383
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
The motion was then put to the meeting and approved.
RIDER MAIN SYSTEM.
107
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.-A perusal of the Sessional Paper which has been prepared and laid upon the table gives in some detail the history of the rider main system and the discussions connected therewith. Consideration of the extracts from the reports and expert opinions quoted will show that from the very beginning the desirability of house supplies being provided only by meter, unmetered supplies to be provided by street fountains only, was very strongly emphasized. The vital question of waste is prominent through every report and with it, in the conditions of Hong Kong, the absolute necessity of holding a check on all water used, such as could be provided by the system suggested, for the cost would prevent waste in the case of house supplies, and the labour of fetching it would do the same for the free supplies. The undesirability of an intermittent system for house supplies is also strongly emphasized but at the time the rider mains were instituted there was no hope of avoiding intermittency, except by severely limiting the privilege of meters, and by making the majority of the population of the Colony dependent on water to be fetched from the fountains. There was of course at the same time a very strong desire on the part of all householders in the Colony to be provided with house supplies and the conflict of principles and wishes here shown was met ultimately by the compromise which we call the Rider Main system. It is just worthy of note that the system as originally devised for Hong Kong was meant as a means of increasing pressure section by section and not merely as a means of restriction. As accepted however it became primarily a means of providing free intermittent house supplies subject to special conditions of restriction when the necessity arose in the hope that judicious management would eke out our admittedly short supplies through the dry seasons until larger supplies were available, without interference with paid metered supplies, and with as little hardship as possible to those who remained on the rider main system.
Throughout the correspondence and the long,discussions and disputes that took place on this thorny subject, there is to be noted a certain want of confidence in the power of the rider main system to prevent the waste that it was throughout agreed must be avoided. There were however at the time no data on which a definite decision could be made on this point and ultimately in response to the heavy pressure brought to bear the rider mains were instituted and installed between 1904 and 1906. The arrangement called for the payment by the Chinese themselves of all the costs of installation and the community on this account paid a total sum of $222,069.96. The original suggestion included a further annual payment by the Chinese community for the upkeep of the rider