1935-09-03 — Page 7

SOLVING THE COLONY'S

WATER PROBLEM

Impounding Begins At Shing Mun

Before a distinguished gathering. Yesterday afternoon, His Excellency, Sir Thomas Southor, EBE, CMG., the Officer Administering the Government attended by Mr, J. H, B. Lee, Fri- vale Secretary and Captain W. J. R. Crier; A.D.C., performed *a brief and epoch making ceremony "—to use His Excellency's own words—at the Shing Mon Jubilee Dam, when he set a syren blowing by means of an electrically controlled plug board, which was the signal for engineers to close the main valve in the scour pipe.

Mr. G. B. Gifford Hall; Resident Engineer addressing the rathering after Hils Excellency's arrival said that as soon as Sir Thomas had performed the brief ceremony of closing the main valve, every drop of water would be impounded by the dam until the water reaches the spill.

At a signal from Mr. Gifford Hull, Sir Thomas placed the level In the socket. The gathering then adjournëd to the grounds out- side one of the many pleasant bungalows, where tea and light, refreshments were served.

GOVERNOR REVIEWS POSITION

33

H

ir

Addressing the gathering. His | Engineer, Mr. R. M. Henderson, Excellency said:—

now Director of Public Works. This Mr. Hull, Ladles and Gentlemen,-involved the great Gorge Valley *There was nothing spectacular | Dam which we have visited this about to-day's ilttle ceremony but | afternoon. yet it marks a very definite step in the attack on the water prob- lems of Hong Kong, an attack in which the Shing Man Dam is the most important operation.

These water problems have been with us practically ever since the foundation of the Colony and the Government has been accused, not without some show of Justice in the past, of allowing the needs of the Colony to outstrip the supply of water avaliable. This accusa- tion we hope will not again be justified in our generation though he would be a bold man who would dare to prophesy how long it will be before even the Jubilee Reser- voir proves inadequate..

The climate and natural features of the Colony have made the task of giving an adequate water supply a very difficult one for our Eng!

WORK BEGUN

A work of this magnitude could not be carried out by our own Engineer's in addition to their ordinary duties and our consulting Engineers, Messrs, Binnte. Deacon and Gourley, selected Mr. G. B. Gifford Eull, an Engineer of wide experience and proved ability in this type of engineering, to carry out the work according to their designs. Many months were spent la preliminary investigations and preparation of plans but at last in 1933 the work began and it then became a race against time to see we could obtain any relief from the dam against a possible' water famine in the spring of 1938.

So far as the Engineers are concerned, ladies and gentlemen, that race has been won and you

HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1935.

NO INTENTION

TO FRAUD

Boatman In Trouble

THE DEFENCES OF CEYLON

More Men And Equipment

SUT AN ON THE

RUN AGAIN

Settlement Effected

After negotiations between the officers of the Hong Kong, Canton "All eyes in Ceylon are on De- and Macau Steamboat Company

the Kwangtung and

Seamen's fence.

The island occupies a position of

Union regarding the suspension great strategic importance. It did of the service of the s.s. Sul An which was held 'up at Canton due not escape the attention of the enemy even during the Great War to the crew going on a trike on settlement has been An officer serving with Captain effected whereby several of von Muller in the notorious Emden demands were met. said that, if Colombo did not pay

а Friday,

the

One of these demands was that the toll taken from Madras by that the Chief Officer of the Sut An, cruiser it was because of the Mr. Carter be removed from the greater efficiency of Colombo's de-ship. It was revealed at a faset- fences.

for a transfer to another ship

stating that under the present

Described as a habitual drinker' by the prosecuting officer, Lo Pui (30) of boat No. 3480 was charged Before Mr. W. M. Thomson at the Kowloon Magistracy with obtain- ing credit by fraud, by partaking of a meal to the value of 82 cents from the Kwan Chan eating house at No. 163 Reclamation Street, Yaumati on Sunday, without pay ing for same.

Defendant pleaded guilty to the charge, and was bound over by the Magistrate in a $25 bond to come up for Judgment in one year. He was fürther' ordered to It has now become obvious that ing that Mr. Carter himself asked pay 31 to the complainant as Ceylon will be an important point compensation for the meal, falling in the scheme of Empire Defence, which he was 'to go to jail for sharing this responsibility with seven days.

