the contention that it would not be proper to raid the University's own capital to any great extent for the purpose, since that capital is clearly needed to help to keep the University going after its re-establishment. It occurred to us that the restoration of the University would be a proper use of some of the War Memorial Funds. Moreover there might be hope of some private benefaction.\n\n9. In regard to Hong Kong governmental resources, Serpell is about to write to you on the estimates, suggesting amongst other points, that Hong Kong might turn to the C.D.W. for some of the development projects which they are at present proposing to meet out of the loans. This might enable them to release some of the proceeds of the loans for the re-establishment of the University.\n\nAs regards the continuing recurrent expenditure, we note that the annual grants which the Governor considers are needed, are at about the same level as the Advisory Committee's estimate of the recurrent expenditure of the larger scale project. I gather that you consider that this increase is largely due\n\n/to",
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    {
        "id": 590313,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-610-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 9-1-1948 - 18-1-1949",
        "page_number": 115,
        "title": "CO129-610-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 9-1-1948 - 18-1-1949",
        "content_text": "endowment. The authorities of the territories from which nearly two-thirds of its students came contributed no grants for its support. It is clearly wrong to attempt to achieve an Imperial purpose and leave the full financial responsibility to one small Colony. If the University is to serve as an instrument for mutual understanding between the British and Chinese peoples, the major part of the financial responsibility should properly fall on Imperial funds. The Colonial Government cannot afford, nor can it appropriately be asked to do more than hitherto has been done. A university fulfilling the broad purpose we envisage would be serving the interests of the Commonwealth and not merely the United Kingdom. We hope therefore that consideration may in due course be given to the possibility of enlisting financial help from the Dominions as well as from Great Britain.\n\n(b) Isolation.\n\n21. The University suffered from isolation in various ways.\n\n(i) Chinese nationalist feeling reached full tide at the time of the Second Revolution, i.e., the collapse of the reactionary war-lords and the establishment of the new central regime in Nanking under the auspices of the Kuomintang. It was, in essence, an inevitable movement of resurgence against the accumulated humiliations and restrictions which had marked China's international relations in the preceding era.\n\nThe establishment of the Nanking regime was in itself the first step towards more normal conditions, and the process received an immediate and momentous encouragement in His Majesty's Government's declaration, in December 1926, of confidence in and sympathy with the new regime and the national aspirations it expressed. Since then, the anomalies associated with the unequal treaties have been gradually cleared away. We would not venture to prophesy how Chinese feeling towards us and other countries may develop during the remainder of this fateful century, but at least it can be said that the stage is set for collaboration on terms of equality and reciprocity, and it follows that an opportunity now exists which never existed in anything like the same measure in the past, of which it behoves the Chinese and ourselves to take full advantage, as equal and essentially like-minded members of the family of nations. No one could guarantee that the Chinese sentiment towards a revived University in Hong Kong would remain uniformly friendly and cooperative and undisturbed by any fitful feeling of jealousy or by the influence of extraneous events. But there is, so far as we can discern, no special reason for pessimism on this score. It would, naturally, depend largely on the broad conception of the project, the manner in which it was launched, and the way in which it fitted into the general pattern of our relations with China.\n\n(ii) Situated in a Cantonese-speaking area, the University was at a disadvantage in attracting Mandarin-speaking students from other parts of China, and its graduates were at a disadvantage on language grounds in seeking employment in China. This disability will be greatly reduced by the recent decision of the Hong Kong Government to encourage in its schools the study of the national language (Kwo Yü), which the Government of China is successfully disseminating.\n\n(iii) Moreover, like institutions of higher education in other Colonies, the University suffered from intellectual isolation. Its poverty prevented it from adopting an adequate system of home leave or sabbatical leave for its staff; it could not afford, financially or in terms of staff, to facilitate frequent study leave in China, visiting lectureships, summer schools, and those other forms of intellectual intercourse which would have kept it continuously refreshed by vigorous contact with both British and Chinese academic developments. The proper financing of the University would remove many of these difficulties. Other developments also will contribute to their removal, such as the recommendations of the Asquith Commission for staff secondment, annual visits, improved conditions of service for staff, etc., with which the Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies is concerned. The impending reorganization of the Universities Bureau of the British Empire will also assist in reducing this isolation and will facilitate interchange of staff and ideas with the Empire universities.\n\n(c) Competition.\n\n22. When the University was founded in 1911, there were few universities in China. The past thirty years have seen the growth of numerous Chinese universities, a few of which have achieved standards which make them rank as equals with those of the United Kingdom. This development has meant not only the diversion of many students who might otherwise have proceeded to Hong Kong but also that Hong Kong University was rapidly outdistanced in equipment and resources. We consider that far from preventing a reconstituted University from achieving its aim, this factor could in the future greatly assist it in doing so. There is now a manifold and energetic academic life in China with which a British university could make contact. The opportunities for exchange, for common study, for cooperation in research, create now the conditions in which the maintenance of good understanding on a university level is fruitfully possible. It is, however, an absolute requirement that the University of Hong Kong should in quality and standards be able to meet its sister universities in China at least as an equal.\n\nPOLICY GOVERNING THE UNIVERSITY'S RESUSCITATION\n\n23. We recommend, therefore, that a University should continue to exist in Hong Kong primarily as a centre for Sino-British contact in the sphere of learning and for the maintenance of good understanding with the neighbouring country of China. We have the following six comments or recommendations to add on further general aspects of the policy which should govern the resuscitation of the University on these lines. Detailed and technical points are dealt with in Part III.\n\n(a) Permanence.