335
It is clear therefore that the water-supply generally is inadequate for the needs of the population, and in view of the steady increase in the population, I am more than ever convinced that there should be no further delay in setting up the necessary pumping plant and in providing reservoirs and service pipes for the supply of sea-water for all municipal purposes, unless a greatly increased fresh-water supply can be obtained at a less cost than that which would be incurred by the installation of such plant. There can surely be no reason in depriving the community of an ample supply of good potable water (and the purity of our water-supply is above question) in order to use it for the flushing of sewers, urinals, etc., for the watering of the streets and for the extinction of fires, for all of which purposes sea-water is generally admitted to be far more effective than fresh.
The following table shows how uncertain has been the rainfall during the past twenty years:-
Inches.
Inches.
1880,
.109.08
1890,.
70.93
1881,
98.95
1891,..
.117.12
1882,
73.36
1892,
90.97
1883.
.120.66
1893,
99.95
1884,
75.42
1894,
..104.25
1885,
108.92
1895,.....
45.83
1886,
69.17
1896,...
71.78
1887,
66.29
1897
100.03
1888,
..104.58
1898,...
57.02
1889.
119.72
1899,..
72.70
Average,.
94.61
Average,
83.06
It will also be seen that the average annual rainfall for the past decade has fallen eleven and a half inches below the average for the preceding decade.
POPULATION.
The population of the Colony at the Census taken in 1891 was found to be 221,441 and at the census taken in 1897 it was 248,880.
The following is the estimated population to the middle of 1899 :-
Non-Chinese Population,
City of Victoria including Peak and Stonecutters' Island,...... Chinese Population, Villages of Hongkong and Kowloon,
Army, Navy,
-
8,915
168,260
40,530
Floating Population,
34,700
Total Chinese Population,..
243,490
3,520
3,385
Total Population of the Colony,
259,310
The total strength of troops in Garrison on June 30th, 1899, was 82 British officers and 1,651 British Warrant Officers, N. C. O.'s and men, with 21 Indian Officers and 1,344 Indian Warrant Officers, N. C. O.'s and men, making a total of 3,098 as compared with 2,781 in 1898, and 2,577 in 1897. There were in addition 89 British women and 148 British children and also 82 Asiatic women and 103 Asiatic children on the strength.
The total strength of the British Fleet on the China Station, on June 30th, 1899, was 7,373 British Officers and men, 364 Chinese servants and 1 Japanese servant. In 1898 there were 7,497 British Officers and men on the Station. At the census taken in January, 1897, the actual number of Officers and men of Her Majesty's Navy present in the Colony was 2,268, and in view of the considerable increase in the numerical strength of the Fleet since that date, the estimated number resident here (ashore and afloat) in 1899 is put at 3,385.