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Appendix No. 4.

REPORT ON PROPOSED NEW ROADS, BY MR. ORMSBY.

One of the first and most pressing needs is a good cart road on an easy trace from the shores of Mirs Bay, where it approaches nearest to Kowloon city, over to British Kowloon. Such a road can readily be made as a continuation of the road already constructed on the west side of the peninsula to Mong-kok-tsui. The trace would pass through Tai-kok-tsui and along the sea coast past Lai-chi-kok, Keo- pa-kang, &c., rising by an easy gradient until it passed round the end of the southerly mountain range, and entered the valley leading down towards Sha-t'in Inlet in Mirs Bay. Leaving Sha-tin on the right, the trace would pass the villages of Tai-Wai, Cheung-Lung, Fotan, and keeping up by Kau-to, drop again to the important centre of Taipò Hii market town at the head of Tolo harbour. From Taipò Hu the road should follow the existing paths up the valley to the north-west to Sham Chun. The line I have indicated only scales 22 miles on the map, and I am of opinion that a good carriage road trace would turn out to be not more than 25 or 26 miles. I put this road first, as I consider it far and away the most important; it would pass through the centre of the territory, and not only would afford rapid and easy access to Hongkong markets for villagers with pro- duce to dispose of, but would render the administration of the new territory simple. Besides this, there is daily communication by junks from different points on Mirs Bay with Taipò Hi and Sha-t'in.

Next in importance I would put a road froin Sham Chun to Shat‘au Kok or Starling Inlet. This road would be about 10 miles long and on very easy gradi- ents, the greatest elevation between these two towns being only 80 feet above sea level.

The Des Voeux road on the east side of British Kowloon through Hung-Hom should be carried on to Kowloon city, and generally following the existing footpath through a low pass in the chain of hills, be continued on to the important town of Sai-Kung on the shores of Port Shelter. This road should eventually be conti- nued across the dividing range to the shore of Tolo Harbour in Mirs Bay.

The roads so far described should in my opinion be what I would designate as second class carriage roads, 12 feet wide, all rivers and streams permanently bridged with stone or iron structures, stone cross drains, and surfaced with the best gravel or disintegrated rock obtainable locally, all soft ground having a bot- toming of large stones; 1 in 18 should be the steepest gradients permitted. On such roads Chinese ponies in light two-wheeled carriages could readily accomplish 8 miles an hour, bringing Shain Chun within a three hours' drive of Kowloon. I roughly estimate the cost of such roads at $10,000 a mile, but in the absence of surveys and sections this must be considered rather of a guess.

Hü.

Besides these, some good bridle roads should be constructed, the most im- portant being one leaving the first main road above described where it enters the valley leading to Sha-t'in, skirting the hills close above Ts'ün-wan and following the telegraph line path through one of the gaps on Taimò Shán down into the Pát Heung Valley, and so on to Unlong Hii and Pingshan by Kamt'in A road joining Unlong Hü with Sham Chun would also be desirable. An- other useful road would be one connecting Pát Heung Valley with Taipò Hü, through the Lam-ts'ün valley, a low ridge of hills between the two making this a simple matter. These bridle roads should be 6 feet wide, with stone culverts over the smaller streams, and paved fords over the larger ones, to save expense in bridging. The gradients should be limited to 1 in 10, but carriage road gradients adopted if possible, with a view to future developments. The natural surface might be left. I estimate that such roads should not cost more than $2,000 a mile.

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