470
HONGKONG'S WATER SUPPLY.
water reserve
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
HONGKONG AND THE KWANGSI
FAMINE.
[December 28, 1903.
He men-
the rainfall has been between 93 and 94 | to give any other impression. inches, and we may put it at 94 for the tions indeed his journeying in company (Daily Press, 19th December.)
whole year, making 1903 the ninth wettest with Mr. FLETCHER, of the Hongkong Yet this letter is About this time last year the water ques-
year in the series of twenty, and very consi- Government service. tion was a very prominent one in Hongkong. derably above the average of about 80 calmly quoted as a testimony to the Ameri- The city of Victoria had then been on inter- inches. Once more the utter inadequacy can relief work. The whole tenor of the mittent capply for over seven weeks, the of our water-storage capacity on the island | accounts in the Herald is that the help curtailment having commenced on the 1st is demonstrated. It is known that prepara-given by the New York journal, under the November. Now, in the absence of further tions for increasing this capacity largely direction of the Hou, ROBERT M. McWADE, U.S. Consul-General at Canton, stopped the rein (which may fairly be presumed), we (though not by any means too largely, in
opinion), are in shall be on intermittent supply again next our
progress, but Kwangsi famine, the other assistance given Monday, some parts of the city being pro- as there is a suspicion abroad that being negligable. We appeal to the sense mised four hours' water and others water all is not going well with the Tytamtuk of justice of those Americans who shared in for varying periods, down to as little as one works, we think it is due from the Govern- the relief work to say whether this is so, hour. As we pointed out yesterday, the ment that a reassurance should be given, and we have no doubt as to their answer. three reservoirs contained on the 1st instant if possible, that no serious obstacle has been We cannot blame the Christian Herald for 26,139,000 more gallons of water than on
found to delay the prosecution of so neces- the garbled accounts of the charitable opera the same date last year, but were all far sary a scheme as that of the new reservoir tions which appeared in its columns. Those below overflow, Tytam being 10 ft. 10 in., there, We trust that one of the un-official | reports were sent to our New York contem- Pokfulum 15 ft 9 in., and Wongneicheong members of the Legislative Council will porary from Canton, and the hand that sent them is plain. In all the accounts there is 38 ft. 7 in. below. We have now the dry take this question up.
one name which appears innumerable times; season of the year to face, with no prospect of heavy rainfall until next
it is that of the Hon. ROBERT M. McWADE, U.S. Consul-General at Canton. After May. The situation has therefore come about that the present
reading the Hon. ROBERT M. McWADE'S is insufficient to allow with safety a full
(Daily Press, 24th December.)
version of how the Kwangsi famine was Bupply, and the city accordingly is reduced Hongkong residents, who between them relieved, we gather that the main agent in it to what is considered half-supply.
In subscribed nearly $50,000 to a fund started was the Hon. ROBERT M. McWADE. We November, 1902, the amount of water con-
in the Colouy under the name of the therefore challenge the Hon. ROBERT M. sumed per head, under intermittent supply, Kwangsi Famine Fund, have been under MCWADE to justify what he has written. was 10.4 gallons; iu November, 1903, with the inrpression that their pecuniary assist. The verdict may rest with the general body, full supply, it was 18 gallons per head. Asauce, backed up by the actual work of irrespective of nationality, of those who is a familiar fact, Victoria is to have a distribution, etc., carried on by certain laboured so hard and so unselfishly to aid rider-main system, but this has not yet gentlemen connected with Hongkong and the starving Kwangsi population in their begun to be distributed. The materials by some zealous missionary volunteers in distress, without any thoughts of advertising or themselves. We are have not yet been received in Hongkong, the Kwang provinces, did a great deal to their country and the Water Authority, in reply to au
save lives and mitigate hardships in the convinced, too, that the Christian Herald We must confess to never intended its readers' generosity enquiry, informs us that they will not be famine districts. received for some time to come. The old having shared in this belief, convinced by to be exploited in the way in which it has system of distribution must be followed the impartial statements of missionaries, been. Advertisement of this kind sullies until the ridet-mains are laid, and with our
both of British and of American nation- | the name of charity, and must be distasteful lities. We were nadequate reserve we are to be reduced to
not a little astonished to every right-minded man, in whatever half supply. The Hon. W. CHATHAM states therefore to see in the pages of a New York part of the world he lives. But of course that by past experience it is quite safe to religious weekly, the Christian Herald, there may be some explanation forthcoming
<t our relief"
from the Hon. ROBERT M. McWADE. That give a half-supply. There is no likelihood, various descriptions of how he thinks, of our having to bring water in was welcomed in Kwangsi, "our" referring is a matter which must be left to the boats from Kowloon, as was made necessary
of course to the Christian Herald's. Now honourable gentleman himself. at the beginning of this year by the dry the New York paper, it is true, very season of 1902. According to statistics the humanely promoted a fund, to which its chances are against our having a great readers contributed most generously, to the quantity of rain for some considerable time extent of not less than $40,000 gold, for the
(Daily Press, 21st December.) as we said above. These statistics are of no relief of the famine-stricken in Kwangsi.
