102
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
The adoption of the new scheme will undoubtedly have the effect of forcing the poor to resort to the supply of street hydrants. If so, I can envisage the days of the rider-main, when people will be kept waiting and perhaps fighting for hours for a bucket or two of water. As an example of the unfairness and the inequity of the new scheme, I may quote the charge for the Peak District, which is 45 cents per thousand gallons even though the extra cost of pumping to the Peak District alone, is 30 cents per thousand gallons. Actually then, Peak residents will pay 15 cents, whereas the rest of the Colony on the lower levels, including the poor, will pay 25 cents per thousand gallons.
I note in Appendix III of the proposed Ordinance, under the heading of 'Free Allowances of Water', that the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club of Fanling is given a supply of six thousand gallons per day free of charge. I can understand and heartily endorse special grants to the hospitals and charitable institutions as enumerated in Appendix III, but can this club by any stretch of imagination be considered under the same category? In fact, this club, like the Peak District, is exclusively reserved for the privilege of Europeans. Under the circumstances, is it fair that 97 per cent. of this Colony's population be asked to pay for the privileged few?
I regret that as the Bill is so unsound in principle and not in the best interest of the people, I am compelled to register a vote against it.
THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY.-I should like, to begin with, to refer to the closing words of the Hon. Mr. Lo's speech. He refers to the difficulties of reconciling the views of different Government departments. In this instance it is not only a matter of reconciling the views and interests of different Government departments. There is a wide variety of interests among the whole community; the interests of landlords are not those of the tenants; the interests of the Peak residents are not the interests of the residents on the lower levels, there are domestic and trade consumers, and any scheme for water finance is bound to be imperfect from the point of view of any one of these interests. I cannot hope, therefore, to answer to everybody's satisfaction all the criticisms that have been made. In practically every issue which has been raised in this Council and in every discussion on this subject, it has been necessary to take the balance of advantage.
Secondly, the Hon. Mr. Lo made reference to the statement that the views expressed by the District Watch Committee and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce had been taken into consideration in framing the modified proposals, and expressed some doubt as to whether they had been really considered. But I can assure him they have been most carefully considered, and it does not follow that because all the suggestions of these bodies were not incorporated, they were not considered.
18