Sessional_Paper_1905 — Page 816

recommended by Mr. May's No. 150, dated the 9th April, 1904. I would leave the tendering of advice as to the areas or buildings to be resumed and the utilization of the resumed areas to the members of the Government responsible for its sanitary measures and for the utilization to the best advantage of Crown Lands.

5. For the double purpose of assisting to secure continuity of policy and of collecting data which would govern any large scheme that may be undertaken in the future, I propose that there should be continuous records of all the resumptions undertaken. These records would consist of a Special Annual Report prepared by the Director of Public Works, and printed as a Sessional Paper which would show on a general map the position of the areas that have been resumed or are in process of resumption, and on more detailed plans each scheme of resumption, and of re-laying out the resumed area, and the extent to which each scheme had been carried out by the end of the year dealt with in the Report. It would show also the proportions of each resumed area originally and ultimately devoted to streets, lanes, and open spaces, and to Government purposes, and the progress that had been made in disposing of the new building lots it contained with the area still remaining for disposal. It would also contain a statement of accounts for each resumption showing the expenditure it had involved up to date, both for resuming buildings and for laying out roads, etc., within the resumed area, and the receipts. obtained in the form of premia for new building lots, as well as a general account giving the total expenditure and receipts for all the resumptions that had been undertaken up to the end of the year with which the Report dealt.

6. If this proposal appears to you worthy of adoption the first Report to be issued for 1904 would deal with the Taipingshan resumption, carried out in the years 1894 to 1895, embodying the information already communicated to you in Mr. May's Despatch referred to above, with the resumption carried out in the year 1902 of the area near Lower Lascar Row, which formed the subject of Sir William Gascoigne's Despatch No. 223 of 27th May, 1902, and with the resumption recommended by Mr. Chadwick and Professor Simpson in the 4th and 26th paragraphs of their Report of the 14th May, 1902, and carried out in the years 1903 and 1904 of the interior of the block bounded by Gough Street, Queen's Road Central, Wellington Street, and Aberdeen Street.

7. The comparatively small amount of the receipts from the sale of leases within the Taipingshan resumption, and the anticipated small proportion of receipts to outlay in connection with the Gough Street resumption, justify the doubt expressed in the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs of your Despatch No. 283 of the 18th December, 1903, as to the immediate remunerativeness of this necessary sanitary work.

I have, etc.,

M. NATHAN,

MR. LYTTELTON TO GOVERNOR SIR M. NATHAN,

Hongkong, No. 316.

Downing Street, 3rd November, 1904

SIR,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 349 of the 26th of September with regard to the suggested Trust to carry out schemes for the resumption of insanitary areas and the improvement of the City of Victoria.

2. I agree generally with your views on this matter, and approve your proposal with regard to the issue of Special Reports.

(II)

I have, etc.,

ALFRED LYTTELTON.