4819-1906-Report-of-the-Director-of-Public-Works-for-1905 — Page 1

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, JULY 6, 1906.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

No. 577.

REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS, FOR THE YEAR 1905.

To be laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor.

1183

EXPENDITURE.

1. The amounts voted, as compared with those actually expended by the Department under the various headings, were as follows:-

AMOUNTS VOTED.

In Estimates.

Supplement- ary Votes.

Actual Expenditure.

Total.

(i) Personal Emoluments and other Charges, (ii) Annually Recurrent Works,. (iii) Extraordinary Works,

264,458.00

380,500.00 1,815,200.00

400.00 264,858.00 21.250.00 401,750.00 346,997.83

219,603.56

883,798.06

2,162,197.83

1,773,138.83

!

Total.

2,460,158.00

368,647.83 -2,828,805.83

2,378,540.45

Detailed statements of items (I.). and (iii.) are given in Appendices A and B.

With regard to (i.), the saving shown is largely due to the rise in Exchange, the Estimates having been prepared on the basis of a 1's. 87. dollar, as against an average actual

rate of 1s. 11d..

In the case of (i.), the principal excesses occurred in the items "Maintenance of Telegraphs ($7,589.31) and Maintenance of Praya Wall and Piers" ($5,329,33). The former was due to, the introduction of metallic circuiting on all the Government telephone lines, rendered necessary by the establishment of the Electric Tramway Service on the trolley system, and the latter to the extension and repair of the public pier, opposite Observation Place, Praya East, which it was considered advisable to carry out before the Praya Reclama- tion plant was disposed of. The excesse on these and a few other votes were nearly balanced by savings on others.

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As regards (iii.), the works on which the expenditure fell much below the estimate

were :—

“Law Courts” ($89,429.50), “Post Office" ($85,599.75), and "Kowloon Water

Works" ($78,290 56).

The principal items on which expenditure occurred in excess of the provision made in the Estimates or for which no provision had been made were :-

"Tytam Tuk Water-works Scheme" ($39,075.32), "Kowloon-Canton Railway-

Surveys and Preliminary Expenses" ($64,463.31), "Forming and Ker- bing Streets" ($24,746.45), "Resumptions for widening Salisbury Road, Kowloon" ($17,286.75), "Rainstorm Damages" ($12,768 43), "Gunpow- der Depôt" ($20,003.44), "Miscellaneous Drainage Works" ($14,673.15).

The savings and excesses nearly balanced each other, the expenditure only falling short of the amount provided in the Estimates by $40,061.17, or less than 21%.