680677-1881-Despatches-respecting-Tree-planting-in-Hongkong- — Page 1

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 5TH FEBRUARY, 1881.

31. The trees of all kinds planted outside of the Gardens, were as follows:---

Bamboos,....

Bombax sp.,

Casuarina equisitifolia,

Celtis sinensis,

Castanospermum australe,

....

Eucalyptus globulus,

Ficus retusa, and F. Wightiana, Pinus sinensis,

Miscellaneous,

1,160

2,330

1,050

1,077

100

500

2,691

.39,049

.11,175

59,132

89

32. The nutritious qualities of the Guinea grass (Panax maximum) being considered much greater than those of the indigenous grasses, and the supply being very limited in the Colony, a large quantity was propagated and planted on a piece of ground on the hill-side, and kept under Government manage- ment for two years. The Chinaman who was living on the ground and had the direct management of it, was then permitted to rent the farm from the Government, and he is now making his living by the sale of the grass. It was thought that when the Government had introduced the cultivation, other enterprising coolies would apply for ground to extend it, but, as yet, no one has done so.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient Servant,

To J. M. PRICE, Esquire,

Surveyor General.

No. 51.

GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.

CHARLES FORD, Superintendent, Government Gardens.

The following Despatches on tree planting are published for general information.

By Command,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 5th February, 1881.

No. 116.

FREDERICK STEWART,.

Acting Colonial Secretary

GOVERNOR SIR JOHN POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G., TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY.

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 2nd August, 1880.

MY LORD,-In Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH'S Circular Despatch of the 24th of February last, he presses upon my consideration the subject of the preservation and re-establishment of forests as one of great and increasing importance, in which the health and prosperity of the Colony may be very deeply concerned.

2. Small as my experience of Her Majesty's Colonies has been, it has long since convinced me that there is a general tendency to under-estimate the necessity of local action on this subject, and that even in Colonies with apparently the most limited scope in this respect, something ought to be done. I have not, therefore, been entirely forgetful, since my arrival here, of the advantages of tree preservation and tree planting in Hongkong, but I was unwilling, until I could point to some actual results, to trouble the Secretary of State with any report of what I was doing.

3. On my arrival in Hongkong, I found that Mr. FORD was on leave of absence in England, and that tree planting had been temporarily placed under the superintendence of Mr. PRICE, the Surveyor General. Early in the summer of 1877, I advised Mr. PRICE that, on sanitary and other grounds, the operation of the so-called Forest Department should be extended. In reply to my enquiries on the subject, he had informed me that the waste lands of the Colony capable of being wooded comprised about ten thousand acres, and the average number of seedling trees planted per annum was about 15,000. In his report of the 28th of August, 1877, he said :-

"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."

4. In laying Mr. PRICE's interesting report before the Legislative Council on the 12th of November, 1877, I said:

"I think the time has come when the Colony should deal in a more comprehensive manner with "the question of tree planting, *** with a vote of $2,000 a year to be expended on forming "nurseries for seedlings and paying a regularly organized staff of tree planters, we shall be able in a "few years to transform the appearance of this island and permanently improve its sanitary condition."