\n\n24. In the first place, plans must be for a permanent University. Even if, in the immediate emergency, temporary arrangements have to be adopted for buildings, for equipment, even for staffing, these must be regarded merely as first-aid measures and must not be allowed to prejudice, or to serve as an excuse for postponing, permanent plans. Quite apart from the fact that the cheap and the temporary always prove a false economy in university development, a university in Hong Kong could not recruit staff or in other ways attain the standards necessary to represent British scholarship and could not become a centre of learning unless it had the self-confidence provided by the intention and assurance of permanence. The chief purpose it is designed to serve, namely the maintenance of good understanding, is a permanent one, whatever changes may occur in the ephemeral political scene. It should be constructed and planned to survive any change that might take place in the status of Hong Kong; even if a radical change occurred, the University's functions would become more, not less important as a living source of British influence and as an established centre of Sino-British contact. Two practical consequences follow.",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-610-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 9-1-1948 - 18-1-1949",
        "page_number": 138,
        "title": "CO129-610-2 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 9-1-1948 - 18-1-1949",
        "content_text": "ist \n\nIO \n\nendowment. The authorities of the territories from which nearly two-thirds of its students came contributed no grants for its support. It is clearly wrong to attempt to achieve an Imperial purpose and leave the full financial responsibility to one small Colony. If the University is to serve as an instrument for mutual understanding between the British and Chinese peoples, the major part of the financial responsibility should properly fall on Imperial funds. The Colonial Government cannot afford, nor can it appropriately be asked to do more than hitherto has been done. A university fulfilling the broad purpose we envisage would be serving the interests of the Commonwealth and not merely the United Kingdom. We hope therefore that consideration may in due course be given to the possibility of enlisting financial help from the Dominions as well as from Great Britain.\n\n(b) Isolation.\n\n21. The University suffered from isolation in various ways.\n\n(\n\n44 \n\nwith the \"unequal treaties have been gradually cleared away.\n\n**\n\n(i) Chinese nationalist feeling reached full tide at the time of the Second Revolution\", i.e. the collapse of the reactionary war-lords and the establishment of the new central regime in Nanking under the auspices of the Kuomintang. It was, in essence, an inevitable movement of resurgence against the accumulated humiliations and restrictions which had marked China's international relations in the preceding era. The establishment of the Nanking regime was in itself the first step towards more normal conditions, and the process received an immediate and momentous encouragement in His Majesty's Government's declaration, in December, 1926, of confidence in and sympathy with the new regime and the national aspirations it expressed. Since then the anomalies associated We would not venture to prophesy how Chinese feeling towards us and other countries may develop during the remainder of this fateful century, but at least it can be said that the stage is set for collaboration on terms of equality and reciprocity, and it follows that an opportunity now exists which never existed in anything like the same measure in the past, of which it behoves the Chinese and ourselves to take full advantage, as equal and essentially like-minded members of the family of nations. No one could guarantee that the Chinese sentiment towards a revived University in Hong Kong would remain uniformly friendly and cooperative and undisturbed by any fitful feeling of jealousy or by the influence of extraneous events. But there is, so far as we can discern, no special reason for pessimism on this score. It would, naturally, depend largely on the broad conception of the project, the manner in which it was launched, and the way in which it fitted into the general pattern of our relations with China.\n\n(ii) Situated in a Cantonese speaking area, the University was at a disadvantage in attracting Mandarin speaking students from other parts of China and its graduates were at a disadvantage on language grounds in seeking employment in China. This disability will be greatly reduced by the recent decision of the Hong Kong Government to encourage in its schools the study of the national language (Kwo Yü) which the Government of China is successfully disseminating.\n\n(iii) Moreover, like institutions of higher education in other Colonies, the University suffered from intellectual isolation. Its poverty prevented it from adopting an adequate system of home leave or sabbatical leave for its staff; it could not afford, financially or in terms of staff, to facilitate frequent study leave in China, visiting lectureships, summer schools, and those other forms of intellectual intercourse which would have kept it\n\nII\n\ncontinuously refreshed by vigorous contact with both British and Chinese academic developments. The proper financing of the University would remove many of these difficulties. Other developments also will contribute to their removal, such as the recommendations of the Asquith Commission for staff secondment, annual visits, improved conditions of service for staff, etc., with which the Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies is concerned. The impending reorganization of the Universities Bureau of the British Empire will also assist in reducing this isolation and will facilitate interchange of staff and ideas with the Empire universities.\n\n(c) Competition.\n\n22. When the University was founded in 1911 there were few universities in China. The past thirty years have seen the growth of numerous Chinese universities, a few of which have achieved standards which make them rank as equals with those of the United Kingdom. This development has meant not only the diversion of many students who might otherwise have proceeded to Hong Kong, but also that Hong Kong University was rapidly out-distanced in equipment and resources. We consider that far from preventing a reconstituted University from achieving its aim, this factor could in the future greatly assist it in doing so. There is now a manifold and energetic academic life in China with which a British university could make contact. The opportunities for exchange, for common study, for cooperation in research, create now the conditions in which \"the maintenance of good understanding on a university level is fruitfully possible. It is, however, an absolute requirement that the University of Hong Kong should in quality and standards be able to meet its sister universities in China at least as an equal.\n\nPOLICY GOVERNING THE UNIVERSITY'S RESUSCITATION\n\n23. We recommend, therefore, that a University should continue to exist in Hong Kong primarily as a centre for Sino-British contact in the sphere of learning and for the maintenance of good understanding with the neighbouring country of China. We have the following six comments or recommendations to add on further general aspects of the policy which should govern the resuscitation of the University on these lines. Detailed and technical points are dealt with in Part III.\n\n(a) Permanence.