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880
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
The Hon. Mr. R. SHEWAN-Perhaps I can assure the hon member. I represent the agents | of the Company. The manager has assured me that he has done his best to notify the public at each end of the line that these workmen's cars are running, but there is absolutely no demand for these cars. I cross-questioned bim before I came to the Council and he told me the work- men did not avail themselves of the facilities afforded.
His EXCELLENCY-The cars are marked "Workmen's Cars P."
The Hon. Mr. R. SHEWAN-Yee. And they have been running all these months without Of course advantage being taken of them. the Company can resume this service, but at present there is absolutely no demand for it, as the men prefer to live on the spot rather than travel backward and forward to their work,
The ATTORNEY GENERAL-The fact that there are workmen's cars is a matter of public notoriety. The cars are placarded "workmen's " and I don't know whether we can expect the Company to do any more than that.
cars
The Hon. WAI YUK.-I would suggest that the resolution be postponed until the facts are ascertained.
His EXCELLENCY-It was much the wish of the Government that these workmen cars should be used. I have been requested on various occa- sions to bring forward this resolution which will involve their no longer running, but I have postponed it in the hope that some use would be made of the cars. If you can suggest any means of bringing the running cars further to the notice of the think that there is
them to use
no objec
-Do you think there is a
kule chance of getting the people to use he cars ?
The Hon. Dr. Ho KAI-I will communicate with the Chinese newspapers, and also let it be widely known that unless the cars are used they will be withdrawn.
His BXCELLENCY-I can state as a positive fact that the cars are not used. I pass the Naval Yard frequently at the hour they are running and see the workmen crowding out of the Yard and allowing the cars to pass them empty.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved that the motion to rescind the resolution stand over till the next meeting of the Council.
This was agreed to and the council rose.
FINANCE COM MITTEE.
A meeting of the Finate Committee was held after the Council-thelonial Secretary presiding.
The following votes were passed
AFFORESTATION.
The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of one hundred and fifty dollars (8150) in aid of the vote, Botanical and Affores tation Department-Other Charges, for the item, Peak Garden-Formation.
LAND COURT JUDGMENT.
The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of three thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven dollars and sixty-two cents (88,887.62) in aid of the vote, Miscellaneous Services for Acquisitif Houses under Section 36 of the Chews
Wan Land Court Judgment.
The Governor re vote a sum of two ($250) in aid of the Departments, Supreme for the item Electric Lig
MISCELLANY The Governor recommen vote a sum of one thousand aid of the vote, Miscellaneo Other Miscellaneous Services.
the Council to fifty dollars al and Legal ther charges
Fans.
PRINTING. The Governor recommended th vote a sum of one thousand two hund ($1,200) in aid of the vote, Mi Services, for Printing Miscellaneous
SURVEY WORKS,
"ouncil to 000) in for
The Governor recommended the Coul Aote a sum of Fifty thousand Dollars (850,
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GAOL CHARGES.
The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of fifteen dollars ($15) in aid of the vote Gaol - Other Charges, for the item Executioner's Fee, and for inflicting Corporal Punishment.
[November 13, 1905.
in aid of the vote, Public Works Extraordinary, ¡ such a standing instruction as that which has Railway to Canton, Survey and Preliminary been suggested been in force it would have Work.
been necessary either to have asked for its suspension, or to have raised additional taxation to meet the wants of the particular year, or to have broken contracts and stopped the execution of the important works in hand, or to have undertaken no other works, however important or urgent. I think that for the present it must be left to the Governor to suggest each year as large a sum as he thinks can conveniently be appropriated and profitably spent on resump- tions and compensations.
EDUCATIONAL.
The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of two hundred dollars ($200) in aid of the vote, Fduration, Inspector of Schools- Other Charges, Honorarium to Dr. Pearse for the preparation "ourse of Hygiene for the use of Hongkong Schools."
POST OFFICE CHARGES.
