No. 7
SIR,
SURVEYOR GENERAL'S REPORT ON THE TYTAM WATER-WORKS.
Presented to the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor,
PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT,
HONGKONG, 1st November, 1885.
I have the honour to address you the customary Sessional report on the progress of the Tytam Works. I preface this report by a few remarks on the previous history of the water-supply question and on the measures which the Executive Government has taken in order to meet the wants of the people in this respect. I make no apology for travelling back to the past, on this occasion as I apprehend the fullest information touching the whole question will be of interest to the Colony at a time when the Legislature is deliberating on the project of a loan for the purpose of defraying, among other large undertakings, the completion of the works at Tytam.
On looking over my first official report on this subject dated the 1st of November, 1873, and now out of print, I find recorded, in regard to the expedients that had been adopted by previous administrations, several interesting historical facts, which I venture to recapitulate here very briefly, as an illustration, if any, were needed, of the false economy of dealing with large public questions like the colonial water-supply, by ignoring the inexorable behests of the future and pro- viding only for the exigencies of the moment.
I find that in July, 1860, the new Governor, Sir HERCULES ROBINSON, writing to the DUKE OF NEWCASTLE then Secretary of State for the Colonies, stated that the population of Victoria had suffered very keenly during the previous winter from the scarcity of water, and that the Colonial Government was consequently considering the important question of the most practicable way of obtaining a new and more generous provision for the people. Subsequently the same Governor reported to the Colonial Office that the project of a Mr. RAWLING had been recom- mended to him by a Royal Commission whom he had specially appointed to look into the whole question of the water-supply, and that he had accordingly, subject to Imperial sanction, adopted the recommendations of the Commission.
The project of Mr. RAWLING which involved an outlay of $170,000, was destined to satisfy only actual necessities. It comprised the erection of a masonry dam fifteen feet high, across the Pokfoolum stream, for the purpose of stopping the waters of that stream at a spot a little above where now stands Douglas Castle, and the laying of a ten-inch cast iron pipe from the pond thus formed, along the Pokfoolum carriage road into town. This small masonry dam and pond may still be seen below the Pokfoolum reservoir; they do not appear to have been utilized in any way in the larger works that afterwards superseded them, so that Mr. RAWLING'S Outlay on the dam, became as it were a dead loss on the subsequent construction of a reservoir higher up the valley.
The new water-works having been sanctioned by the DUKE OF NEWCASTLE were carried out and completed by Mr. RAWLING in a very substantial manner, their cost being met by a water rate of two per cent. on the value of house rentals, a tax that was cheerfully acquiesced in by a people able to indulge for the first time in what appeared to be comparatively an abundance of pure water.
But the influx of immigration from the mainland had continued unceasingly during the progress of these works, and already one year after their completion the number of water-consumers had increased so largely, that complaints began to be heard among the poorer classes as in former times, of the insufficiency of water.
Honourable F. STEWART, LL.D.,
Acting Colonial Secretary,
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