Singapore, Hong Kong, and Aus- The prosecuting officer, Inspec-tralia's proposed chain of forts. tor Shannon in presenting the Trincomalee, in the north of facts of the case, said that de- Ceylon, is rapidly being made into fendant at $ p.m. on Sunday a first-class naval base, and it is went into the eating house at possible that the colony will have Reclamation Street and ordered a its own Defence Council meal and wine. of which he Great effort is being made to partook. When asked for pay-bring the island's military forces ment he said that if they per-up to strength, and provision will mitted him to go to No. 19 Port- be made in next year's Budget for land Street he could obtain some many improvements,--- money. However on arrival there he was unsuccessful, and a toki of the shop then took him back, where he was handed over to a coristable.

It is felt that the Defence Force of the island must be mobile enough and well enough equipped to meet invasion by sea or by alr. It is possible also that it will be augmented by a regular British regiment.

for him to get on in thể bỏẩữ, circumstances it would be bard

This information was given to in extraordinary meeting of the Directors of the Steamboat Co. which was held on Sunday and when Union came

A representative of the to Hong Kong and was told of this development hẹ gave an undertaking that the crew

would rejoin the ship immediate-

17.

*rew

The Buf An is at present moor-

Point. having arrived in Hong ea of the western end of West, Kong, late on Sunday after a trip which proved ↑ gruelling ex- pertence for the scratch Aboard. Inspector Shannon sald inat

Deserted by her regular crew when defendant arrived at the station he was in a

the Captain had dificulty in very in-

EUROPEAN UNITS toxicated state. There was how-

bringing her down and the efforts It is possible that a regular of the scratch crew however ever, no evidence to say that he military unit will be recruited managed to do the taska no was drunk when he went into the locally. Ceylonese cannot join the mean feat. The purser, the wire- eating house. It appeared to him, Ceylon Mounted Rifles or the Ceyless operator and the guards all that defendant did not have any lon Planters Rifle Corps, because acted as stokers, working in short intention of frauding the eating these units were constituted by shifts. house, but after the meat he was special legislation which does not here yesterday by train and took incapable of obtaining the neces-permit the enrolment of non-over the duties once again, sary, cash

Europeans.

neers for if a constant supply of have witnessed this "afternoon the express to them all the thanks of Reserve Bill, as sqon, as it had re-

water is to be given throughout closing of the last remaining out- the year it is necessary to have inlet of the Shing Mun river and store. at the beginning of the dry the Jubilee Reservoir has been season in October, 日 full six born. At what pace Mr. Hull's nion the supply. The available child will grow depends now not storage space on the Island of Hong | ont the Engineers but on the Kong is as you know limited; but weather which no one, not even the growth of the population has been unlimited.

I have been told that when Sir Henry May opened the Tytam Tuk Reservoir in 1918 it was stated that Hong Kong's water problems bad been solved. Such were the vagaries of our weather and such the growth of our population that the Colony was, I understand, on a restricted supply within three or four years.

MAINLAND SUPPLIES

the Except for

comparatively small upper Aberdeen Reservoir, the Tytam Tuk Reservoir marked the limit of storage on the Island and our Engineers were forced to look to the mainland for further supplies for Hong Kong. Now the the

skill and

The regular crew arrived

One Fatal

Several traffic

accidents were

In binding over the defendant, It is obvious that the East Indies the Magistrate gave him a piece Station of the Navy and the Ceylon CROP OF TRAFFIC of advise by telling him to keep Defence Force will work together out of the way of the Police when closely. That "the Navy is Cey- next he wished to drink, or else lon's greatest protection" is the

ACCIDENTS he would have to forfelt his bond slow of the President of the Ceylon. Branch of the Navy League. He told the branch at Its last meeting that the Island's Volunteer Naval the Colony for the engineering ceived Royal Assent, would place which have enabled the work to

the devotion to duty the body on a proper footing, and reported to the police during the that training would begin within week-end in one of which it turn- proceed, in spite of many difficul-

a few months. It would be a freshed out to be fatal. ties, with much speed as to give

opening for Ceylon's young men.

Mr. D. W. Munton, manager of us the benefit of

increased after the

In the general defence scheme the China Light and Fower Com- the Nicobar Islands are likely to pany Limited, was involved in a become the half-way house be- motor accident on Saturday re- tween Malaya and Ceylon. Binga-sulting in a Chinese gid being

killed. pore RAF. Aying boats will soon be paying a visit to these islands and will stop there for refuelling on their fight to Colombo.

