continuance of the Mint under some arrangement or other. But they had neither encouragement nor advice to offer. Sir Richard then (March, 1868) sought to move the local Banks to take over the Mint and to work it for their own profit under Government supervision. The terms proposed by one Bank, which alone made an offer, did not come up to the Governor's expectations. Accordingly the Mint was closed, the machinery sold (June, 1868) for $60,000 to the Japanese Government, and the buildings and ground were disposed of, for the purposes of a sugar refinery, to Jardine, Matheson & Co., for $65,000. The Colony realized thus a total of $125,000 as the result of an outlay which, even three years before, amounted to half a million dollars.
It could not be expected that an administration so crippled in respect of funds would do much in the sphere of public works. Sir Richard displayed in this respect also his energy and readiness of resource and did what was possible under the circumstances. He secured the erection of several new police stations and had all police establishments on the Island connected by telegraph lines. He had hoped to be allowed to draw on the Special Fund for this expenditure as well as for the fitting out of a steam-gunboat, but permission was refused, and the cost of these undertakings had to be provided from the ordinary revenue. He had been anxious to erect a new Hospital and a new Court House, but the funds at his disposal, over-strained by the Military Contribution, had to be husbanded to supply the most pressing needs of repairs of public buildings, roads and bridges, and water-works. During the year 1869, the Governor spent £39,959 on public works, and nearly half of that sum was devoted to water-works. On 17th September, 1869, he stated that a further sum of £19,600 was required for the extension of the Pokfulam reservoir and for repairs of the dam, but that the work was only half completed. He explained, that the original estimate of the. work was $100,000, whereas it would now cost double, and that the history of these water-works shewed how heavily the Colony may lose, when attempting the most necessary public works, by the incompetence of its employees, and how seldom the