The Governor recommended the Council to vote a sum of two hundred and sixty-one dollars (8261) in aid of the vote, Post Office Other Charges, for the following items:- Allowance for Attendance on Sundays, &c. $ 36 Coals, Stores, &c., for Steam-Launch 200
Shanghai.
Municipal and Land Rates...
Total...
25
8261
On the Council resuming, The CULONIAL SECRETARY reported that Financial Minutes Nos. 49 to 57 had been con.
sidered by the Finance Committee and the recommendations therein had been approved. He laid the report on the table and moved its
ASURER seconded, and
il stands
urned tin
INSANITARY PROPERT
RESUMPTIONS,
The following correspondence was published in a report submitted to the Legislative
Council on Fov. Sth.
GOVERNOR SIR M. NATHAN TO MR.
LYTTELTON.
Government
House, Hongkong, 26th September, 1904, SIR, Mr. May has in accordance with the in- structions contained in your Despatch No. 101 dated the 26th May last, placed before me the correspondence on the subject of a suggested Trust to carry out schemes for the resumption of insanitary areas and the improvement of the City of Victoria.
2. I entirely concur with him that a consider able sum should be devoted each year to the resumption of insanitary property, and that this resumptio should proceed on continuous lines.
3. I do not think it would be desirable that it 8010 of should be laid down either that a $350.00 plus half the proceeds of land sales, as proposed by the Committee that reported on the 24th September, 1903, or that a sum of not less than $400,000 as recommeauded in Mr. May's despatch No. 150, dated the 9th April, 1904, should be devoted to resumptions. With regard to the first of these proposals I am adverse to the introduction into the estimates of the principle, which, if introduced, would admit of various logical extensions, of allocating a special source of receipts to a special object of expenditure; and with regard to the second I am convinced that were you to lay down any standing instruction for the allocation for a period of years of a large sum for resumptions you would frequently be asked to suspend it. For instance, in the draft Estimates for 1905, it has been necessary, on account of contracts already entered into, to set aside $75,000 for water supply scheme and $535,500 for continuing the erection of important public buildings that have been commenced. These sums, toge her with $359,800 for some smaller continuation services, and a few minor works of sanitary and other urgent necessity, bring up
the total Public Works Extraordinary Estimates to 81,645,300, and it has been considered that $170,000 is the minimum that can be added to this Estimate compensation and resumptions of insani- property under the Public Health Buildings Ordinance of 1903.
eum
Had
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4. In the circumstances that no sum can be set aside for resumptions on a very extended scale, at any rate until the extensive water supply schemes are completed in 1906, that the lines on which resumptions should be carried out are to some extent already indicated in Mr. O. Chadwick and Dr. W. J. Simpson's Report of the 14th May, 1902, on the question of the Housing of the Population of Hongkong, and that various reports that are received from the Sanitary Board contain specific recommenda- tions for minor resumptions, I do not at present support the proposal for the establishment of a Trust embodied in the Report submitted in Sir H. A. Blake's Despatch No. 485 of the 23rd October, 1903, nor that for an Advisory Board 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 to the members of the Government responsible for its sanitary measures and for the utilization to the best advantage of Crown Lands.
areas
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 continuous propose that there should be records of all the resumptions undertaken. These records would consist of a Special Annual Report prepared by the Director of a Sessional Public Works, and printed as
a general map Paper which would show on the position of the areas that have been resumed or are in process of resumption, and on more detailed plans each scheme of resump- tion, 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 pro- portions of each resumed area originally and ultimately devoted to streets, laes, 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 statement of accounts for contain each resumption showing the expenditure up to date, both for it had involved resumings 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 expen. diture 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 Taipin shan resumpt on, carried out in the years 1834 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 para- graphs 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 connec tion with the Gough Street resumption, justify the doubt expressed in the 2nd and 3rd para- graphs of your despatch No. 283 of the 18th December, 1903, as to the immediate remunera- tiveness of this necessary sanitary work.
I have, etc.,
M. NATHAN.
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