THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 2ND DECEMBER, 1899. 1865
If the Public Works Department were properly manned or if private enterprise were availed of, there is no reason why both the new Law Courts and the Post Office should not go on together.
12. Next in order to the Sanitary Works already indicated, and to the Shelter at Victoria Gap and to the Post Office, would appear to come in importauce the speedy extension of our means of obtaining, storing, and distributing Water. The waterworks are estimated to bring in a revenue to the Colony in 1900 of $132,000. The actual cost of maintenance is estimated at $19,700, leaving a balance to credit of Water Account of, say, $112,300. It is proposed to spend on Water Account a sum of $73,000: $15,000 in carrying out the Taitam Extension, $27,000 on waterworks in Victoria and the Hill District, $11,000 on meters, &c., and $20,000 on water supply in Kowloon.
In respect of this latter item no plans appear to have been prepared or sub- mitted, and therefore in obedience to the Secretary of State's instructions of 18th April, 1890, no money can properly be asked for or voted for this work.
The Unofficial Members of Council formally protested in a memorandum dated 20th December, 1890, laid on the Council table on 22nd idem, against being asked to vote monies for works in respect of which no plans, statements or details of any kind had been prepared and submitted and of which they had not approved.
It is deeply to be regretted that with the experience of past years before us and with the rapid and rapidly increasing growth of the population in the island of Hongkong, no greater expenditure than $15,000 is proposed for 1900 in adding to our means of Water Supply in the City of Victoria. An abundant supply is indispensable to the health of the Colony; a continuous supply throughout the year and especially towards the end of the dry season is absolutely essential for the effective operation of our separate system of sewage disposal. The separate system depends wholly on a perennial supply of water at all hours of the day and night for its successful working. It was sanctioned on the assurance that abundance of water would be found and every floor in every Chinese house was provided with water works on that assurance. Every year for months the supply has been intermit- tent only. No effort should be spared to provide for a continuous water supply not merely for our present but for the growing population. A vote of $15,000 for additional water supply in the island is wholly inadequate.
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If the Staff is not strong enough to carry on the works necessary for an enlarged supply, it would be economy-true economy-to get a separate staff of Engineers equal to the work, as was done when the Taitam Reservoir was taken in hand, and establish a separate department. The Colonial Revenue is three millions and a quarter. The ordinary expenses of government and of the maintenance of existing works is two millions and three quarters. There is roughly half a million a year available for Extraordinary Public Works together with the surpluses from past years.
13. In conclusion, the first place in point of urgency should be given, in the appropriation of the Colonial Funds for Extra Works, to the sanitary wants of the Colony and among the sanitary wants of the Colony there stands in the forefront the pressing necessity of getting rid of the causes, or of any possible causes, of the visitations of plague. In that connection the necessity for an adequate number of Latrines comes first, and no estimate for 1900 which does not provide for this can be satisfactory. Perhaps the next most important public work from the point of view of health is the water supply. The increase of the water supply is hardly a work to be completed, like the latrines, in a few months. It should be continuous over a number of years, but the amount allotted for it each year should bear a large proportion to the total amount of money available.