Sir,
KING'S COLLEGE LONDON,
W.C.
9th March 1903.
I have the honour to return the copy of a report by Mr Osbert Chadwick C.M.G. upon the Waterworks Consolidation Ordinance 1902 of Hongkong together with a copy of that ordinance and a petition from certain Chinese rate payers asking that the ordinance may be disallowed.
2. In accordance with a request of the Colonial Office I discussed with Mr Chadwick the objections which have been raised to the new ordinance by certain Chinese rate payers in their petition to the Secretary of State for the Colonies and after careful consideration we came to the conclusion that certain modifications in the ordinance in consonance with some of the views of the Petitioners could with advantage be incorporated. These I see are referred to in Mr Chadwick's report and I beg to state that I fully concur with his remarks on the subject.
3. There can be no doubt that under existing conditions the present system in Hongkong by which water pipes and taps are on every floor of a house, be it a tenement house or other building, must lead to an intermittent system during the very dry season of the year. The wastage of water with an eastern population under such a system is so enormous that even with the supply more than doubled I doubt whether the inhabitants will obtain a constant supply in any but excessively wet seasons. For instance very similar difficulties have arisen in Calcutta. At one time while the supply was mainly derived from street Hydrants placed at moderate distances from one another and only a few houses were connected the supply was constant but as...