\n\n24. In the first place, plans must be for a permanent University. Even if, in the immediate emergency, temporary arrangements have to be adopted for buildings, for equipment, even for staffing, these must be regarded merely as first-aid measures and must not be allowed to prejudice, or to serve as an excuse for postponing, permanent plans. Quite apart from the fact that the cheap and the temporary always prove a false economy in university development, a university in Hong Kong could not recruit staff or in other ways attain the standards necessary to represent British scholarship and could not become a centre of learning unless it had the self-confidence provided by the intention and assurance of permanence. The chief purpose it is designed to serve, namely the maintenance of good understanding, is a permanent one, whatever changes may occur in the ephemeral political scene. It should be constructed and planned to survive any change that might take place in the status of Hong Kong; even if a radical change occurred, the University's functions would become more, not less important as a living source of British influence and as an established centre of Sino-British contact. Two practical consequences follow\n\n52226\n\nA 5",
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        "id": 590565,
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        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-610-3 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 15-2-1949 - 7-2-1950",
        "page_number": 135,
        "title": "CO129-610-3 Rehabilitation of Hong Kong University 15-2-1949 - 7-2-1950",
        "content_text": "endowment. The authorities of the territories from which nearly two-thirds of its students came contributed no grants for its support. It is clearly wrong to attempt to achieve an Imperial purpose and leave the full financial responsibility to one small Colony. If the University is to serve as an instrument for mutual understanding between the British and Chinese peoples, the major part of the financial responsibility should properly fall on Imperial funds. The Colonial Government cannot afford, nor can it appropriately be asked to do more than hitherto has been done. A university fulfilling the broad purpose we envisage would be serving the interests of the Commonwealth and not merely the United Kingdom. We hope therefore that consideration may in due course be given to the possibility of enlisting financial help from the Dominions as well as from Great Britain.\n\n(b) Isolation.\n\n21. The University suffered from isolation in various ways.\n\n(i) Chinese nationalist feeling reached full tide at the time of the Second Revolution, i.e., the collapse of the reactionary \"war-lords\" and the establishment of the new central regime in Nanking under the auspices of the Kuomintang. It was, in essence, an inevitable movement of resurgence against the accumulated humiliations and restrictions which had marked China's international relations in the preceding era.\n\nThe establishment of the Nanking regime was in itself the first step towards more normal conditions, and the process received an immediate and momentous encouragement in His Majesty's Government's declaration, in December 1926, of confidence in and sympathy with the new regime and the national aspirations it expressed. Since then the anomalies associated with the unequal treaties have been gradually cleared away.\n\nWe would not venture to prophesy how Chinese feeling towards us and other countries may develop during the remainder of this fateful century, but at least it can be said that the stage is set for collaboration on terms of equality and reciprocity, and it follows that an opportunity now exists which never existed in anything like the same measure in the past, of which it behoves the Chinese and ourselves to take full advantage, as equal and essentially like-minded members of the family of nations. No one could guarantee that the Chinese sentiment towards a revived University in Hong Kong would remain uniformly friendly and cooperative and undisturbed by any fitful feeling of jealousy or by the influence of extraneous events. But there is, so far as we can discern, no special reason for pessimism on this score. It would, naturally, depend largely on the broad conception of the project, the manner in which it was launched, and the way in which it fitted into the general pattern of our relations with China.\n\n(ii) Situated in a Cantonese-speaking area, the University was at a disadvantage in attracting Mandarin-speaking students from other parts of China and its graduates were at a disadvantage on language grounds in seeking employment in China. This disability will be greatly reduced by the recent decision of the Hong Kong Government to encourage in its schools the study of the national language (Kwo Yü), which the Government of China is successfully disseminating.\n\n(iii) Moreover, like institutions of higher education in other Colonies, the University suffered from intellectual isolation. Its poverty prevented it from adopting an adequate system of home leave or sabbatical leave for its staff; it could not afford, financially or in terms of staff, to facilitate frequent study leave in China, visiting lectureships, summer schools, and those other forms of intellectual intercourse which would have kept it continuously refreshed by vigorous contact with both British and Chinese academic developments. The proper financing of the University would remove many of these difficulties. Other developments also will contribute to their removal, such as the recommendations of the Asquith Commission for staff secondment, annual visits, improved conditions of service for staff, etc., with which the Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies is concerned. The impending reorganization of the Universities Bureau of the British Empire will also assist in reducing this isolation and will facilitate interchange of staff and ideas with the Empire universities.\n\n(c) Competition.\n\n22. When the University was founded in 1911 there were few universities in China. The past thirty years have seen the growth of numerous Chinese universities, a few of which have achieved standards which make them rank as equals with those of the United Kingdom. This development has meant not only the diversion of many students who might otherwise have proceeded to Hong Kong, but also that Hong Kong University was rapidly outdistanced in equipment and resources. We consider that far from preventing a reconstituted University from achieving its aim, this factor could in the future greatly assist it in doing so. There is now a manifold and energetic academic life in China with which a British university could make contact. The opportunities for exchange, for common study, for cooperation in research, create now the conditions in which \"the maintenance of good understanding\" on a university level is fruitfully possible. It is, however, an absolute requirement that the University of Hong Kong should in quality and standards be able to meet its sister universities in China at least as an equal.\n\nPOLICY GOVERNING THE UNIVERSITY'S RESUSCITATION\n\n23. We recommend, therefore, that a University should continue to exist in Hong Kong primarily as a centre for Sino-British contact in the sphere of learning and for the maintenance of good understanding with the neighbouring country of China. We have the following six comments or recommendations to add on further general aspects of the policy which should govern the resuscitation of the University on these lines. Detailed and technical points are dealt with in Part III.