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THE CHINA MAIL,
HONGKONG, FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1874.
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
5th March, 1874.
A meeting of the Legislative Council was held, in pursuance to notice, this afternoon, Present, H. E. the Governor, the Hon. the Chief Justico, the tion. the Col. Secretary, the Hou, the Acting Attorney General, the Hon. the Acting Col. reasurer, and the Rons. P. Kyrie, R. Rowett, J. Whittall and W. H. Alexander.
The minutes having been read and con- firmed, H. E. the Governor stated that the Council had been called together to consider the Report on the Waterworks by the Surveyor General dated Nov. 1873. That r port had already been the hands of the members. He presumed that they had carefully read it, and he Leed not therefore make any lengthened remarks in reference to it. Nor was it necessary for him to dwell upon the importance of the subject; for Members of the Council understood it as well as he did. The supply of water was gonsidered insufficient, and as the matter was closely connected with the sanitary condition of the Colony, it demanded the most careful examination. Nor would he make any sensational speech on the sani- tary condition of the Colony, as it would have no good effect, except perhaps to alatu
The present perzons of a weak mind. business was to deal with the water supply; and to ensure greater accuracy, as also to condense his remarks in as short a compass as possible, he had made a few notes of what be wished to state to the Cuncil. He bad carefully considered the report of Mr Price and the information he had submitted on the Water Supply. Mr Price had in his opinion acquitted himself with great crodit, the Report be furnished being thoroughly exhaustive. H. E's. only regret was that the scheme involved an outlay almost be- yond the means of the clony. That he thought was the principal objection which . E. Was of they bad to contend with, opinion that it did not follow because the project was an expeuaire one it was to be thrown aside. He thought something should be done they ought not abandon the idea entirely because of the large esti thate of £30,000. He would place before them a few facts, and a revised report from the Surveyor General which showed that something cheaper could be done, though the proposition would not remove all the objections. From this revised report, which he had only received yesterday, otherwise he would have it printed, for the use of members, it would he seen that the Surveyor General had had several discussions with him as to the advisability of curtailing the allowance of water per head which he advocated in his original report, Helbad now approached the whole subject under a very different aspect,--and one which H.E. boped the Council would be able to bring into some practical form.
The Surveyor General now proposed to curtail the allowance be before suggested, viz., 30 gallons in summer and 18 gallons in winter to 15 gallons per head per diem all the year round; this would reduce the es imate from £300,000 to £230,000. The Surveyor General in fact hoped to reduce it still more, in the event of the proposed detailed survey being favourably entertain- ed by the Council. But for that purpose it was absolutely necessary to have a de- tailed survey of the ground over which the water was to be carried. Members of the Council would recollect that the Surveyor General, in his original report, expressed himself in great difficulty on that subject ; indeed he had no sufficient data to go upon. Mr Price held the opinion,-in which II. E. concurred-that it was necessary before any work was entered upon, for the Coun- cil to vote the sum necessary for a thorough survey, as they would otherwise be simply groping in the dark, and going from one misapprehension into another. Without data to go upon,-which could be arrived at only by a thorough survey-it was impossible for them to come to anything like a fair estimate of what the supply would cost. When the detailed survey had
been completed, it would, in his opinion, be time enough to submit the whole ques- tion to a Comunittes of the Council; be- cause to talk of ways and means before they knew the cost would be like patting the cart before the horse; they would not ar- rive at any practical result.
H. E. then read the revised report by the Surveyor General, which was as fol lows:-
SURVEYOR-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
4th March, 1874, bir,-His Excellency the Governor bas been pleased to put the question to me as to how far it would be possible to reduce the cost of carrying out iny plans for sup- plying Victoria with water from Tytam ii the event of the Government deciding, after due enquiry, to reduce the daily allowance upon which I bad based my esiculations.
2.-lu reply, I have the honour to slate that since expendioney compels the Govern- ment to contemplate a reduction of the proposed supply, it may not do better than limit the new Taytam works exclusively to the delivery of impounded water, abandon- ing the project of wayside feeders to the conduits. In other words, the latter may be limited to the carriage of 11 gallons per head daily from Tytam all the year round, instead of 11 gallons in the Winter, and 30 gallona in the Summer as originally pro posed by me.
3.-The Tytam conduit was designed to accommodate the larger figure, viz., 30 gal- lons, but if it be now diminished from the dimensions given in page 20 of my report, to a water-way 18 inches square throughout sufficing for 11 gallons, the saving effected in brick and cement, in stone work, excava- tion, and concrete will amount to £13,099. 4-In like manner the cast iron syphon pipes may be reduced from an internal dia- meter of two feet to one of 18 inches, sav ing in tona weight of iron a value of £5,674.
5.-Applying the same reduced water- way to the tunnel work on the line, all subterranean excavations may be made one foot narrower, saving £1,885.
6. On reference to Appendix E., page 35 of my report, it will be seen that the estimate includes an item for the absorption of twenty-five tributary streatus. It was the contents of the latter that were to have been utilized swelling the allow- to 30 gallons during the summer months, but if now tributary supplies are dispoused with, the item in question may be struck out and an additional saving of £6,341 effected.
ance
7.The Service Reservoir is a feature in the proposed scheme which may be re- garded rather as a precaution dictated by prudence than a vital necessity. Its object was to have continued the supply in the event of accidents and failures (liable to occur on a line of works 6 miles long) causing the supply to cease at any moment. But on such an emergency, it may, perhaps, be found preferrable to trust to a reduced provision from the Pok-foo-lum subsidiary conduit while the breaches on the main line are being repaired, rather than incur the cost of a service reservoir. If so, under this head alone £28,673 may be eliminated.
8. The foregoing curtailments effect in the Tytam project an aggregate reduction of £55,670.
9-It follows that the Pok-foo-lum sub- sidiary works forming a part of the original comprehensive project are open to a like reduction. The conduit may, like the Ty. tam one, be contracted into an 18 inch channel to serve the 4 gallons which the reservoir at present yields per head daily, thereby saving in excavation, brickwork, masonry, concrete, and coment, a sum of £9,424
10. A consequent rednotion follone is the diameter of the cast iron pipes, and a saving in tons weight of iron equivalent to 2547.
11.-Applying a proportionate reduction to the width of tunnel waterways the retrenchment effected in sapwork is 4355.
12. The non-utilization of the twelve wayside feeders or streams mentioned in appendix D of the report enables the ex- peuditure of £9,044 to be avoided.
13. The foregoing savings on the Esti mate of the Pok-foo-lum subsidiary project amount to 13,870.
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