works decreased from $83,409 in 1877 to $68,633 in 1878. In 1879 the expenditure further increased, but only by $16,344, the outlay on public works was reduced to $62,571, the increase of the expenditure of 1879 being chiefly caused by orders for Police recruits and steam-launches ($10,839) and new furniture for Government House ($5,107). In 1880, when the revenues were calculated to amount to over a million dollars, the Governor ventured to increase the expenditure by $21,140, and in 1881, with a still rising revenue, the expenditure was further increased by the modest sum of $33,507. This was certainly economic management and the result was showy. For there was, throughout this administration, an annual surplus of revenue, over expenditure, left in hand. This annual surplus amounted, in the successive years from 1877 to 1881, to the following sums respectively, viz. $132,105, $37,114, $37,227, $121,933 and finally (in 1881) to $342,873.
With the exception of the re-construction of the Praya wall, which had been demolished by the typhoon of 1874, hardly any public works of any importance were undertaken during this administration. On the day after Sir A. Kennedy's departure, the Legislative Council agreed (March 2, 1877) to a vote of $200,000 which sum was to be taken from the Special Fund, and the sum of $50,000 was at once appropriated for the purposes of the re-construction of the Praya wall. Nevertheless the work was delayed until the autumn of 1879 when it was commenced in earnest, and, as happily no typhoon intervened, the work, which cost altogether $244,254, was completed in 1880. The new Civil Hospital was completed in 1877, a small market at Yaumati and a Lunatic Asylum at Saiyingpun were built in 1879, a new Lock Hospital was erected in 1880 and in 1881 work was commenced at the Causeway Bay Breakwater. The construction of this Breakwater had been urgently recommended in 1877 by a Commission (H. G. Thomsett, r.n., J. M. Price, J. Dixon, r.n., S. Ashton, J. P. McEuen, r.n., R. McMurdo) and their scheme had been strongly supported (November 4, 1877) by Admiral Ryder, but it was not until the end of 1881 that