\n\n(a) Permanence\n\n24. In the first place, plans must be for a permanent University. Even if, in the immediate emergency, temporary arrangements have to be adopted for buildings, for equipment, even for staffing, these must be regarded merely as first-aid measures and must not be allowed to prejudice, or to serve as an excuse for postponing, permanent plans. Quite apart from the fact that the cheap and the temporary always prove a false economy in university development, a university in Hong Kong could not recruit staff or in other ways attain the standards necessary to represent British scholarship and could not become a centre of learning unless it had the self-confidence provided by the intention and assurance of permanence. The chief purpose it is designed to serve, namely the maintenance of good understanding, is a permanent one, whatever changes may occur in the ephemeral political scene. It should be constructed and planned to survive any change that might take place in the status of Hong Kong; even if a radical change occurred, the University's functions would become more, not less important as a living source of British influence and as an established centre of Sino-British contact. Two practical consequences follow.\n\nPage II",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-617-6 Development- recommendations of Hong Kong Colonial Development and Welfare Committee 18-7-1947 - 23-12-1947",
        "page_number": 8,
        "title": "CO129-617-6 Development- recommendations of Hong Kong Colonial Development and Welfare Committee 18-7-1947 - 23-12-1947",
        "content_text": "## \n\n(3) \n\nreduced at the moment, a part at least of this project should I suggest be deferred until the inflationary situation in Hong Kong is less bad. \n\nFertiliser factory. This factory should, I think, be financed by loan and run as a commercial profit-making enterprise. \n\n(4) Extension of Irrigation. Irrigation engineers are extremely difficult to obtain and unless more funds can be put at the disposal of an Engineer in Hong Kong than is proposed, I doubt whether the appointment would be of sufficient value to justify it. \n\n(5) Village Depots. It is difficult to appreciate exactly what is proposed in the absence of more information about the Fisheries Syndicate. The scheme does, however, look like a subsidy of £27,000 to establish co-operative societies, and I suggest that the proper cost attributable to facilities placed at the disposal of such societies should be financed by loan and only that part devoted to the demonstration of improved agricultural methods financed by free grant. \n\n(6) Market Transport. I agree with Mr. Clay that if this is to be financed from public funds it should be on a profit-making basis. \n\n(7) Agricultural Stations. Further consideration of this should await the appointment of Senior Agricultural staff. \n\n(11) Mechanisation of Fishing Fleet. I cannot understand the financial implications of the proposal that a revolving capital grant should be made to the Fisheries Department in view of the statement that the junks in which the engines will be fitted will be the property of the Fisheries Co-operative. It appears that this service should be financed by loan to the Fisheries Co-operative.\n\nH.Alawi's \n\n31/12/47 \n\nPage 7\n\nThe territorial allocation to Hong Kong is £1,000,000. As Mr. Harding indicates in his minute, it is possible that the Treasury may wish to transfer items at present in the reconstruction programme to C.D. & W. These may amount to two million Hong Kong dollars or, approximately, £235,000. There is also bound to be expenditure for C.D. & W. monies on projects in the colony and it would be as well to allow another £250,000 for these. Taking the above considerations into account it would be reasonable to plan for grants from C.D. & W. of up to £500,000 in the New Territories. It is satisfactory to find that fishing and agriculture are being given a high priority in the post-war plans and that the proposals now submitted relate to developments for these industries. I, however, agree with Mr. Harding that certain of the projects should be considered as commercial and that they should, when possible, be financed by loan money. It would, however, not be wise to try to drive too hard a bargain where the projects are experimental in character and in such instances I am suggesting in the notes below that the finance required should be made available on the basis of 50% grant and 50% loan. This policy is suggested in order to get the schemes started and to give them a chance of proving during the first stages whether they can later on be continued on a purely commercial basis. It is a pity that Dr. Herklots will not be in Hong Kong to see these schemes started and it can only be hoped that a suitable successor to him will be found. \n\nMy comments on the various recommendations are given below as well as my proposals in connection with them:- \n\n## Recommendation (i). \nFeeder roads are clearly an essential to development but the estimates of costs are high. Allow £50,000 to be spread over the next two years and then review the position. \n\n## Recommendation (ii). \nPiers. Undoubtedly desirable but costs again appear to be high, viz, £8,000 per pier. Allow £50,000 to be spread over the next two years and then review the position. \n\n## Recommendation (iii). \nThe fertiliser factory should be run, as far as possible, on commercial lines. The project is, however, somewhat experimental and in these circumstances I would propose that it be financed on the basis of 50% grant and 50% loan. \n\n## Recommendation (iv). \nThis is certainly a desirable project but the estimates are far too low. An irrigation engineer, if he can be obtained at the age level contemplated will cost with passages, superannuation, etc. not less than £1,200-£1,500 per annum. His subordinate staff will involve an expenditure of an equal amount and for expenditure on works a sum equal to at least double the total cost of salaries should be allowed if technical skill is not to be wasted. For a five-year scheme an estimate of £45,000 should be the minimum budgeted for. \n\n## Recommendation (v) \nAs this is purely experimental I think it should be agreed that the first three depots should be financed by grant. If these are successful any subsequent developments should be financed only by loans. It might have been desirable that these depots should have followed the agricultural station but such delay would not be desirable and the risk must, I feel, be taken. \n\n## Recommendation (vi). \nThe vegetable marketing scheme should be run on commercial lines and the finance required for capital equipment should be by loan. \n\n## Recommendation ...",
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        "document_key": "CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948",
        "page_number": 36,
        "title": "CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948",
