Directory_and_Chronicle_1922 — Page 1072

HONGKONG

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another hospital, named "The Matilda Hospital," is situated at the southern corner of Mount Kellett. It was built at a cost of about $350,000 and opened in 1906. The expense of erection and maintenance are borne by the estate of the late Mr. Granville Sharp, who devoted the bulk of his fortune to provide such an institution for the benefit of persons needing it who are of European or American birth. A sinall public garden, or children's playground, situated at the junction of Chamberlain and Mount Kellett Roads, was opened in 1906.

The road from Victoria Gap westward leads to Victoria Peak, which is 1,823 feet above the sea and rises almost abruptly behind the centre of the city of Victoria. On the summit is placed the flagstaff, from which the approach of the mails and other vessels is signalled. Not far from the summit of the Peak, on a most command- ing site, stands Mountain Lodge, the summer residence of H.É. the Governor, which was erected in 1901. Another road westward from Victoria Gap and known as Lugard Road was completed in 1920, and, with Harlech Road, encircles Victoria Peak. Another road in a directly opposite direction leads from Victoria Gap to Magazine Gap, where a second hill village of foreign residences has been formed on the southern side of the hills at an elevation of about 900 feet above the sea. There is also a road from Victoria Gap down to Pokfolum and Aberdeen, and at the side of this, about half a mile from the Gap, a small granite cross has been erected. This bears the inscription :- "W. W. H. 1869" and marks the scene of a brutal murder there by a Chinese footpad, the victim being Mr. Holworthy, an officer of the Ordnance Department, whom he felled with a bamboo and robbed, inflicting fatal injuries. The Peak roads are lighted by incandescent gas lamps.

A second road to the Peak was practically completed in 1921. Starting from Morrison Hill Road, it runs behind the Cemetery at Happy Valley and traverses the face of the hills to Wanchai Gap and Magazine Gap. It has an easy gradient and was constructed for motor traffic. A branch of it runs in an opposite direction to Wong-nai-Chung Gap.

Magazine Gap is also approached by an excellent and well-graded road, com- mencing on the Bowen Road.

THE RURAL DISTRICTS

There are several villages on the island, the largest of which is Shau-ki Wan, situate in a bay in the Ly-ee-mùn Pass, a great resort of Chinese fishing craft. Aberdeen, known to the Chinese as Shek-pai-wan, on the south of the island, possesses a well sheltered little harbour, also much frequented by fishing craft. Two large docks of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company are situated there. Pokfolum, on the road to Aberdeen, about four miles from Victoria, was formerly a place of resort for European residents in the hot weather, and some elegant bunga- lows were erected in pleasant and picturesque situations, commanding fine sea views and cool breezes, but since the development of the Peak district Pokfolum has been comparatively neglected. The sanitorium of the French Missions is located at Pokfolum, and is a fine building with an elegant chapel attached. The Dairy Farm is also situated there. Some distance beyond Aberdeen are two excellent bathing beaches known as Deep Water Bay (where there is a 9-hole golf-course and club-house) and Repulse Bay (where a popular hotel has been erected by the Hongkong Hotel Co., Ltd.). Wong-nai-chung is snugly located at the head of the valley of that name and is the most accessible of all the villages from Victoria. A motor-road has been constructed from the Morrison Hill district via Wanchai Gap to the Peak, and a tramway is promised for the purpose of rendering building sites in the Mt. Cameron district accessible to people of modorate means. Stanley, situated in a small bay on the south-east of the island, was once the site of a military station, but the barrack buildings have been pulled down, and the village is now stationary. A cemetery on the point contains numerous graves of British officers and soldiers. One of the places most in favour with pedestrians who are not afraid of a good long tramp is the little village of Tytam Tuk, nestling among trees at the mouth of the stream of the same name, which here enters Tytam Bay, the most extensive inlet on the southern coast. There is an excellent motor road round the Island by way of Pokfolum, Aberdeen, Stanley, Tytain and Shaukiwan. This was commened as a memorial of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria and completed at the end of 1919. Saiwan is a small village picturesquely situated in Saiwan Bay, just outside the Ly-ee-mùn Pass, and is much frequented by picnic parties. In the belief that it was a healthy locality, sinall barracks were erected there early in the 'forties, but the experiment proved most disastrous, for in