284
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
way Bay, and at various points on the northern shores of the harbour.
The principle that, in a place with such totally inadequate natural water supply as Hong Kong, it was a Government responsibility to provide reservoirs was first laid down by Sir Hercules Robinson (Governor 1859-65). What followed may be described as a century-long race between water capacity and population. The Pokfulam Reservoir was no sooner completed (1863) than it had to be extended, and the same occurred after the completion of Tytam Reservoir in 1883. Extensions continued in these two areas, the largest work, Tytam Tuk Dam, being completed in 1917.
The lease of the New Territories provided a much needed opportunity to increase the water supply of Kowloon, which had hitherto been dependent on two wells situated near Yaumati. A new reservoir system high up in the Kowloon hills was started in 1902 and completed in 1910, extensions to it being made between 1922-5.
From 1930 water was conveyed to Hong Kong from the slopes of Taimoshan, the highest mountain in the New Territories, but even with this, supplies remained inadequate, and in 1935-6 the same area was further developed by the construction of the Jubilee Reservoir, the largest yet built in the Colony. At the present time another reservoir, still larger, is being constructed at Tai Lam Chung, and investi- gations are being carried out for the building of yet another after this is completed.
The Colony's earliest hospitals were run by missionary bodies. The first Government hospital was the Civil Hospital, founded in 1859. Part of its large old-fashioned buildings is still in use, and on the remainder of the original site today stands the spacious and modern Tsan Yuk Maternity Hos- pital, opened in 1955. The Kowloon Hospital was opened in 1925 and the Queen Mary Hospital, one of the largest and most up-to-date in Asia, in 1937. The provision of adequate