        "content_text": "# Recommendation No.1.\n## ROAD\nParagraph 5 of Ho Kong despatch.\n\n# Recommendation No.2.\n## PIERS\nParagraph 6 of Hong Kong despatch\n\n# Recommendation No.3.\n## FERTILISER FACTORY\nParagraph 7 of Hong Kong despatch\n\n# Recommendation No.4.\n## IRRIGATION\nParagraph 8 of Hong Kong despatch\n\n# Recommendation No.5.\n## VILLAGE AGRICULTURAL DEPOTS.\nParagraph 9 of Hong Kong despatch\n\n# Recommendation No.6.\n## VEGETABLE MARKETING LORRIES\nParagraph 10 of Hong Kong despatch\n\n# Recommendation No.7.\n## AGRICULTURAL STATION (KAM TIN)\nParagraph 12 of Hong Kong despatch\n\n## MEMORANDUM\n\nThe cost of construction of 24 miles of feeder roads at £100,000 appears to be excessive, but feeder roads are clearly essential to development. In the circumstances, it is suggested that £50,000 might be allocated to feeder roads for the time being, to be spread over the next two years, and that the position should then be reviewed.\n\nHere again, the costs appear to be on the high side, and it is suggested that £50,000 should be allocated for this purpose, to be spread over the next two years, and that the position should then be reviewed.\n\nThe fertiliser factory should be run as far as possible on commercial lines. The project appears, however, somewhat experimental, and in these circumstances, it is suggested that it should be financed on the basis of 50% C.D. & W. grant and 50% loan from other sources.\n\nThe estimates for this desirable project seem to be far too low. An irrigation engineer, if he can be obtained at the age level contemplated, will cost, with passages, superannuation, etc., not less than £1,200-£1,500 per annum. His subordinate staff will involve an expenditure of an equal amount, and for expenditure on works, a sum equal to at least double the total cost of salaries should be allowed if technical skill is not to be wasted. For a five-year scheme, an estimate of £45,000 should be the minimum budgeted for.\n\nSee my telegram No.698 of the 22nd June.\n\nThe vegetable marketing scheme should be run on commercial lines, and finance required for capital expenditure obtained by loan.\n\nThis proposal is acceptable in principle, but full consideration must await the appointment of the senior Agricultural staff, when detailed estimates can be worked out.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948.txt",
        "external_url": "",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 594463,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948",
        "page_number": 43,
        "title": "CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948",
        "content_text": "# Recommendation No.1.\nRC S \nParagraph 5 of \nHong Kong despatch.\n\n## Recommendation No.2.\nPIERS \nParagraph 6 of Hong Kong despatch.\n\n### Recommendation No.3.\nFERTILISER FACTORY \nParagraph 7 of Hong Kong Despatch.\n\n#### Recommendation No.4.\nIRRIGATION \nParagraph 8 of Hong Kong despatch.\n\n**MEMORANDUM.**\n\nThe cost of construction of 24 miles of \nfeeder roads at £100,000 appears to be excessive, \nbut feeder roads are clearly an essential to \ndevelopment. In the circumstances it is \nsuggested that £50,000 might be allocated to \nfeeder roads for the time being, to be spread \nover the next two years, and that the position \nshould then be reviewed.\n\nHere again the costs appear to be on the \nhigh side, and it is suggested that £50,000 \nshould be allocated for this purpose, to be \nspread over the next two years, and that the \nposition should then be reviewed.\n\nThe fertiliser factory should be run as far \nas possible on commercial lines. The project \nappears, however, somewhat experimental and \nin these circumstances, it is suggested that it \nshould be financed on the basis of 50% C.D. & W. \ngrant and 50% loan from other sources.\n\nThe estimates for this desirable project \nseem to be far too low. An irrigation \nengineer, if he can be obtained at the age \nlevel contemplated, will cost with passages, \nsuperannuation, etc., not less than £1,200 - \n£1,500 per annum. His subordinate staff will \ninvolve an expenditure of an equal amount and \nfor expenditure on works a sum equal to at \nleast double the total cost of salaries should \nbe allowed if technical skill is not to be \nwasted. For a five-year scheme, an \nestimate of £45,000 should be the minimum \nbudgeted for.\n\nRecommendation",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948.txt",
        "external_url": "",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 594469,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948",
        "page_number": 49,
        "title": "CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948",
        "content_text": "# MEMORANDUM\n\n49\n\n## Remmendation No.1\n### ROADS\nParagraph 5 of Hong Kong despatch.\n\n## Recommendation No. 2\n### PIERS\nParagraph 6 of Hong Kong despatch.\n\n## Recommendation No. 3\n### FERTILISER FACTORY\nParagraph 7 of Hong Kong Despatch.\n\n## Recommendation No. 4\n### IRRIGATION\nParagraph 8 of Hong Kong despatch.\n\nThe cost of construction of 24 miles of feeder roads at £100,000 appears to be excessive, but feeder roads are clearly an essential to development. In the circumstances it is suggested that £50,000 might be allocated to feeder roads for the time being, to be spread over the next two years, and that the position should then be reviewed.\n\nHere again the costs appear to be on the high side, and it is suggested that £50,000 should be allocated for this purpose, to be spread over the next two years, and that the position should then be reviewed.\n\nThe fertiliser factory should be run as far as possible on commercial lines. The project appears, however, somewhat experimental and in these circumstances, it is suggested that it should be financed on the basis of 50% grant and 50% loan from other sources.\n\nThe estimates for this desirable project seem to be far too low. An irrigation engineer, if he can be obtained at the age level contemplated, will cost, with passages, superannuation, etc., not less than £1,200 - £1,500 per annum. His subordinate staff will involve an expenditure of an equal amount and for expenditure on works a sum equal to at least double the total cost of salaries should be allowed if technical skill is not to be wasted. For a five-year scheme, an estimate of £45,000 should be the minimum budgeted for.\n\n/Recommendation",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948.txt",
        "external_url": "",
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    },
    {
        "id": 594485,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948",
        "page_number": 65,
        "title": "CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948",
        "content_text": "# DBAMA MORANDU\n\n## Memorandum\n\n65\n\n### Recommendation No.1.\n\n**ROADS**\n\nParagraph 5 of Hong Kong despatch. Cat 2\n\nThe construction of 24 miles of feeder roads at a cost of £100,000 appears to be excessive, but feeder roads are clearly an essential to development. In the circumstances it is suggested that £50,000 might be allocated to feeder roads for the time being, to be spread over the next two years, and that the position should then be reviewed.\n\n### Recommendation No.2.\n\n**PIERS**\n\nParagraph 6 of Hong Kong despatch.\n\nHere again the costs appear to be on the high side, and it is suggested that £50,000 should be allocated for this purpose, to be spread over the next two years, and that the position should then be reviewed.\n\n### Recommendation No.3.\n\n**FERTILISER FACTORY**\n\nParagraph 7 of Hong Kong despatch.\n\nThe fertiliser factory should be run as far as possible on commercial lines. The project is, however, somewhat experimental and in these circumstances, it is suggested that it should be financed on the basis of 50% grant and 50% loan.\n\n### Recommendation No.4.\n\n**IRRIGATION**\n\nParagraph 8 of Hong Kong despatch.\n\nThe estimates for this desirable project seem to be far too low. An irrigation engineer, if he can be obtained at the age level contemplated, will cost with passages, superannuation, etc., not less than £1,200-£1,500 per annum. His subordinate staff will involve an expenditure of an equal amount and for expenditure on works a sum equal to at least double the total cost of salaries should...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-617-7 Development- possible implementation of CD and W Committee recommendations 18-2-1948 - 12-10-1948.txt",
