Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 1083

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HONGKONG

from the Filtered Water Reservoir by 24-inch trunk mains, which will be laid in the bed of the harbour from Kowloon Point and will discharge into a Service Reservoir, which will probably be built under the Public Gardens. The gravity portion of the scheme is expected to give a supply of 11 million gallons a day throughout the driest recorded period, and the pumping reservoirs will add another 6 million gallons a day. It is hoped that, given favourable conditions, it will be possible to bring the first water to Hongkong in the spring of 1927. The cost is computed at not less than $17,000,000.

The natural productions of the Colony are few and unimportant. There is little, land suitable for tillage, and nothing is grown but a little rice and some vegetables near the outlying villages. There are large granite quarries, both on the island and in Kowloon, and there is a small export of this stone. A bed of fire clay exists at Deep Water Bay, and bricks and earthenware pipes are manufactured from it. A similar industrial venture is projected at Castle Peak. The forests now growing up may one day become, a source of revenue, when sufficiently extensive, from the periodical thinning's

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The approaches to the port are fairly well lighted. A lighthouse on Green! Island lights the western entrance of the harbour. The eastern approach is indicated by a group flashing dioptric light of the first order, visible at a distance of twenty-two miles, erected on Waglan Island, while a smaller light on Cape Collinson assists navigators to make the Ly-ee-mùn Pass. A lighthouse on Gap Rock, about thirty miles to the south, was completed and first displayed its beacon on the 1st April, 1892; it is connected with the port by cable, and the approach of vessels is signalled froin it to the Post Office. A radio-telegraphic station of medium range has been established for commercial purposes on Cape d'Aguilar in connection with the Post Office, and a long-range Marconi station has been erected on Stonecutters Island.

The harbour of Hongkong is one of the finest and most beautiful in the world having an area of ten square miles, and, with its diversified scencry and varied shipping presents an animated and imposing spectacle. It consists of the sheet of water betweer the island and the mainland, and is enclosed on all sides by lofty hills, formerly destitute of foliage, but now becoming clothed, especially on the island, with young forests, the result of the afforestation scheme of the Government. The city of Victoria in magnificently situated, the houses, many of them large and handsome, rising, tier upor tier, from the water's edge to a height of over five hundred feet on the face of the Peak! while many buildings are visible on the very summit of the hills. Seen from that water at night, when lights twinkle among the trees and houses, the city, spreading along the shore for five miles, affords a sight not readily to be forgotten.

Nor on landing are the favourable impressions of the stranger dissipated or lessened The city is fairly well built, the roads and streets are for the most part admirably madd and kept, and many of the thoroughfares delightfully shaded with well-grown trees The European business quarter occupies the middle of the city, from Pottinge Street to the Naval Yard, but with the exception of this limited area almost all th lower levels, especially the Western District, are covered by a dense mass of Chines shops and tenements. The Botanic Gardens are situated just above Governmen House, and are tastefully laid out in terraces, slopes, and walks, with parterres of flowers A handsome fountain adorns the second terrace. There is a bandstand, presented by th Parsee community (but never now occupied by a band), some aviaries, orchid houses, and ferneries, and seats are provided in every spot where a view is obtainable or shad afforded by the varied foliage. A fine bronze statue of Sir Arthur Kennedy, Governa of the Colony, 1872-6, erected by public subscription, stands above the second terrac looking down on the fountain. It was unveiled in November, 1887, by Governor Si William Des Voeux. The chief public building is the City Hall, erected in 1866-9 bl subscription; it contains a commodious theatre, numerous large rooms used for balls an public meetings (in one of which, known as St. George's Hall, is a fine portrait of th late Queen Victoria, presented by the late Sir Thomas Jackson, Bart., in 19000 a Library and a Museum-both of which, however, have a neglected appearancin In front of the main entrance is a large fountain presented in August, 1864, by Mr. Johld Dent, a former merchant of the Colony. Eastward of the City Hall is a fine ope space or lung, in the shape of the Parade Ground, south of the road, and the Crick Ground on the north. Here a new pavilion was erected in 1923.

The Post Office, an imposing building in which several other Government depar ments are accommodated, occupies a site with frontages on the Praya, Pedder Stre and Des Voeux Road. The Courts of Justice were designed by Sir Aston Webb an Mr. E. Ingress Bell, consulting architects to the Government of Great Britai The foundation stone was laid in 1903 and the building was completed at a cost a