558
2
3
On reading the above speech I ventured to address you the following letter:-
The Hon. F. STEWART, L.L.D., Colonial Secretary, &c.
MOSBERT CHADWICK, and it having been my duty, while in the Department, Professional to make the map shewing the drains of the City, a reduced copy of which is to be experience, found attached to Mr. CHADWICK's report, and again to Mr. COOPER's report, I consider myself thoroughly acquainted with the existing drains.
The existing drains are very clearly described by Mr. CHADWICK as follows;-
Hongkong 14th November, 1885,
Letter from Mr. Leigh to the Hon.
Secretary.
SIR,
Having read with great interest the speech of His Excellency the Governor, in which he mentions his wish to receive any suggestions relating to the Colonial the proposed scheme of drainage for this City, I beg to mention, that as a professional man of ten years experience in this Colony, partly in the Government Service and partly in private practice, and taking a keen interest in the affairs of the Colony, I see some points in which my opinion differs from that shewn forth in the plan as at present proposed.
Letter from
Colonial Secretary.
In order to enable me to submit my ideas, I should be glad of the permission of His Excellency the Governor to be furnished with the detailed plans and estimates of the proposed scheme, on receipt of which it will be my endeavour to carefully study the same, and to the best of my ability offer such suggestions as I may think will be of use to His Excellency the Governor.
I have the honour to be,
Sir.
Your most obedient servant
(Signed) R. K. Leigh,
Assoc. Mem. Inst. C.E.
To which I had the honour to receive the following reply:
No. 1637.
HONGKONG, COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE, 17th November, 1888.
SIR,
In reply to your letter of the 14th instant, asking to be furnished with the the Hon. the detailed plans and estimates in connection with the proposed system of separate main drainage, I am directed by the Governor to inform you, that the only question is as to the goodness or hadness of the proposed scheme; and on this the estimates have no bearing.
His Excellency has, however, no objection to your inspecting the plans, at your convenience, in this office.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
R. K. LEIGH, Esq.,
(Signed)
A.M.I.C.E., &c., &c., &c.
FREDERICK STEWART,
Colonial Secretary.
Before proceeding with any criticism on the proposed scheme of drainage, I wish to state, that I have not written to any paper either anonymously or Disclaimer of otherwise on the subject, and that I consider any man who has received the comunica-
New education of a Civil Engineer and who has practised his profession at home, ought to be, with the necessary local experience, perfectly competent to deal with the comparatively simple engineering question of the drainage of this City.
papers.
Having been for three years Assistant Engineer in the Surveyor General's Department (February, 1880, to October, 1882), during which time this very question of drainage came prominently forward owing to the visit of
<
wick's
opinions of
drains.
The public sewers appear to have been made, rather as drains to carry Mr. Chal- off storm water, than as sewers to remove from habitations the foul waters usually known as sewage. Neither their form nor their construction is that the existing which is considered desirable for the latter purpose. They do not appear to have been made on any general plan, but rather to have been constructed from time to time as the necessity arose, and they seem to have been designed to convey the storm waters and perennial flow from the ravines above, and the surface water of the streets and houses, by the shortest and most direct line to the harbour, into which they discharge their contents through large openings in the wharf wall. The inverts of these outlets are at about the level of low water ordinary spring tides. They are not provided with tide-flaps. With few exceptions no attempt has been made to carry out the effluent below low-water mark, nor to select positions for outfalls where "a strong tidal stream would remove it. Consequently deposit takes place at their mouths, and hence at low tide there is a most offensive smell along the whole harbour front."
++
I confirmed part of the above in the following terms before the late Confirmation Fever Commission:-
"I think the chief fault of the drainage of Hongkong, is, that it has grown from time to time, without any proper system being carried out. As the sewers become a nuisance, so they were trapped, both by private individuals on " a very wholesale scale, and also by the Government in the roads. This trapping to all intents and purposes unventilated the sewers, and increased the nuisance; as to the sewers themselves, some of them-many of the more "modern ones--are of a very good section, some of the older ones are not.”
of Mr. Chad- wick's opinions.
of Mr.
Having thus touched upon the present drainage of the City, I will now Description proceed to describe Mr. CHADWICK's proposal.
Chadwick's proposals.
existing
conveyance seware and
He proposes to utilize the present drains for the conveyance of sewage and Proposed to rainfall as at present, modifying and improving their section, &c., and utilize constructing an intercepting sewer on the Praya Wall, of sufficient capacity to drains for carry off the sewage and a small amount of rainfall, carrying this intercepting sewer to an outfall in the Sulphur Channel, at which point be would require to rainfall, & 2. pump the sewage. Whenever there was a heavy rainfall, as is usual during the rainy season, a free discharge is allowed direct into the harbour through the System. present outlets.
66
His report states as follows:-----
"I hope to show that the existing sewers of Victoria may be improved so as to fit them for the conveyance of sewage, besides serving to carry the storm "water to the harbour, as they do at present, and further, that the sewage, during dry weather, may be diverted from their lower extremities, and carried to some distant outfall, where it will be innocuous.”
to call the Combined System.
This I
propose
on the
Combined
Chadwick's
System and
The proposed scheme of drainage, as described in the report under Diference consideration, is diametrically opposed to that of Mr. CHADWICK, in that it between Mr. separates the sewage from the rainfall over the entire area of the City in the Combined most minute way, leaving the present drains for the conveyance of rainfall only, Mr. Cooper's and laying down a complete new system of pipe sewers for the conveyance of Separate sewage leading to four main outfalls. Those of Districts Nos. 1 and 2 being at Belchers Point, No. 3, at Possession Point, and No. 4 at Bowrington Canal, this last outfall is recommended to be continued to North Point and there pumped.
This is strictly what is known as the Separate System.
System.
Scheme, viz.,
The method of drainage, which I propose, may be generally described, as Surgestel the adopting for the strictly Chinese portions of the City Mr. CHADWICK'S Combined recommendation to use the present drains for the conveyance of sewage and Syn for rainfall, but omitting the intercepting sewer he proposed allowing them to Chinese
purely
districts.
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