        "external_url": "",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 594660,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-618-4 University of Hong Kong- conversion of Tung Wah Eastern Hospital into a teaching hospital 17-2-1949 - 27-9-1949",
        "page_number": 15,
        "title": "CO129-618-4 University of Hong Kong- conversion of Tung Wah Eastern Hospital into a teaching hospital 17-2-1949 - 27-9-1949",
        "content_text": "# POLICY GOVERNING THE UNIVERSITY'S RESUSCITATION\n\n19. endowment. The authorities of the territories from which nearly two-thirds of its students came contributed no grants for its support. It is clearly wrong to attempt to achieve an Imperial purpose and leave the full financial responsibility to one small Colony. If the University is to serve as an instrument for mutual understanding between the British and Chinese peoples, the major part of the financial responsibility should properly fall on Imperial funds. The Colonial Government cannot afford, nor can it appropriately be asked to do more than hitherto has been done. A university fulfilling the broad purpose we envisage would be serving the interests of the Commonwealth and not merely the United Kingdom. We hope therefore that consideration may in due course be given to the possibility of enlisting financial help from the Dominions as well as from Great Britain.\n\n## (b) Isolation\n\n21. The University suffered from isolation in various ways,\n\n### (i)\n\"Chinese nationalist feeling reached full tide at the time of the Second Revolution\", i.e., the collapse of the reactionary war-lords and the establishment of the new central regime in Nanking under the auspices of the Kuomintang. It was, in essence, an inevitable movement of resurgence against the accumulated humiliations and restrictions which had marked China's international relations in the preceding era. The establishment of the Nanking regime was in itself the first step towards more normal conditions, and the process received an immediate and momentous encouragement in His Majesty's Government's declaration, in December, 1926, of confidence in and sympathy with the new regime and the national aspirations it expressed. Since then, the anomalies associated with the unequal treaties have been gradually cleared away. We would not venture to prophesy how Chinese feeling towards us and other countries may develop during the remainder of this fateful century, but at least it can be said that the stage is set for collaboration on terms of equality and reciprocity, and it follows that an opportunity now exists which never existed in anything like the same measure in the past, of which it behoves the Chinese and ourselves to take full advantage, as equal and essentially like-minded members of the family of nations. No one could guarantee that the Chinese sentiment towards a revived University in Hong Kong would remain uniformly friendly and cooperative and undisturbed by any fitful feeling of jealousy or by the influence of extraneous events. But there is, so far as we can discern, no special reason for pessimism on this score. It would, naturally, depend largely on the broad conception of the project, the manner in which it was launched, and the way in which it fitted into the general pattern of our relations with China.\n\n### (ii)\nSituated in a Cantonese-speaking area, the University was at a disadvantage in attracting Mandarin-speaking students from other parts of China, and its graduates were at a disadvantage on language grounds in seeking employment in China. This disability will be greatly reduced by the recent decision of the Hong Kong Government to encourage in its schools the study of the national language (Kwo Yü), which the Government of China is successfully disseminating.\n\n### (iii)\nMoreover, like institutions of higher education in other Colonies, the University suffered from intellectual isolation. Its poverty prevented it from adopting an adequate system of home leave or sabbatical leave for its staff; it could not afford, financially or in terms of staff, to facilitate frequent study leave in China, visiting lectureships, summer schools, and those other forms of intellectual intercourse which would have kept it continuously refreshed by vigorous contact with both British and Chinese academic developments. The proper financing of the University would remove many of these difficulties. Other developments also will contribute to their removal, such as the recommendations of the Asquith Commission for staff secondment, annual visits, improved conditions of service for staff, etc., with which the Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies is concerned. The impending reorganization of the Universities Bureau of the British Empire will also assist in reducing this isolation and will facilitate interchange of staff and ideas with the Empire universities.\n\n## (c) Competition\n\n22. When the University was founded in 1911, there were few universities in China. The past thirty years have seen the growth of numerous Chinese universities, a few of which have achieved standards which make them rank as equals with those of the United Kingdom. This development has meant not only the diversion of many students who might otherwise have proceeded to Hong Kong but also that Hong Kong University was rapidly outdistanced in equipment and resources. We consider that far from preventing a reconstituted University from achieving its aim, this factor could in the future greatly assist it in doing so. There is now a manifold and energetic academic life in China with which a British university could make contact. The opportunities for exchange, for common study, for cooperation in research, create now the conditions in which \"the maintenance of good understanding\" on a university level is fruitfully possible. It is, however, an absolute requirement that the University of Hong Kong should in quality and standards be able to meet its sister universities in China at least as an equal.\n\n## POLICY GOVERNING THE UNIVERSITY'S RESUSCITATION\n\n23. We recommend, therefore, that a University should continue to exist in Hong Kong primarily as a centre for Sino-British contact in the sphere of learning and for the maintenance of good understanding with the neighbouring country of China. We have the following six comments or recommendations to add on further general aspects of the policy which should govern the resuscitation of the University on these lines. Detailed and technical points are dealt with in Part III.\n\n### (a) Permanence\n\n24. In the first place, plans must be for a permanent University. Even if, in the immediate emergency, temporary arrangements have to be adopted for buildings, for equipment, even for staffing, these must be regarded merely as first-aid measures and must not be allowed to prejudice, or to serve as an excuse for postponing, permanent plans. Quite apart from the fact that the cheap and the temporary always prove a false economy in university development, a university in Hong Kong could not recruit staff or in other ways attain the standards necessary to represent British scholarship and could not become a centre of learning unless it had the self-confidence provided by the intention and assurance of permanence. The chief purpose it is designed to serve, namely the maintenance of good understanding, is a permanent one, whatever changes may occur in the ephemeral political scene. It should be constructed and planned to survive any change that might take place in the status of Hong Kong; even if a radical change occurred, the University's functions would become more, not less important as a living source of British influence and as an established centre of Sino-British contact. Two practical consequences follow. \n\nPage 20 \n52226 \nA 5",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-618-4 University of Hong Kong- conversion of Tung Wah Eastern Hospital into a teaching hospital 17-2-1949 - 27-9-1949.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 596659,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-623-6 Education Department- annual report 1-5-1950 - 31-12-1950",
