482
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
we
4
[December 6, 1909.
For over
alise the impropriety of making a tar macadam upon the completion of the Volunteer Head- speaking to it I have endeavoured as far as factory opposite the entrance to Government quarters a new reason was found for delay possible to repress feelings of irritation pent up House. Why, then, upon the threshold of the The contractor who had undertaken the build for years. They are not directed against Colony? This is a glaring instance of that want ing of the Post Office induced the Government any particular office holder, during those now. I attack no individual. of a proper sense of the fitness of things con- to let the plot to him. There was then little years, or
combat an idea the idea that the cerning which there is justifiable public com- realisation of the length of time it would take I plaint. The Praya opposite Royal Square is the to erect the edifice, and no notion that for five Hon. the Director of Public Works is a law
or six years
these matsheds would be an unto himself, and that his subordinates city's front doorstep. It should be kept elean and swept clear. It is no more suitable for such alleged necessity of its eventual existence. Had and contractors in carrying out Government purposes than is the front doorstep of a private there been, dissatisfaction would have been more work are free to display indifference towards Ever since considerations which it should be their pride to house suitable for cooking the dinner. Walking widespread and niore outspoken. on round that part of the plot enclosed by a then the condition of the plot has been an eye- advance. I appeal to powers in the Govern- At first there was no surrounding ment overruling this department to put ́an' palisade the stranger would wonder why the sore. lessee is allowed to leave about, outside on palisade. The Hongkong public owes the end, on the plot of ground in question, to a the sidewalk, old cart wheels, and stone road-improvement due to the erection of these condition of things which has grown to be rollers, drain pipes and logs of wood. And from palisades to the Garter Mission-to the visit discreditable to the Administration as a whole. Hon. Mr. OSBORNE-I beg to second this * what he saw on turning to the right, he might paid to the Colony by His Royal Highness
reasonably suppose that not only was an indus- Prince Arthur of Connaught. I remember the resolution. It will no doubt be contended by try in connection with road-making being zeal displayed by the Public Works Depart- those who are responsible for the retention of carried on from the enclosure, but also the ment in tidying things up on the eve of his these unsightly structures that they are neces-- business of a laundry. He would have noticed arrival. The same zeal was once again display- sary for construction work on the new Post dangling on bamboos above the weed-growned when His Royal Highness. the Duke of Office. That the site in question is a conveni- heaps of bricks, which top the palisade on the Connaught subsequently spent a day or two ent and economical one for the contractors, east, numbers of old coats and pants, and in the Colony. As Kongkong has not since Messrs. Sang Lee & Co., is no doubt correct, but when he came round to the west, another then been favoured by a visit from Royalty to contend that work for the Post ffice can assortment of similar rags flaunting bo- the condition of the plot in question has be done nowhere else than in Royal Square is hind the statue of His Majesty the King. If been uninterruptedly declining from bad to an absurdity; for there is not a vestige
Are worse.
faced with the prospect of material prepared there, nor an atom of he had been with me oue day recently he would have seen the crew of a junk, evidently mistak- of this process continuing until the Post Office material stored upon the ground, which could ing the land on which the statue stands for is completed ? This question was asked at our not equally well be accommodated on any piece waste land, using it as a place to spread and last meeting. My aim in asking it was to as- of waste land outside the City limits. If the mend their sails. If he had been with me a day certain, if possible, whether the Government re- Government, sir, is bent upon continuing this later, he would have seen the Monarch's alised the extent of, and recognised reasons for, a nuisance, to the disregard of public sentiment, effioy closely inverted, up to the steps of the growing impatience over the long continued use then let it at least mitigate the offence by pedestal, by ramparts of large iron pipes. Often of this particular piece of public land for the interposing a suitable screen so that we may The Hon the be spared the indignity of beholding the statue he might have seen, since the beginning of the purposes of a contractor's yard. N.E. monsoon, smoke from the coal-tar factory Director of Public Works said that the ques-of our King embroidered as it is by workmen's pouring over it, or perhaps from the kitchen- tion-the third of a series-was disposed of by shanties, by a lumber yard, and by a tarred chimneys in rear. The stranger might have the answer vouchsafed to the second. I am macadam factory.
