1887-1903
HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
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of this reservoir, which is carried into the town round the base of Mount Davis and the Victoria Peak by a conduit some 3.4 miles in length, has always been rendered muddy by heavy rains, and this disagreeable and most undesirable effect has been aggravated this year not only by an exceptional season, but by the number of excavations for houses which have been made at the brink of the watershed. As the upper levels and other outlying portions of the town must be still dependent upon this supply, it is a matter of urgent importance that a work which ought to have been commenced long ago should be as quickly as possible pushed to completion.
48. Owing to the causes referred to under the head of expenditure, other works, although equally needed, have either made very slight progress or have not been commenced at all. The general improvement of the drainage, the necessity of which is continually increasing, will be commenced as soon as the engineers, who are being consulted on the subject, have decided on the system to be adopted; and the same may be said respecting the distribution works required for the Tytam Water. The Western Market has not proceeded beyond the preparation of the site, and there has as yet been no possibility of commencing the public laundries which appeared on the estimates for the year and are very much required, the present process of clothes-washing being in various ways dangerous to health, especially from the quantity of soap in solution which in some quarters pollutes the air. The Epidemic Hospital has not been built because not a single site that was, or apparently can be, selected was without grave objections. In consequence, it has been determined to have recourse to a hulk; and it is to be hoped that the efforts to obtain one, commenced some months ago, may now be shortly successful.
49. A similar difficulty in respect of site has occurred in connection with the Lunatic Asylum intended to be provided for Chinese. Such a building is required because the present Asylum is sufficient only for Europeans, Chinese patients having been ordinarily confined under most undesirable conditions in a building in the charge of the Directors of the Tung-Wah Hospital. It is, however, necessary to restrict the use of the proposed Asylum to Chinese either born or long resident in the Colony, or we should be very quickly inundated with lunatics from the neighbouring Empire. But for service within these prescribed limits such an institution is, and must have been for a long time past, very grievously required on the simplest grounds of humanity. I am glad, therefore, to be able to report that a site has at length been selected, and the plan of the buildings approved; so that, it may be hoped, the work will now proceed without further delay.
50. But second to no other work in importance or necessity is that which is intended to effect the junction of the East and West Praya by an embankment* carried along the front of the Naval
* Not the reclamation mentioned under the head “Legislation.”
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