THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 10TH JULY, 1875.
285
The daily allowance afforded by the reservoir is a little under 44 gallons per head of inhabitant, and this being as much as can prudently be spared from the store of impounded rain in the dry season, a new conduit could not increase the supply during that season, but at all events during the rainy months of the year, it would be the means of bringing into town much of the water that now escapes over the bye-wash into the sea. If uncontrolled it would draw off the entire contents of the reservoir in about six weeks, but such a contingency can be averted by the insertion of a meter at the outlet works, allowing only a stated number of gallons to pass out from day to day and so make the supply last until the reappearance of the rains. Such a conduit would cost £9,278 under the following heads:-
£
s. d.
Conduit,
6,864. 11. 0
Iron Main to cross steep places and ravines, Heading at Reservoir end,.
1,297. 18. 0
272. 18. 0
£8,435. 7. 0
Contingencies 10%. ········
843. 5. 0
TOTAL,
.£9,278. 12. 0
From the foregoing it will be seen that from the Low Level Project and the Pokfoolum Subsi- diary Works conjointly a water supply for Victoria may be obtained, yielding during the longest dry season, a minimum daily allowance of 174 gallons per inhabitant, the total estimate of the two works being £132,000, the thirteen gallon supply from Tytam being feasible at a cost of £1. 6. 4 per head of inhabitant, while the Pokfoolum improvement would stand at £0. 1. 11, making the aggregate rate of cost of the conjoint works £1. 8. 3 per head of inhabitant, a rate which, in spite of the large sums involved, compares most favourably with that of English and Continental water supplies which are put down at from £3 to £5 per head of population.
I have omitted from the present calculations an important item upon which I have dwelt at some length in previous Reports to Government, i. e., the cleansing and relaying of the Street mains and distributing apparatus. I consider this item should properly be included in the cost of the upkeep and maintenance of the actual water service of the town, and not in that of works presumptive. Marked good has already resulted from the work done under my directions during 1874 and the present year, in the cleansing and relaying of many of the principal mains, and if the Legislature will only continue the same grants for a few years the whole system may be so far remodelled by the time any new works are completed and more water brought into play, as to render unnecessary any extraordinary outlay on that occasion for the efficient distribution of the new supply.
In the accompanying drawings I have dealt so exhaustively, and I trust so clearly, with even the minutest details of the proposed works, that I do not deem it necessary to supplement this very brief inemorandum by a written description of them. The detail surveys and subterranean borings, postponed time after time by untoward circumstances, when at last undertaken and completed under the personal supervision of Mr. W. DANBY of this Department, left us in full possession of all the
necessary facts and geological data upon which to found the present estimates, and these may therefore be accepted with confidence. In conclusion I desire to avail myself of this opportunity to bring under the notice of His Excellency the Administrator the good services rendered by Mr. Danby throughout these investigations, not only in the field, but in the preparation of the somewhat elaborate designs which these works have rendered necessary, and personally thus publicly to return him my thanks for his valuable assistance.
The Honourable CECIL C. SMITH,
Acting Colonial Secretary.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
JOHN M. PRICE, Surveyor General.