THE SITE OF THE NEW POST OFFICE,
The Public Works Committee met, we believe, on the 13th January to discuss a new proposition in reference to the contemplated buildings for the accommodation of certain Government Departments. It was originally designed to erect offices on the new Praya Reclamation, on the two sites belonging to the Government lying between the City Hall and the Bund. These two sites are separated by the Connaught Road, and it would have been necessary to erect two separate buildings, one for the use of the Post Office, Treasury, and other Depart- ments, and the other to serve as Law Courts. Mr COOPER prepared plans for these buildings before his departure for Ceylon, but these plans did not, according to all reports, meet with general approval and were to be reconsidered. What has been done with them since we are unable to say; all we know is that the Secretary of State deferred sanction of the project until he received assurances that the funds. for the erection of the buildings were available and was informed how it was proposed to raise the money. The Colonial Government were in a position to show how the cost of these offices could be met, and this has no doubt been done by His Excellency the Governor. The sanction of the Right Hon. the Secretary of State could, therefore, not be long withheld, and this much needed work ought ere long to be inaugurated.
The advent of the Hon. R. D. ORMSBY on the scene in the interval would appear to have been most fortunate for the colony, for we hear he has propounded a scheme by which the Treasury will be saved a very large sum, and public convenience be much better served. Briefly his project is to erect the Law Courts, Land Office, &c., on the site north of the City Hall, which would amply suffice for the purpose, and to build a new Post Office and Treasury on the site of the present one and of the existing Supreme Court. The Government would then have the valuable sites on which, the Land Office and the building known as Crosby's Store now stand as well as the Marine lot opposite the Hongkong Club to dispose of. It is calculated that by this arrangement, retain- ing certain offices in Beaconsfield, a saving of some $300,000 would be effected. Nor is this the sole or even the chief advantage to be gained. The Post Office is now most advantageously placed for the public con- venience it is in the very centre of the town and far more accessible than if situated at the extreme end of the business quarter, as would be the case if planted close to the Hongkong Club. The determination of the Admiralty to extend the Royal Naval Dockyard and reclaim a great slice of the foreshore for that purpose has extinguished all prospect of the business quarter of the City shifting eastward, and the centre of Victoria must therefore continue to be Pedder's Street. Mr. ORMSBY's scheme will, we feel confident, be welcomed by a general chorus of approval. There may be e some little disappointment among lot holders on the new Reclamation, but the interests of the public have to be considered first, and there can bẻ no doubt those interests will be best served by adopting the proposal of the Director of Public Works.
**We have one suggestion to make in re- ference to this great public improvement. When the new Post Office is being built, would it not be possible at the same time to remove the Clock Tower to a more suitable site? As it exists at present the Tower is
THE HONGKÓNG WEEKLY PRESS AND
[January 19, 1898.
a nuisance and the benefits of the Town | tion might be opposed on the ground that it Clock are lost. The Tower is dwarfed by the was an interference with the freedom of the huge blocks of the Hongkong Hotel, and port. That is a principle that the Justices, are engaged in the clock is only visible at a small distance a majority of whom and to a limited number. It could easily mercantile pursuits, would not be disposed be rebuilt in front of Pedder's Wharf, to lightly interfere with; but, on the other where it would be visible all along the hand, it may be urged that the freedom of Praya for miles, and if carried to a height the port cannot rightly be held to imply of some two hundred feet the clock would freedom to import poisonous stuff with the then be generally useful. The cost of intention of selling it as wholesome liquor, this improvement
If the iden of dealing with the stuff on would not be very great and the colony might readily in its importation be rejected the alternative dulge in the luxury if it saved three course is to try to trace it out after it has lakhs of dollars by the adoption of Mr. been distributed for sale by retail. This ORMзBy's scheme for the new Offices. might be done by appointing a staff of Standing where it does, the Clock Tower is inspectors to make surprise visits to the an obstruction to traffic; it chokes up the grog shops and take samples of the liquor roadway in the busiest street of the city; found therein. Some amendment of the law would also be required in the direction of and it prevents a free circulation of air in a very crowded quarter. Moreover, though setting up a standard of wholesome liquor perhaps not ineffective if properly situated, and defining the quantity of injurious it is with its present surroundings far from substances-traces of which may perhaps being