684757-1880-Publishes-certain-documents-which-were-laid-before-the-Legislative-Council- — Page 9

716 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11тп SEPTEMBER, 1880.

5. In laying this suggestion and the accompanying plans before you, I venture to recommend its adoption, and to ask you for authority to submit to the Legislative Council a vote for $50,000 to carry

it into effect.

I have, &c.,

J. POPE HENNESSY.

(In C.S.O. No. 1171 of 1879.)

REPORT BY MESSRS. PRICE, RYRIE, AND CReach.

The undersigned having met several times to discuss the question of the insufficiency of vater for the extinction of fires in Victoria, now submit, as the result of their deliberations, the project of high. level tanks and Fire Brigade mains, elaborated by the Surveyor General in the accompanying plans

and estimates.

*

They are of opinion that the project would receive the support of the community, and that the outlay of fifty thousand dollars though large, is one which, after the experience of last Christmas Day, may properly be recommended to the Executive.

If the Tytam scheme for an increased water supply for general uses be not feasible, they consider that, looking to the danger of destruction which house property continues to incur, no time should be lost in securing a sufficient storage of water, at least for Fire Brigade purposes, and with reference to such a storage, they desire to point out that the present proposal of special Fire Brigade mains would be none the less desirable, even in the event of the realization of the Tytam scheme.

By the plan of inter-connected tanks, now submitted, it will be possible to concentrate six hundred and thirty thousand gallons on any fire between the Sailors' Home and the City Hall, and as the pressure on the proposed Fire Brigade mains will suffice to send a stream over the tops of the highest houses, the aid of fire-engines will not be required. These, however, would continue to play a most important part in pumping an additional supply from the sea.

The undersigned, however, can only recommend the project now submitted, on the assumption that the most jealous care will be taken to prevent any connection between the special Fire Brigade mains and the actual water-mains of the city, as such a connection would be fatal to the project, by destroying the pressure, which it should be sought to maintain intact at every fire-plug.

The undersigned avail themselves of this opportunity to call the attention of Government to the grave necessity of dredging the Praya foreshore at certain places already indicated by the Superintendent of the Fire Brigade, to a depth sufficient to admit of fire-engines being usefully employed during the hours of low tide.

J. M. PRICE.

P. RYRIE.

C. V. CREAGH.

Hongkong, 17th September, 1879.

HONGKONG, No. 157.

SIR MICHAEL. HICKS-BEACH TO GOVERNOR J. POPE HENNESSY, C.M.G.

DOWNING STREET,

19th December, 1879.

SIR,I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 82 of the 10th Sep- tember, in which you request my sanction to an addition of £1,000 to the Establishment charges of the Fire Brigade, with the view of securing the services of a competent Superintendent and a competent Engineer, and of your despatch No. 93 of the 22nd October, in which you suggest that a sum of $50.000 should be expended on providing a system of interconnected tanks and of hydrants.

2. The information before me has not appeared to me to be sufficient to justify me in taking steps for procuring the services of the 2 officers specified, and I am disposed to think that were the scheme suggested in the latter of your two despatches to be carried out, it would be possible to diminish instead of to increase the establishment of the Fire Brigade.

3. I am not however prepared, as at present advised, to sanction from public funds the large ex- penditure which would be caused by the adoption of the proposed system of hydrants, and I am disposed to think that the burden of providing against fires in the town of Victoria, is one which should be borne by the Insurance Companies, which I infer from your despatches do not now contribute towards the extinction of fires, and by the householders, rather than directly by the Government.