71
came to the conclusion that the scheme offered
the only prospect of bringing rainland water
across the Harbour in less than a year's time
and that I ought, therefore, to give it the fullest possible support. I therefore called a meeting of all the Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council and on the 17th January I discussed the water position fully with them. I informed them
that I was prepared to support fr. Henderson's proposals for the cross harbour ipos, a decision with which they unanimously agreed. I fw ther
informed them that, the storage on the mainland being inadequate to supply Hong Kong as well as Kowloon, I had discussed the possibilities of increasing it and that the engineers were investigating what is known as the second section of the thing un scheme. These investigations, however, would take a considerable time to complete and meanwhile the need for further storage was urgent. I had therefore considered with the engineers the possibility of proceeding at once with the construction of a reservoir known as the Kowloon Byewash Reservoir situated immediately below the present Kowloon reservoir and was prepared to recommend its immediate construction. The site has already been fully investigated and the Public Works Department is in a position to proceed with the work at once. The capacity of the reservoir is estimated at 200 million allons, the cost at $600,000, and the time for completion at
References to this reservoir will be
12 years.
found