architecturally ornamental, and has be found in most samples--that should sub- practically ceased to be a landmark to ject the liquor to confiscation and the seller visitors, as was formerly the case when it to punishment by fine. The evil is one was less overshadowed by contiguous build-that would justify the adoption of drastic mensures to suppress it if milder measures ings. A petition for its removal was some years ago, if we remember rightly, presented do not suffice. Many men in the army and to the Government. We trust, therefore, navy are ruined for life by drinking the that the Government will now authorise the vile stuff now sold as wholesome liquor; it Director of Public Works to include the drives them mad for the time being and fresh disposal of the Clock Tower in his causes them to commit crimes by which scheme of improvement of the Government they forfeit all prospect of promotion in the Offices. It is also to be hoped, in the in-service.. Only the other day three of the best terests of the public generally, that the erec petty officers on one of the men-of-war had tion of the new Post Office will be pushed to be disrated owing to their having got on as rapidly as possible. The institution into trouble while under the influence of is so badly housed at present that the service drink, although it is supposed they had suffers materially, and a more commodious not taken more than would have been and suitable building for the Post Office has good for them, or at least not specially for years been one of the great wants of the harmful to them, had it been liquor fit for drinking. The article on alcohol in Ure's colony.
Dictionary, speaking of the impurity of raw spirits, arising principally from the presence of fusel oil says:-"Such spirits intoxicate more strongly than pure spirits of the Some time ago the Justices of the Peace same strength, and excite, in many persons, even temporary frenzy." That submitted a series of resolutions to the Government recommending that steps should precisely what the naval and military be taken for the prévention of the sale of officers aver with respect to much of the injurious liquor. A reply has now been liquor sold to sailors and soldiers in Hong- received from the Government and a meet- kong; men of previously good character ing of the Justices has been convened for imbibe only a moderate quantity of what We under- they suppose to be ordinary whisky, brandy, Thursday next to consider it. stand the Government desire; the Justices or gin, and they at once become subject to to submit definite proposals as to the frenzy, which leads to their being entered on means to be employed to attain the desired the crime sheet, and their prospects in the object. The Justices may possibly think service are utterly destroyed. If spirits are that they have done their duty in drawing allowed to mature the fusel oil spontane- attention to the evil and that it is the pro- ously decomposes, and the liquor containing vince of the Government to devise the it becomes less noxious, but the cheap stuff means of dealing with it. Whatever deci-sold in the grog shops is allowed no time to sion may be arrived at on this point the mature, and a good deal of it is not genuine first step to be taken should be the appoint- whisky or brandy at all, but potato spirit ment of a committee, either by the Govern- faked up. "By far the most pernicious of ment or the Justices, to inquire into the "all the ordinary drinks in use," says the conditions of the trade and how the impor- article on alcohol in Quain's Medical tation and sale of deleterious liquor may be Dictionary, "is the spirit obtained from
potatoes, as this contains the largest. best prevented. It would hardly be neces-
It can sary for the committee to waste time in tak- "amount of fusel oil.
easily be demonstrated by experiments ing evidence as to the existence of the evil,
upon animals that amyl alcohol ”—ie. for that is unfortunately only too notorious. The question for solution is as to how to deal fusel oil-is the agent to the presence with it. Importers of spirits might be re- quired to supply the Government with re- turns of their importations, as is done in the case of opium, and samples might be taken from time to time for analysis. The liabi- lity to have any particular consignment analysed, condemned, and confiscated would tend to make importers careful as to the quality of the liquor indented for by them and cause them to inform their correspon- dents and agents that it was dangerous to send out amyl alcohol got up as whisky, brandy, or gin. To that course some objec-
THE SALE OF INJURIOUS LIQUOR.
is
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of which the extremely poisonous effect of many drinks upon our nerves and "other organs is due.” In Brunton's. Pharmacology we also read that "the_toxic "effect of alcohol is greatly increased
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by impurities, so that inferior brandy, "from a public house has a lethal action 'nearly one half greater than pure ethylic "alcohol." If that is the case with the in- ferior brandy sold in public houses in Eng. land what must be the lethal effect of much of the so-called brandy and whisky sold in Hongkong? It is to be hoped, therefore,
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