235187-1937-Minutes-No-3 — Page 3

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THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, APRIL 16, 1937.

Temporary Regulations made by the Governor in Council under section 2 of the Lighting Control Ordinance, 1936, Ordinance No. 55 of 1936, dated 3rd March, 1937.

Proclamation No. 2.-Apportionment of Crown Rent in respect of Kowloon

Inland Lots Nos. 404, 405 and 2081, dated 3rd February, 1937.

Sessional Papers, 1937 :-

Report on an outbreak of shiga dysentery in Hong Kong by the Director

of Medical Services.

Administration Reports, 1936:-

Part II.-Law and Order :-

Report of the Official Receiver and Registrar of Trade Marks

and Patents.

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REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE.

4. The Colonial Secretary laid on the table the Report of the Finance Committee

(No. 1), dated 3rd February, 1937, and moved its adoption.

The Colonial Treasurer seconded.

Question-put and agreed to.

QUESTION.

5. The Hon. Mr. Lo MAN-KAM, pursuant to notice, asked the following question:-

Will Government be good enough to make a statement to this Council on

the water question generally, dealing particularly with the reasons for having to resort to water restriction so soon after the completion of the Jubilee Reservoir? And if such reasons are related to either-

(a) the carrying capacity of the existing harbour pipes, or, (b) the capacity of the filtering plant on the Island,

will Government state what is intended to be done in regard to either or both, as the case may be?

The Colonial Secretary replied as follow:-

The answer to this question is that a full Report on the Water Supply of Hong Kong was recently compiled by Mr. W. WoODWARD, B.Sc., A.M.I.C.E., acting Executive Engineer of the Waterworks Maintenance Sub-Depart- ment. That report, together with covering minutes by the Executive Engineer in Charge of Waterworks and the Director of l'ublic Works, has been circulated to Members of Executive Council and is now in course of being printed as a Sessional Paper to be laid on the table of this Council. The reason for the recently imposed water restriction on the Island is twofold; in the first place the island reservoirs have been depleted by a prolonged drought and by exceptionally heavy consump- tion since the removal of restrictions in August last in the second place the Shing Mun water can at pre-ent be brought only to the level of the Public Gardens Service Reservoir and can therefore only be used in a strip of the City below the hundred foot level between Kennedy Town on the West and Bowrington Canal on the East. The capacity of the trans-harbour mains and of the filtration plant on the Island is not the cause of any present difficulty, but both these subjects afford problems for the future and will be found fully dealt with in the Sessional Paper now under preparation.

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