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during the early part of 1902 similar to that which we have experienced this year. It became evident that action must be taken, not merely to increase, but to conserve the Colony's water storage; and it was first sought to attain the latter object by introducing universal meterage, the so-called "free supply" of water being placed very low.
It was hoped that, rather than incur the expense of paying for "excess consumption," the poorer classes of the population would fetch their water from the street-fountains, where they could obtain as much as they required free of charge, except in so far as the payment of rates was concerned. A bill was drafted, which provided for universal meterage, and "excess consumption" was defined in it as any quantity of water ascertained by a meter as having been used in a tenement in excess of a quarterly allowance which, at 50 cents per thousand gallons, would be equal to % of the annual rating valuation of the said tenements. Under such a system of computation, the "free" supply of water in a Chinese house inhabited by the poorer classes would, it was estimated, have been about two gallons per caput per diem. Experience gained in Kowloon at that time had shown that seven gallons a day was for domestic purposes enough for the poorer Chinese, when there was no waste; and it was anticipated that, rather than pay for the extra five gallons a head, occupants would give up their house services.
A bill, drafted on these lines, was read a first time in this Council, but its object was misunderstood by the Chinese. They imagined that the aim was to raise revenue, whereas the real object was to check waste. The then Chinese members of the Legislative Council represented to Government that the bill would fail in its object, as landlords, in order to make their houses attractive, would keep the water-services in them and would arrange to charge the tenants for their excess consumption by additions to the rent. The Chinese, it was urged, would be better pleased if Government took steps to attain its object by direct legislation, at the same time increasing the "free" supply to such premises as were allowed services. The Government thereupon abandoned the idea of universal meterage and determined to provide for the supply of water to the poorer sections of the population by means of street-fountains, a step which would have brought the distribution of water within the city into line with that then existing outside its boundaries. For the wealthier classes a supply by house services would be provided, all such services to be metered and any excess consumption above a certain allowance to be charged for. Public fountains would be opened throughout the city and all houses would be disconnected from the mains unless the owners agreed to the introduction of meters and signed an undertaking to pay for "excess consumption."
A new bill was accordingly introduced into Legislative Council and passed as Ordinance No. 29 on the 13th August, 1902. chief changes which it made in the law were:-
The
(1) The enforced use of a meter in every house connected with the water service.
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(2)
The reduction of the daily allowance of water per caput from about twelve gallons a day to about five gallons a day.
(3) The increase in the price of water to be supplied by meter from 25 cents to a sum not exceeding $1 per thousand gallons.
(4) The enforced disconnection of the existing water-service supply from every "tenement-house," i.e., every domestic building let to and inhabited by more than one occupier or family as tenants of a common landlord or sub-tenants of a tenant of any portion of such domestic building.
The two Chinese members of Legislative Council dissented from this bill also, and a petition was presented in August, 1902, by the Chinese inhabitants and firms of Hong Kong to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, praying that the legislation just passed should be disallowed, and proposing that instead the method of distribution, now known as the "rider-main system," should be introduced. The grounds upon which the Chinese objected to the new legislation were that the first three changes in the law, as set out above, would entail upon the poorer classes much expense, trouble and inconvenience as regards their water supply; that there would be endless disputes between landlords and tenants as well as between the tenants themselves who occupied different floors or parts of the same building, and also between incoming and outgoing tenants; and further that by causing the poorer classes of Chinese to use as little water as possible, cleanliness and sanitation would be greatly prejudiced. With respect to the fourth change in the law the petitioners predicted that under its operation the water-service of each and every tenement-house occupied by Chinese in the City of Victoria would be summarily cut off with a very small chance of any reconnection. Therefore, instead of the drastic measure of cutting off all water-service from tenement-houses throughout the year, the petitioners urged the adoption of a scheme suggested by Mr. Osbert Chadwick in a report on the water supply of Hong Kong, dated the 18th April, 1902, in which he proposed that subsidiary mains of small diameter, now known as "rider-mains," should be laid parallel to the principal mains on one or both sides of the city streets and that the house-services should be disconnected from the principal mains and connected to the rider-mains. In this way, the town would be divided up into blocks of convenient size, the water supply to which could be turned on and off independently and in rotation. Thus the occupants of tenement-houses would get a full supply, when the reservoir storage warranted it, and the evils of the intermittent supply in time of drought would be mitigated.
The Secretary of State agreed with the petitioners. Approval of Ordinance No. 29 of 1902 was withheld and a new bill was introduced in this Council in July, 1903, providing for the laying of rider-mains in areas which were defined as "rider-main districts.” This bill was passed into law on the 17th September, 1903. Under its provisions practically the whole of Victoria City below Kennedy
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