CO129-525-3 Estimates 1931 and other financial papers 16-1-1930 - 1-9-1932 — Page 283

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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

From the point of view of minimising the hardship, the proposal of the Government has everything to recommend it; but the poor themselves desire no change. What is the reason? Thousands of the residents in the rider-main districts are of the working class who cannot afford to pay any charge for excess consumption of water when they find it already difficult to eke out a bare existence.

This is a hard fact which cannot be ignored. It is true that over to the Kowloon many people of this class have moved Peninsula which has no rider-mains; but those who have chosen to remain or to move into the rider-main districts, must have good reasons for so doing. Those reasons are that they have to be near their work or that they cannot afford the expense of a metered supply. Thus by the necessity of economic pressure these people have perforce to submit to the periodical inconvenience and hardship of having to obtain water from the street-fountains, with the consoling thought that they would have a direct house-supply for at least part of the year.

Several men have put to me what seemed to them a pertinent question. They solemnly asked: "Kowloon has no rider-mains; why I offered them a counter-query. should Hongkong have them?" "Because Smith has not a house, should Jones, who has one to Further arguments which he has a perfect title, be deprived of it?"

are unnecessary.

I have also heard it contended that, at any rate, the people have had their money's worth in the use of the rider-mains for 26 years, having paid only $222,000 for laying the mains, and not having been called upon by the Government to pay for their maintenance. It should be pointed out that the question of upkeep never formed part of the scheme, for at a meeting of the Legislative Council held on the 17th September, 1903, the Hon. Colonial Secretary said that after the first cost was paid by the owners "there would be no further charge to them for the supervision and maintenance of the rider-mains which would be included in the general expenditure of the Colony."

In regard to the free use of water for 26 years, it should be remembered that against this privilege are offset the hardship and inconvenience which the people have had to undergo, almost annually, during that same period by reason of restrictions of varying severity having been imposed on them, and the amount of water which such restrictions have saved to the general public.

For the various reasons I have given, the people in the rider-main districts cannot see the necessity or justice of the Government's proposal. We have received strong representations, urging the retention of the system, from various institutions, including the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, the Tung Wah

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