CO129-525-3 Estimates 1931 and other financial papers 16-1-1930 - 1-9-1932 — Page 314

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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Regulation made under section 3 of the Importation and

Exportation Ordinance, 1915.

Addition made under section 2 of the Advertisements

Regulation Ordinance, 1912.

The Air Navigation Directions (Hong Kong), 1932.

Report of the Director of Public Works for the year, 1931.

Report of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs for the year, 1931.

Colony's Water Supply. Efforts to check waste. Universal Meterage: Rider Mains, (Sessional Paper No. 4 of 1932).

QUESTIONS.

HON. MR. KOTEWALL asked:-

With reference to the questions which I put in this Council on the 19th May, 1932, and the Hon. Colonial Secretary's reply thereto, and in view of the water situation having greatly improved since that date, will the Government state whether it is prepared immediately to re-introduce a direct supply of water to the unmetered houses in the rider- main districts for, say, 8 hours a day with, if necessary, a corresponding decrease in the hours of supply to the metered houses and the street-fountains, so as to permit of a fairer distribution among all classes of the population, and to reduce the risk of a spread of cholera-infection through contamination of water-receptacles exposed in the streets, and through water being drawn from possibly contaminated sources such as nullahs and streams?

THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS replied:-

The Government sees no reason to grant a special concession to rider main areas at the expense of metered areas, when it is prepared to grant meters as quickly as the work can be carried out to all householders who apply for them. The water position has recently improved to such an extent that it has become possible to open some of the rider main areas without detriment to the metered areas, and this has now been done. There remain certain rider main areas in which it has not been possible to reintroduce the old rider main system. This matter forms the subject of a motion to be introduced by the Colonial Secretary this afternoon.

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