The near approach of Christmas in Hongkong little interest, and we need make no apology For this splendid exhibition of charity the has been accompanied by two circumstances in- were deservedly teresting to the meteorological department as well therefore for quoting them in full. They Herald and its readers are as follows:-
thanked by the Chinese officials in most as to the general public. They are
With the thermometer unstinted terms. Hongkong too can heartily weather and less water.
well above 60 and at times even above 70 again admire the open-handedness of a com munity so very much more remote from the it is somewhat surprising to reflect on the recent scene of suffering than we are, which can so drop to just above 40 on the Peak in the early freely give from its wealth to relieve distress mornings. Just now it is unsafe to speculate what the temperature will be from day to-day. which has touched ourselves so deeply. Th water question is a more unpleasant one, Nevertheless, we cannot see that it is just and I expect we shall hear a good deal about it that the efforts of Hongkong, which, though in the coming months. To-day sees Victoria a comparatively small place, gave at least once more on short commous, some unfortunate half as much as the charitable New Yorkers, residents bing allowed only from 6 a.m. to should be ignored or, worse still, appro-78.. each day to supply themselves for the priated to swell the feelings of satisfaction of the Christian Herald readers at the
BAINFALL AT HONGKONG OBSERVATORY.
1903 1902
1884-1901 in in. Mean Max. Min.
0.29 January 1.87
138 8.43 0.00 February 0,21 0.02 2.05 7.95 0.24 March 2.65 0.43 2.75 10.49 0.17 April... 4.72 1.84 5.82 14.89 1,96 May 13.96 26.73 12.66 48.81 1.15 June 25.23 15.44 16.40 34.37 :.34 July 11.16 16.26 13.28 28.24 4.57 August 14.97 20.51 13.50 27.87 5.20
0 63 Sept.... 16.53
2.17 19.11 1.04 October 1.66 1.94 5.10
17.87 0.01 Nov....... 1.09 6.40 1.54
7.32 0.01 December
2.96 0.98 4.09 0.00 YEARLY RAINFALL AT OBSERVATORY.
inches. 75.42 1(8.92
69.17
66 29
1884.
1-85
1886
1887
1888
104.58
1889
119.72
1890
1891
#4
70 98 117.12
1892
90.97
1893)
9.1.95
1894
104.25
1895
45.83
1896
1897
100,03
...
1898
57.0%
1899
1900
1901
1902
*44
AD
72 79
72.69
79.73 55.78 97.50
This year's figures are not yet complete, of course, but for the eleven months gone
HONGKONG
JOTTINGS,
wa mer
day. Surely the Water Authority might have shown a little more consideration and arranged for their pittance to reach them an hour later!
success of their efforts. To show what we
An era of overflowing baths, etc, will now set mean, we will give examples. Throughout in eve y morning early. All who have any in the reports sent from Canton to the experience of the Chinese "by" know that to Herald Hongkong's share in the relief is meet the restrictions imposed by the Water passed over, generally without even bare Authority he contrives, in spite of all orders, to turu on every tap in the house over-night, so aus mention, and the Hongkong workers are classed as part of the American, There is into do away with the necessity of rising from his bed before he wauts to. The waste of water the Herald of the 23rd September last, a thus caused must be very great, photograph of a group of "American relief workers at the gate of a temple?' ; these are six British subjects and two Americans! More striking still, in the Herald of the 22nd July appears a letter under the head ing of "the relief work described," in which a letter of the Rev. H. K. SHUMAKER is quoted with reference to the work done at Kwai Un. At Kwai Un the rice used was rice, and we do not all Hongkong believe that Mr. SHUMAKER ever intended
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Though the days are warm the nights draw in early, and the demand on the very limited resources of the Gas Company consequently becomes all the more insistent. Some two months ago it was expisinel in the Daily Press that the Company were engaged in laying larger mains in the central district and that in a very short time the pressure of gas in the mains on the higher levels would consequently no longer be insufficient. Well, the long- suffering public has waited, and waited in vain