Oloughling.
"China Mail
of dict and & & More
March, 1876..
Water Supply
Proceedings of the Legislative Comcil
in
budisme Nr. 2 in Governor Iri Artim Kennedy's Despatch No 44 of 7th March 1876
The Daily Press.
HONGKONG, MARCH 6TH, 1874.
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. March 5th.
Present: --
H.E. the GoVERNOR.
Hon. J. SMALE, Chief Justice.
T
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دو
J. G. AUSTIN, Colonial-Secretary.
T. C. HAYLLAR, Acting Attorney-
General
C. May, Acting Colonial-Treasurer.
W. H. ALEXANDER.
"
P. RYRIE.
"
R. ROWETT.
JAS, WHITTALL,
The Council met pursuant to notice.
The minutes of the last meeting were adopt- od and sigued.
IL.E. the GOVERNOR said he had summoned the Council mainly to consider the report of the Surveyor-General on the water supply of Hongkong. He assumed that all the members had read the report, and it was not, therefore, necessary to enlarge upon it. The importance of the matter would be recognised by all not only as necessary for convenience, but it was also important upon sanitary grounds. If be liked he might, without difficulty, make a telling and sensational speech, but this could serve no purpose, but that of frighten. ing some nervons people, especially as at the do anything, present time we could not He went on to say that he had fully consi- dored the report, and he did not see anything to say against the manner in which it had been treated professionally, and he thought the Surveyor-General had acquitted himself very oreditably, and had made an able and exhaus tive report. He only regretted that the scheme involved an outlay almost beyond the means of the Colony. It did not, however, follow that they should altogether abandon the scheme of obtain ing a water supply, because they could not afford so large a sum as £300,000; and be bad certain facts to put before the Council, which be thought would show them that they could do something. They would see by the report which he would put before them from the Surveyor-General that he bad had several dis- cussions with him on the advisability of curtailing the allowance of water, which he Ho HOW bad advocated in that report. placed the matter under a different aspect, and one which
the be boped, with assistance of the Council, to bring into a practical form. The Surveyor-General now proposed to give a constant allowance of 15 gallona in lien of 183 gallons in winter, and 30 in summer-as proposed before. In conse quence of that be estimate might be reduced from £300,000 to £230,000 The Surveyor- General also expressed a hope to be able still farther to reduce the estimate, should the scheme be favourably entertained by the Conn- eil. For that purpose, it would be absolutely necessary that a detailed survey should be made of the ground. In the original report, the Surveyor-General expressed grave doubts as to whether any other scheme could be adopted; but he considered it would be much more satis- factory to approach the question after a full insight into the amount required for the service. He went on to say that he was strongly of opinion that before the Council came to any decision about the sum necessary to defray the cost, a thorough survey should be effect- ed. Unless they had certain data which could only be arrived at by a thorough! sarvey, it would be impossible to form any. thing like a fair estimate of what the supply would cost them. This detailed survey being completed, the whole question could be sub- mitted to a select Committee of the Council, to consider the details, looking at it from ways and menas point of view, and arrive at a practical resolution,
His EXCELLENCY then read the subjoined report from the Surveyor-General. He stated that it would have been printed and placed in the hands of the members before, but that it had only been received by hita on Wednesday.
REPORT.
SURVEYOR GENERAL'S OFFICE,
4th March, 1874. Sra. His Excellency the Governor has been
pleased to put the question to me as to how far it would be possible to reduce the cost of carrying out my plans for supplying Victoria with water from Tytam in the event of the Government deciding, after due enquiry, to reduce he daily allowance upon which I had based my calculations.
2.-In reply, I have the bonour to state that since expediency compels the Government to. coutemplate a reduction of the proposed sup- ply, it may not do better than limit the new Tytam works exclusively to the delivery of im- puanded water, abandoning the project of way- side 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 gallons in the Summer, as originally proposed by me.
3-The Tytam conduit was designed to ac- gommodate the larger figure, viz., 30 gallons, but if it be now diminished from the dimen- sione given in page 20 of my report, to a water- way 18 inches square throughout, sufficing for 11 gallons, the suving effected in brick and eement, in stone work, excavation and concrete will amount to £13,099.
4.- Lu like manner the cast iron syphon pipes may be reduced from an internal diameter of two feet to one of 8 inches, saving in tons weight of iron a value of £3,674.
5.-Applying the same reduced waterway to the tunnel work on the line, all subterranean excavations may be made one foot narrower, saving £1,885.
6.-On referenon to Appendix A., page 35 of my report, it will be seen that the estimate in- eludes an item for the absorption of twenty-five tributary streams. It was the contents of the latter that were to have bees utilized in swelling the allowance to 30 gallons during the Summer months, but it now tributary supplies are die. pensed with, the item in question may be strack out, and an additional saving of £6,841 effected. 7.-The Service Reservoir is a feature in the proposed scheme which may be regarded rather as a precaution dictated by prudence than a vital necessity. Its object was, to have cou- tinued the supply in the event of accidents and failures (liable to ocenr on a line of works 64 miles long) causing the supply to cease at any moment. But on such an emergency, it may, perhaps be found preferable to trust to a re. duced 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 £28,678 may be eliminated.
S.-The foregoing curtailments effect in the Tytam project an aggregate reduction of £55,670.
9.It follows that the Pok-foo-lam subsidiary works forming a part of the original compres bensive project are open to a like reduction. The conduit may, like the Tytam one, be cou tracted into an 18 inch channel to serve the 4 gallons which the reservoir at present yields per head daily, thereby saving in excavation, brick. work, masonry, concrete and cement a sum of £9,421.
10.-A consequent reduction follows in the diameter of the cast iron pipes, and a saving in tons weight of iron equivalent to £547.
11.-Applying a proportionate reduction to the width of tunnel waterways, the retrench- ment effected in sapwork is £355.
12.-The non-utilization of the twelve way- side feeders or streams mentioned in Appendix D of the report enables the expenditure of £8,044 to be avoided.
13.-The foregoing savings on the Estimato of the Pok-foo-luc subsidiary project amonut to £13,370.
14-The grand total of aggregate savings in the Tytam line, and the Pok-foo-lum subsi- diary one, amount to £69,040.
15.-Therefore the matter now stands thus: | for the revised estimate of £239,107 a daily provision of 15 gallons per head may be had all the year round, instead of the allowance of 184 gallons in Winter and 30 gallons in Summer, which the original project provided at a cost of £902,147.
16. More than ever impressed with the in- calculable sanitary value of an abundant supply of water in a Chinese tropical City, I shrink from the responsibility of recommending to the Go- vernment any further curtailment of the allow. ance in providing for future works.
17.-Once more I bave the honour to point out the absolute necessity of a careful detail survey in order to arrive at the fixed cost of the proposed works. A preliminary survey such as the one made, merely serves to give a
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