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Q-And over how many years has your experience of road-making spread ? A--About ten years, Sir.
Q-With regard to your duties in Hongkong, what is your opinion about the roads here?
A--In what way?
Q-You told us you had a good deal of experience in America and various other places. Now, what is your opinion in regard to the roads in the City of Victoria?
A-My opinion is you don't use the right kind of rock here. You can't make a road with the material you use here.
Q-Is the right kind of metal to be found in Hongkong?
A--I have not looked around yet. I have been busy at my own work.
Q--What material is being used?
A-Decomposed granite, very bad and too soft for the roads.
Q-Blue stone has also been used ?
A-I have not had much experience of it, only a little bit when I first came here. That was very large, and it was put through the crusher, and I used some of it down in Queen's Road. It is very hard, and the granite they use now is very soft. If they got this granite in between it would make a good road.
Q-Do you mean another kind of granite, of medium quality ?
A--Yes; this granite is too soft, and the roller crushes it down to powder. It is covered over with sand, and you can't see it is crushed, and when the rain comes it goes into small holes.
Q-What kind of material did you use in other parts of the world?
A-Brick pavement, wood pavement, and a kind of macadam which was not so hard as this blue stone.
Q-Do you think wood pavement would answer here ?
A-Yes, Sir.
Q-Did they use it in Honolulu ?
A--No, Sir.
Q-Do you think wood pavement would be suitable in a climate so damp and hot as that of Hongkong ?
A--I don't think the heat would have any effect on the wood pavement, with asphalt it would be different.
Q-Where do you say your duties are confined to now ?
A--Inside the City of Hongkong.
Q-Are you superintending the making of Queen's Road?
A-Yes.
Q-What has been done there? I very often travel over that road, and it appears to me you are piling on first blue stone and then granite, layer upon layer.
A--The principle that has been followed is to pick up the old surface, concrete up the channel, and also pick up a little bit of street paving three or four inches, take and wet it and streak it across so as to give the granite a chance of setting, so that it won't slide, and then after you put that down, roll it with the roller. We put sand on top to bind it, and make it set, and also put water over it, and when we think it is suffi- ciently rolled we pass on and do the next place.
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