474
increase continue, the population to be provided for in 1905, when the works will have reached completion, will be about 112,000. Taking the moderate allowance of 10 gallons per head per day, the daily supply required will be about 1,120,000 gallons. That is to say, the original scheme would only have given about half the supply required whilst the new scheme will have a reasonable margin to carry out further works being constructed. That further works will have to be undertaken soon after the completion of this scheme there can be little doubt.
Mr. Orcutt suggested in his Report that the dam should only be carried to a height of 50 feet in the first instance, leaving the raising of it to the full height to a future date. With the experience gained in Hong Kong and the facts stated above before me, I strongly deprecate such a course and recommend that the dam be carried to its full height at once.
There is no doubt, whatever, that, had the System Dam been originally built to its full height, Hong Kong would have been spared some of the water famines from which it has suffered.