Hon. Mr. HEWETT-Your Excellency, the questioned the propriety of erecting this sta ue unable to see that the answer to the second-- antil it could be treated with proper respect. He question had any relation to the third at all. proposer of this resolution spoke of himself as might ask-How did this state of matters begin? The Hon. the Director of Public Works did an old resident here and that he had given His oicerone might not be able to tell him. not catch the drift of the latter question. If he something like a decade to the consideration of of which this resolution Only an old resident could give him an idea. had he would have foreseen that it could not this nuisance Here I might come in. My recollection would be so easily disposed of, that it was certain to forms the basis. I have given consideration be that the Public Works Department did crop up again, as it has done in the resolution. to Hongkong for three decades. not start the nuisance now complained of. The fact that he understood the question to two decades we know perfectly well the whole They have only increased and intensified refer only to the improper occupation of sea frontage of Hongkong has been more ör it of late years. Higher powers in the Govern- these worksheds as tenements argued an im- less of a workshop from the time of the com- ment began it. I can't remember exact dates, perfect realisation of the far larger aspect of mencement of that valuable work, the Praya but I recall the circumstances. I remember as the nuisance, and I have therefore felt con- Reclamation scheme, until now, but there is no one who can recall local events far longer than I strained to refer to it again, and to indicate the reason why the confusion and inartistic effect care to realise. But one need not confess to hav- hope, which underlay the original question of should be carried ou unduly. In order to show ing taken a continuous interest in this parti- finding the Government willing to admit that the you how the Government of that day considered cular matter for more than a decade. Only time has now arrived to improve matters. It that the work of the Post Office and presumably then did the question. arise-What is to does not seem to me to be unreasonable to ex- the Law Courts should be more promptly com- be
your Excellency's predecessor, Sir done with the plot of Government pect this. I have no desire to be unreasonable pleted land between the site fixed for the new I have no wish to add unnecessarily to the work Matthew Nathan, four years ago asked me to Law Courts and the Praya ? In those days and worries of any hard-pressed efficial. To a make a three years' contract for a piece of Hongkong was prosperous. Sho occupied a man overwhelmed with the dumbers of files ground in which I was interested for the his office desk, purpose of piling and storing the material dominating position as a docking centre. She that heap themselves upon still held her own as a mart and distributing awaiting minutes, it may seem hard to be required for the Post Office, because it was centre. We were all filled with pride and vain made responsible for what is happening on the believed the Post Office would be completed in glory. And when we discussed the question Praya. But it is not the public's fault if the that time. Those three years have passed, and we of what ought to be done with the plot in system on which the Department is worked have yet to learn that the Post Office will be com- question, some of us maintained that the Gor- calls for improvements which would enable pleted within the next twelve months. I merely ernment should here erect a building to serve the Hon. the Director of Public Works to use mention this to show that in my opinion it But this opens justifies the resolution brought forward to-day the purposes of a Town Hall, a noble granite his pen less and his eyes more. building in the classic style, worthy of the most a larger question. I desire to confine the dis- that this public work has been unduly prolonged beautifully situated city in the King's Domi- cussion to the plot in question. Surely, now it and that the ground has been improperly used nions. That dream will some day, I hope, might be possible to abate the nuisance created for other purposes than those for which it was come true, though it seems further off now than by its present condition. The Post Office is originally set aside, namely, to facilitate the work then. But even then, in the days of prosperity, built up to the top storey The edifice awaits only of the contractor and to accelerate the completion ΠΟ saw that it could not be realised until its roof and the tower which is to crown it. If, of the structure. It is of vital importance, affect- the new Law Courts and Post Office had
as I understand, the only work, connected with ing seriously the financial state of the Colony been built and the claims of waterworks
the building of the Post Office, now being car I would go further than the mover of the satisfied. And consequently i was hoped ried on in the yard is the sawing by hand resolution, who has referred to the tar factory. and expected that, in the meantime, the of timber-a method somewhat antiquated in On at least two different occasions, spreading Government would clear and maintain as these days of bandsaws cutting teak like butter over many weeks during the last eighteen the an open space the plot in question, as well surely there is no necessity for renewing the months, practically the whole section of as the 75 feet to the west of it. This last, lease? The contractor will say there is no bund-not only the block of which we the Government, filled with emulation by the other place to saw it. But if he were to receive are complaining now, but the bund itself-
been turned
# into tar factory. example set on the other side of Queen to-morrow three months' notice to quit, in that has Victoria's Statue, actually proposed to do, time I think he could find a way. Where there's What the connection between the Law Courts just eight years ago. But this Colony suffers a will there's always one. And if the Public and the Post Office is with a manufactory of from lack of continuity, the word which Works Department had the will they could tar macadam I do not know. Anyway, the Lord Kitchener left as a legacy to the Indian find a way to do without the drawing office work is not confined to the area set aside for Army. A new ruler-the plea of necessity and the tar factory on the sea front. The that purpose by the Government, but has been alleged by a Director of Public Works, able as erasure of the drawing office, the removal of extended into the street. I saw two, three, an engineer, but apparently acking in artistic the road surface factory, and an issue of and at one time four tar boilers, not on the the bund itself, with perception, and so, instead of a garden, a draw-marching orders to the woodyard, these are sidewalk, but out on
on the road, ing office, and a matshed for some Indian police the immediate steps called for under the cir- heaps of stone macadam out whose quarters had to be re-built. Then, when cumstances, and this is the meaning of the and practically the whel of that section these were completed, the rebuilding of the word abate-the meaning which it carries in from Queen's Statue to road running in Volunteer Headquarters was decided upon, and law when coupled with the word nuisance front of the Club almost blocked to traffic for the matsheds vacated by the police were utilised Thus strengthened it is the equivalent of weeks at a time. The whole thing had no doubt as temporary headquarters. The public indulg. abolish; and thus I intend it to be read in been a gross abuse. The Government, in order resolution which I now move. In to facilitate public work, allowed the contractor ed a hope that it would not be for long. But the
Page 10Page 11
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.