        "page_number": 49,
        "title": "CO129-623-6 Education Department- annual report 1-5-1950 - 31-12-1950",
        "content_text": "55.\n\nTONGA\n\n-2-\n\nfeature of the school was the very high standard of English and great tribute is due to the New Zealand headmistress who has established and set up the fine tradition for this pioneer project in girls' education.\n\n(2) Schemes of Cooperation. The education system of Fiji is dependent on the very generous Scheme of Cooperation with the New Zealand Government whereby men and women from the New Zealand teaching service can spend any number of years working in Fiji but at the same time retain their pension rights in New Zealand. As the inspiration of educational policy in Fiji comes from expatriate staff from England, i.e., the Director of Education, the Deputy Director of Education, the Principal of the Training College and Headmaster of the Secondary School, and as the practitioners on the whole are from New Zealand, it seems desirable that as many opportunities as possible should be given to the New Zealanders who are prepared to spend a number of years in Fiji to get firsthand acquaintance with the practice of English education in this country.\n\n(3) Fiji is a community development paradise. For this same closely knit society which regulates its community activities can also produce the most entertaining community development schemes, as for example when one community sold firewood to the Americans, made a considerable amount of profit, and devoted it to community projects, even though some of these came to a sticky end. A more successful example was the Chief who happened to be an ex-service man who produced for his village a development scheme which provided in this order: (a) a wooden house for the Chief, (b) a milking herd, (c) a school, (d) a church, (e) another new house for the Chief. The Director of Education has been quick to see the possibilities here and launched in January 1950 a project in Moturoki, a small island with 3 schools, 10 villages, good soil, near a pineapple canning factory on a neighbouring island, and with a good sprinkling of ex-servicemen. It will be particularly interesting to see how this project works out as the team consists entirely of Fijian men and women.\n\n(4) The Teacher Training College at Nasinu is a government one which is replacing all other government and denominational institutions. It trains teachers of all races and both sexes and is guided by a Principal who is prepared to try anything once and will, I am sure, learn as much from the ventures that fail as from those that succeed. I am not convinced, however, that the time is yet really ripe for co-education at this level among Indian men and women.\n\n(5) There is provision for the education of Indians both by Government and by the Indian communities themselves. However, the Indians, unlike the Fijians, are individualists and do not easily develop a system that helps in the provision of community services. There is need for particular help to be given to Indian girls.\n\nTonga has a population of about 45,000, of whom over 10,000 are in school, as there is compulsory education for children from 6 to 14 years of age. This delightful little island paradise, which seems to have no external worries so that it can concentrate with great seriousness upon its internal ones, has a very pleasant patriarchal, or should I say matriarchal, yet parliamentary system.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-623-6 Education Department- annual report 1-5-1950 - 31-12-1950.txt",
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    {
        "id": 597157,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-623-9 Estimates of Expenditure- includes a report for the year ending March 1952 1-2-1951 - 30-11-1951",
        "page_number": 188,
        "title": "CO129-623-9 Estimates of Expenditure- includes a report for the year ending March 1952 1-2-1951 - 30-11-1951",
        "content_text": "248\n\nplan to provide education for the 30,000 children who were not attending school at present. Mr. Fisher considered that his plan could be put into operation within the existing financial resources of the Colony and that the Colony could afford to spend more on education.\n\nMr. Hall drew attention to the fact that in 1945 the number of children in school was 4,000 whereas by 1950 it had risen to 150,000 and entailed the rehabilitation and construction of a large number of schools.\n\nMr. Cook said that both the Secretary of State and he had discussed Social problems with Sir A. Grantham last summer and were satisfied that the Governor was fully alive to the problem and that Hong Kong's efforts had been considerable. Mr. Cook mentioned the difficulty about controlling immigration and the problem of preventing Hong Kong's social services from being swamped by Chinese coming into Hong Kong to make use of them. He thought that in the difficult circumstances Hong Kong were doing as much as could be reasonably expected of them and the various Advisory Committees here seemed satisfied. There were numerous political difficulties against over-ruling the unofficial members in an attempt to increase taxation.\n\nMr. Sidebotham then dealt with the recent request for access to the London Loan market to finance the Tai Lam Chung reservoir project and said that Hong Kong had been informed that a London loan was out of the question until Hong Kong had been able to demonstrate that it was unable to provide the necessary finance itself by utilizing local resources, including increased taxation, to the greatest extent reasonably possible. It had therefore been made clear to Hong Kong that it could not expect further help from H.M.G. until it was prepared to help itself.\n\nMr. Sidebotham then went on to discuss the \"American Embargo\" and said that despite Mr. Clarke's visit to Washington, no relaxation had been achieved. After discussion with Sir T. Lloyd and Mr. Paskin and other Departments (Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence, etc.) a \"high level\" approach to Mr. Atcheson was contemplated and the Chiefs of Staff were taking parallel action through their own channels. We did not know, however, how successful this approach would be but meanwhile we did know that imports from the U.S.A. had already gone down by 40% and unless alternative sources of raw materials were found, and this would be difficult, some Hong Kong industries would have to close down and this would affect\n\n/Hong",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-623-9 Estimates of Expenditure- includes a report for the year ending March 1952 1-2-1951 - 30-11-1951.txt",
