680677-1881-Despatches-respecting-Tree-planting-in-Hongkong- — Page 2

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 5TH FEBRUARY, 1881.

The

5. The enclosed extracts from the local papers show that this proposal was well received. Legislative Council not only sanctioned it at once, but, having watched the beneficial effect of the vote, they have allowed me to increase it from year to year, and I am now asking them to sanction an expenditure in 1881 of $10,000 on tree planting.

6. Sir MICHAEL HICKS BEACH was good enough to allow me (despatch No. 4 of 15th February, 1878) to engage, as a temporary measure, the services of a European Forester at a cost of $1,200 per annum. The engagement with this forester having terminated on the 31st of last December, I have practically retained this sum on the Estimates by giving $600 additional to Mr. FORD, the Superintendent of Gardens and Plantations, and spending the remaining $600 on Chinese foresters, Clerk and Interpreter and General Works.

7. M. PRICE'S report of the 28th of August, 1877, which I published in the Government Gazette No. 50 of 1877, undoubtedly reflected on the Tree Planting Department. It was printed, however, during Mr. FORD's absence in England, and when I was not in a position to test the accuracy of all its details. Last October, Mr. FORD transmitted to the Colonial Secretary a Report on tree planting in Hongkong, in which he defends his Department from some of Mr. PRICE's criticisms. Mr. FORD also asserts that seventy-five per cent perished of the young trees planted during the time Mr. PRICE was in temporary charge of the tree planting.

8. No doubt, the great majority of the seedlings planted on the hill sides in 1878 and early in 1879, have died, and for the reasons given by Mr. FORD. So far, a serious failure has marked the first steps in my attempt at afforestation on a large scale. On the other hand, in the minor work of planting along the sides of the Kennedy Road and the Peak Road and in transporting large trees (30 and 40 feet high) to a short new road leading from St. PAUL'S College to Mr. GIBB's house, Mr. PRICE was entirely successful, though at a cost somewhat out of proportion to the limited result achieved.

9. That afforestation has now been taken thoroughly in hand, your Lordship will see from Mr. FORD's recent report of the 15th of May, 1880. Instead of planting out 15,000 trees per annum, Mr. FORD has already planted 60,000 this year, and he anticipates a total of over a quarter of a million for the year's work.

10. With the cooperation of the Chinese, to which Mr. FORD refers in paragraph 6 of his report, we may, perhaps, be able, from the middle of next year, to plant out half a million of trees per annum. 11. I have confined the planting to the native pine tree, the Pinus sinensis, only. The nurseries contain seedlings of indigenous oaks, casuarinas, and other hardy and valuable timber trees.

29. During 1878, about five thousand cocoa-nut palms were planted by Mr. PRICE on Stone Cutters' Island, at Bowrington, and close to the village of Aberdeen. These trees will be ornamental, though, at this latitude, they do not bear ripe nuts.

13. On the important sanitary question of cultivating the Eucalyptus in Hongkong, I have the honour to lay before Your Lordship a brief report by Mr. FORD, which I called for and printed in the Government Gazette in March, 1879. Up to that time, it appears that only four hundred seedlings of the Eucalyptus Globulosa had been planted in the Colony, and of these but one hundred survived. On receiving Mr. FORD's report, I instructed him to take the necessary steps for getting four thousand seedlings of another species of Eucalyptus which grows in a climate resembling that of Hongkong. I hope to increase this number to twenty thousand next year.

14. Accompanying Mr. FORD's report of May, 1880, are some photographs that may, perhaps, enable Your Lordship to understand more clearly what we have been attempting to do in the way of tree planting than anything I could say in a Despatch. No. 1 shows the Kau-lung nursery, containing this year's seedlings, with some patches of little trees two years old. The boundary of the British territory runs between the two hills at the right. The hills in the extreme distance are in Chinese territory. No. 2 is the Sò-kon-p'ò nursery, about a mile from the eastern extremity of the town of Victoria. The Chinese gardeners and farmers are very skilful in utilizing uneven and sloping ground so as to admit of irrigation, and this is well shown in the So-kon-p'ò nursery. In the left corner of the photograph are some groups of trees which have been preserved by the villagers who were settled on this spot before our occupation of Hongkong. No. 3 shows a spur of Mount Gough above the Kennedy Road and overlooking the harbour. All the trees on it have been planted within the last eight months. The Banyans on the left are about fifteen feet high; then come bamboos, indigenous oaks in the middle, and Pinus sinensis on the right, about six feet high. The hill visible on the other side of the water is Chinese territory. No. 4 is an avenue at Bowrington of bamboos, casuarinas and pines, planted five years ago by Mr. FORD. The pine trees on the hill behind the Forester's Lodge are a few of those that were on the Island when the British Flag was first raised. They are about forty feet high. No. 5 shows Victoria Peak, and some houses just behind Government House. The highest trees on the left are some of those planted in 1877. The darker mass lower down and just at the back of the houses, are trees planted by Mr. FORD in 1875. The Peak Road runs beneath this plantation, and through the plantations of 1877 and 1878. Under the road, and to the right, are nurseries of the tree planting Department, and higher up is a Guinea grass farm. In the foreground on the right are Pinus sinensis, planted by Mr. FORD in 1874, and on the left, indigenous vegetation. No. 6 shows the indigenous trees in what is called Little Hongkong Wood. I have ordered a careful survey of this district to be made, and I have asked Mr. FORD to prepare a special report on the best means of preserving and utilizing it.