*

water supply so soon the meteorologists. can control commencement of the work.

This much, however, we do know

down

the

that from to-day every drop of water which comes Shing Mun River will be impound-

fore the dry weather sets in.

HEIGHT OF DAM

you

TYPHOON WANTED!`·

H

"One typhoon will give us all we want" added our informant,

Interviewed by the representa ed by the Dam until the water tive of the "Dally Press" one of reaches the spill and as we are the engineers in charge of the over eleven inches below the scheme, said that it Was their average in our rainfall for the intention to raise the water to a year we can reasonably hope for level of 528.00 feet above sea level. a considerable amount of rain be-The bed bottom of the dam is 320 feet above sea level, so it can readily be seen that, should there Now

are not to suppose-be-enough rain of course, it was

Intention to from this that the Dam has their

have

ap of water reached its full height. Far from proximately 200 feet it, the Dam is only 160 feet high stored. with another 115 feet still to be added and can impound only some 500 million gallons of water as and apparently this will be the against the 3,000 million gallons first time in the history of the which the completed Dam will Colony that a typhoon will be provide some one and a half years welcomed rather than the con- hence: but the Dam is being trary. Otherwise, if the weather raised

day and

such the continues

as experienced use of their supply to meet the Engineers have calculated that, last month, it will take at least of some catastrophic three months before the water reeds of Hong Kong even though short they had the inestimable benefit of calamity, they can build faster reached the desired level.

When completed the dam will than the reservoir can fill in the few weeks of wet weather still be 635 feet above sea level and to build the Shing Mun Dam, remaining before the dry season. there is yet another 100 feet to thereby creating the Jubilee Reser-This decision was not made with- be completed. voir they would have had some out grave consideration by reason for

fears. for Engineering experts and it Was their reservoirs

ma'nland" already "suppiled growing city of Kowloon and I am not sure that the Kowloon Re- sidents viewed with any great enthusiasm the proposal to make

a perennial stream from which to draw. And if we had not decided

every

i

According to a police report, Mr. Munton was driving car No. 4230 in Waterloo Road when, the child ran out and was struck by the bumper.

seven

The islands, which as Sir Re- ginald Craddock told the House of Commons not long ago use coco- The girl, Ho Nul aged nuts for currency," will almost years, was removed to the Kow- certainly be used as a regular loon Hospital in a critical condi- stopping-place when the air service ton. She died yesterday

The accident occured near the between Ceylon and Malaya takes

Junction of Argyle Street. shape.

THEFT OF A WATCH

A fracture of the right leg was sustained by a boy, Leung. Ka- wing, aged 13, of 573 Reclamation Street, when he was knocked down by car No. 2058 driven by - Chlu Chiu, clerk of the Tat Cheong Garage. The boy received treat- ment at the Kowloon Hospital.

Sentence of 3 weeks imprison- ment was imposed by Mr. W. M. Thomson at the Kowloon Magis- tracy yesterday morning, on Chan

LADY INVOLVED Fat (37) who was charged before him with the theft of a wristlet Road, Kowloon Tong, has report- Mra. A. J. Kew, of 111 Waterloo watch on August 31, From Funged to the police that while driving Chum (25) a bean curd maker of private car No. 4037 along Taipou No. 187 Reclamation Street. It Road towards Fanling on Sunday was stated by the prosecuting morning, and when overtaking a officer that complainant on miss-motorbus, she misjudged the road ing his watch asked for defendant and drove the car into a ditch, who could not be found on the The accident gecurred about 100 premises. He sent out a foki to yards from the Talpoo Market. No look for the latter, and fortunate- one was injured but the right ly he was seen, strolling along front and rear mudguards of the Battery Street. When questioned car sustained minor damage. The special journal to Lendon earty

Guests invited included the fol- defendant adm tted taking the car was later taken out of the this year in order that the Colony.

ditch and driven back to Kow might enjoy an increased water towing-His. Excellency the Gen- watch

A pawn ticket was found in his

Icon. supply in the coming dry weather eral Officer Commanding. Lieut.-

·FALL INTO HARBOUR We need now a generous but not Generál Q. C. Börrett, His Honour pocket relating to the watch which recently duplicated as you know. weeks to reap-