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    },
    {
        "id": 598253,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-625-6 Hong Kong University- endowment fund 1-5-1951 - 30-9-1951",
        "page_number": 7,
        "title": "CO129-625-6 Hong Kong University- endowment fund 1-5-1951 - 30-9-1951",
        "content_text": "7\n\nwas informed of the position.\n\nIn Hong Kong's reply at (46)\n\nthe Governor agreed that it would be a mistake for the University to close and it should carry on on a pre-war basis until such time as it was possible to expand it. It was suggested however that H.M.G. should make a capital grant of £250,000 (i.e. £250,000) to restore the University to its 1941 level. The Treasury again turned this down and Hong Kong were informed accordingly see (52) on 1947 file though it was agreed that the capital and recurrent charges on this project should be borne on the Hong Kong estimates (Hong Kong was then under Treasury financial control). The note at (56) on 54147/47 summarises the position up to 20th December, 1947.\n\n8. The savingram at (2) on 54147/48 shows clearly that Hong Kong were not prepared to accept the recommendation of the Hong Kong University Advisory Committee that the University should close unless it could be developed on the lines recommended by the Committee. In fact the Hong Kong Government were prepared to meet the costs of rehabilitation and recurrent charges from its own resources knowing that assistance from the United Kingdom was most unlikely. A copy of a statement made by the Governor on the future of the University is behind (24) on the 48 file.\n\n9. The Hansard extract column 20 at (42) on the 1948 file shows that H.M.G. did, after all, agree to make a free grant of £250,000 for the Hong Kong University and the telegram at (44) shows that this amount was in addition to and not in place of the funds made available by the Hong Kong Government itself.\n\n10. (c) of paragraph 2 above has been covered in paragraphs 6 to 9 and although it will undoubtedly have a serious effect on British prestige if the University's activities have to be curtailed, the Governor and the Hong Kong Government and the Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Sloss, were all fully aware that further assistance from H.M.G. was unlikely to be given. The grant of £500,000 (£250,000 in 1948 and £250,000 in 1950) is surely an answer to allegations that the refusal of a further contribution \"would be taken as a clear sign that H.M.G. did not intend to stay in the Colony\".\n\n11. As regards (a) of paragraph 2 that a contribution from H.M.G. would make it easier to raise money in Hong Kong, a somewhat similar suggestion was made in 1947 - see paragraphs 3 and 4 of (45) on 54147/47. At (46) the Governor replied \"I am of the opinion, as are members of the Council, that a token grant from U.K. Treasury would not serve as an incentive to induce local Chinese to make more contributions than they otherwise would\". The present proposal is slightly different in that it is a \"matching\" proposal, i.e. similar amounts will be contributed by the Colony and H.M.G.\n\n12. To sum up.\n\nThere is no doubt that if the activities of the University have to be curtailed it will have an adverse effect on British prestige in the Far East. It will probably be impossible to raise sufficient money locally to establish an endowment fund for the University unless H.M.G. also agree to assist. On the other hand H.M.G. having granted £500,000 for the University in recent years and having made it clear that it was not prepared to accept full financial responsibility for the University, Hong Kong have been very slow in trying to help themselves. The Endowment Fund proposal was made in April, 1950 and efforts could have been made in Hong Kong during 1950 and even early 1951 to raise some money before the present restrictions reduced the Colony's trade and prosperity. The level of taxation in Hong Kong is extremely low.\n\n13. I think the previous minutes on this file make it clear that H.M.G. should not be asked to give any more money to the University and that the U.K's financial position would not justify an approach to the Treasury during the present difficult period this country is passing through.\n\n/unless",
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    {
        "id": 599384,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-627-3 Housing project- contains drawings 1-2-1951 - 31-10-1951",
        "page_number": 41,
        "title": "CO129-627-3 Housing project- contains drawings 1-2-1951 - 31-10-1951",
        "content_text": "- 2 -\n\nPage 42\n\nThe loan from Government required to meet construction costs will be made in the first instance to this Society, but the Society's assets and liabilities will in due course be taken over by the Improvement Trust referred to above, by whom repayment of the loan will be completed.\n\nThis project is intended as a \"Pilot Scheme\" which will enable any flaws that may come to light to be corrected before proceeding with the full scheme outlined in the despatch accompanying this memorandum.\n\nThe housing which will be built for the lower-income groups will not only provide improved living conditions for the actual tenants, but will indirectly benefit others by relieving congestion elsewhere and may be expected to encourage employers to embark on similar schemes for their employees.\n\n(b) Relation of the Scheme to the Colony's Ten-Year Development Plan.\n\nDue to constantly changing conditions since the war, no Ten-Year Development Plan has been drawn up for Hong Kong, but the relation of this scheme to Government's proposals for a housing programme are explained in paragraph (a) above, and in the covering despatch.\n\n(c) Reasons for financing the scheme in part from the Colonial Development & Welfare Vote.\n\nAlthough in this particular instance the cost of site formation is relatively low, only $216,000 in all, it is not expected that these charges will constitute such a small proportion of the capital outlay in future owing to the extreme shortage of building sites which are inexpensive to develop in localities where housing of this type is most needed. If the rents of these and similar flats constructed in the future are to be kept at an economic level, it is essential that site formation and development should not be a charge on the properties. It is also important that the rents for different blocks of similar accommodation should be uniform. This can be achieved without the need for one group of flats carrying part of the overheads of another if the initial expenditure on site development does not enter into the capital outlay to be met by a loan from this Government.\n\n(d) The basis for the division of cost between local funds and the Colonial Development & Welfare Vote is as indicated in paragraph (c) above: site formation, access roads, and the installation of water and drainage to be charged to a Colonial Development & Welfare grant, other costs to be borne initially by the Housing Society and in due course by the Improvement Trust, from funds loaned by Government.\n\n(e) Staff, materials, and labour are all available locally.\n\n(f) Arrangements for the execution and supervision of work. Expenditure of the Colonial Development and Welfare grant will be in the hands of the Public Works Department employing\n\nPage -\n\n-\n\n-",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-627-3 Housing project- contains drawings 1-2-1951 - 31-10-1951.txt",
        "external_url": "",
        "rank": 0
    }
]