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Council. If we had realised this we should certainly had made some refer- ence to it and should have associated ourselves with the remarks which have been made by you, Sir, and by the Senior Chinese Member. I anticipated that he would be present at a later meet- ing and that we should have an oppor- tunity of taking an official farewell then.
WATER SCHEMES.
With reference to the question of water schemes I am glad to have the assurance of the Director of Public Works that those schemes will be continued. I must confess, however, that I was somewhat surprised to hear that Mechanical Fil- tration system in Bowen Road had been definitely settled without reference to the Public Works Committee, for the Director of that the simple reason Public Works knows well that this Com- mittee went to the trouble of inspecting the Bell's Filtration, system in use at Taikoo Sugar Refinery, and from that time on no report or reference has been made to it in connection with the matter. I learn now for the first time that the Patterson system has been adopted. I happen to know that this system is not in general use in England compared with the system we advocated which has been almost universally adopted at home and bas given universal satisfaction. I sub- mit that under the circumstances the re- port of the Water Engineer sent home to investigate the matter should have the Public Works been submitted to Committee before this system was de- finitely embarked upon. The explanation of the Director of Public Works in con- "Other remarks on nection with my Charges really bears on the general subject of putting in large sums of money without definite explanations. On more than one occasion we have had to refer, in Finance Committee, to votes which bad to be passed without sufficient ex- planation and this is part and parcel of the same thing.
"
H.E. THE GOVERNOR: I rather think some misunderstanding. that there is The figure quoted on page 79 of the esti- mates is made up a very large number of estimates which are explained both in the draft estimates and on the notes covering the differences in the estimates. The hon. member should appreciate that the total may cover 40 items.
It might be ap- Hon. Mr. HOLYOAK: preciated by an accountant, but I am not an accountant.
H.E. THE GOVERNOR:
The word
"total," Other Charges, would seem to indicate that it was a total even if the hon. member is not an accountant.
EAST PRAYA DRAINAGE,
On the question Hon. Mr. HOLYOAK: of Praya East drainage I could not help noting the remark of the Director of the con- Public Works that he "hoped tractor responsible would improve the position. Surely it is for the Director of Public Works to insist upon the improve- ment.
REFUSE DESTRUCTORS.
With regard to refuse destructors, not- withstanding the fact that the Colonial Secretary has re-read to us the state- ment made in previous discussions I would beg you to note it is the unani- mous recommendation of the Unofficial Members that refuse destructors should be experimented with
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