The first cross harbour pipe line, excessive rainfall in the next few, the Chief Justice, Sir Atholl Mache ad pawned for $1.00 The

the full benent Gregor and Lady MacGregor, Mr. value of the watch was said for be by Mr. E W. Fielding, of 8 Bay which

was the necessary pre-from to-day's brief but epoch Charles L. Hoover, Consul General $4.00. An additional order was View Mansions, fell into the har- liminary to a raid on the Kowloon

for the United States and Mrs made by the Magistrate for the bour yesterday morning from the making ceremony. After Bir water supply, was not approved Henry May's experience at Tytam Hoover, Mr. H. Gipperich, Consul dollar to be refunded to the com- Central Praya, according to DO without considerable misgivings. Tuk I am going to make no pro- General for Germany, and Mrs. plainant so that he could redeem ice report. Mr. Fjelding parked Its success was instantaneous and phecies but I can safely say that Gipperich Mons. R. Soulange the watch

their

were

nons

too large for Kowloon, and the river, though it never runs dry, comes perilously near it at certain times of the year, b

our

necessary for Mr. Hulf to make a

THE GUESTS

An Austin car, No. 2242, owned

the car in Connaught Róna Cen- it has proved of the utmost value barring unforeseen accidents the Telex Consul General for

tral. He had it got out of the car and was walking away when even without a large storage re- Colony trom now on will have a France, Cominodore and Mrs. C.:] servoir from which to draw its

ever increasing supply of water G. Sedgwick, Hon Mr C. G.LW Amps, Mr. A. Brearly, Col it moved forward and went over supplies. The Honourable Mr. Runtil the 3,000 million galloa Alabaster, Hon Mr. E. Taylor, and Mrs M. Carrington-Sykes, the praya Wall into the water.

Walle driving car No. 2009, M. Henderson, Mr. A. B. Purves and mark is reached and that the end on. Mr. R. M and Mrs. Hender Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Crapnell, Prof. Mr. W. Woodward, who were prin of our periods of restricted sup som, Hon. Sir Henry and Lady and Mrs. L. J. Davis, Ident, Cot Castle Peak Rond about 4.30. cipally responsible for the design ply, at any rate until the Colony Pollock, Hon. Mr. R. H. Kotewall, and Mrs E 9 Doughty, Mr. and on Sunday. Mr. A. Reed, and laying of the cross harbour pipe, are greatly to be congratulat brought one stage nesrer.

grows much larger, is definitely on. Commander and Mrs. G. F. Mrs. Lambert Dunbar, Col and Statory Rond collated ed on its success. But the scheme" was of very limited usefulness-

TRIBUTE TO STAFF A. 6. W. THO HOL WL Z 1. C. Harison, Cal A C. Marsh ed but without a large storage reservoir I cannot close without asking Cháy Hon. Mr. W. H. and Mrs. CoL, MIs, and the Misses Morris, report and after our disastrous experi- you to join with me in congratu- Bell; Mr, and Mrs. G. R. Sayer, Mr. and Mrs. Felix Joseph, Mr. the ences in the water, famine of 1928, lating Mr. Hull and his staff, and Mr. W. Schofield, Mr. and Mrs. D. and Mrs, A. B. Purves, Dr. and the Government had no alternative the Consulting Engineers on the Burlingham, Mr. and Mrs. E E MIs, J. T. Smaller, Mr. and Mrs but to proceed, regardless of its success which has attended their Williams, Mr. and Mrs. H. Green, J. H. Tiggart, Major and Mire. H. great cost, with the second stage work. This is not the time to go Mr. and Mrs. E. W Handton Mr. St. G. Thoyis, Mr. and Mrs. of the Shing Mun Valley Scheme into details which can be dealt and Mrs. J. Owen-Hughes. M. H Stanton, Mr. GG which had been worked out some with more properly it the opening R. Butters, Mr. A. W. G. H. Gran- | Mrs. É E Grel', years before by our very able Water of the finished dam but I must tham, Mr. Lawrence Kadoorie, Mr. and Mr. and Mrs. C. K. Cürth.

Hole. Hon. Dr. and Mrs. W. B. A. Mms. M. F. Fordham, Professor L. other vehicle, Moore, Hon. Mr. J. F. Bragg, Hon. Forster, Col. M. H. Logan, Col. E. Both vehicles were

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