Sessional_Paper_1894 — Page 34

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Whatever may be the result of the resumption and the operations connected therewith which I have endeavoured to describe we shall feel that we have done our best honestly to rehabilitate a neighbourhood hitherto pre-eminent for its filth and unhealthiness, and we may be sure that the money expended will not have been expended in vain.

I will now explain the intentions of the Government in respect to Taitam Reservoir. An insufficient supply of water is considered to rank among the several defects of sanitation with which we have had to deal. To meet this defect the Government proposes as soon as possible to raise the existing Reservoir Dam at Taitam by 12 feet 6 inches. We propose also to construct a weir 10 feet above the level of the existing one and to surmount the same by a moveable sluice capable of raising the top water level of the reservoir to a height of 12 feet 6 inches above its present level. It is anticipated that these works under normal conditions will increase the storage capacity of the Reservoir by 78,000,000 gallons, and possibly by the use of the sluice by 98,000,000 gallons. The total storage capacity of Taitam Reservoir alone will then be 400,000,000 gallons. The cost of these works is estimated at $60,000, an amount which can be fairly charged against the Loan of 1892. This matter will be laid before the Public Works Committee of this Council this afternoon.

I take the opportunity of laying on the table a report on the subject of the Water Supply by the Consulting Engineer, Mr. CHADWICK, and I think you will find his remarks in reference to the evils of the intermittent system and the necessity of preventing unne- cessary waste instructive and apposite to the circumstances of Hongkong.

HERE

I now come to an extremely interesting question and that is the construction of the Sanitary Board. I need not say that this subject has engaged the most earnest consideration of the Government, and I have consulted you, Gentlemen, and have obtained your written opinions in regard to it. You will remember that the Retrenchment Committee, after a searching enquiry into all the departments of the public service, directed my special attention to the Sanitary Board. The Committee suggested that the whole sanitary system should be placed on a different basis; that all sanitary arrangements and powers should be placed in the hands of one thoroughly competent officer who should be personally responsible to Government for all matters connected with the health of the Colony and for carrying out all sanitary laws and regulations. The majority of the Unofficial Members of this Council appear to concur in that view, and favourable as I am personally to municipal and repre- sentative institutions where they can be safely established, I am bound to say that I consider that their opinion is one that should, in this instance, be acted upon. So far as my experience goes, this Colony stands on quite a different footing, in regard to sanitary matters, from other Colonies with which I am acquainted. The really great difficulty in connection with matters of sanitation in Hongkong arises out of the customs of the Chinese population. You can neither make people sober nor clean by Act of Parliament, and sanitary arrange- ments in this Colony with its 200,000 Chinese inhabitants must be subject to constant supervision and superintendence by a large staff of officers working under a head, who must give his whole time and energies to the duties of his office. That a Sanitary Board, meeting once a fortnight, could properly control and direct such a staff, I do not believe, and that four or five independent gentlemen could be found who have the time and inclination to devote several hours daily to such a task is beyond the bounds of possibility. I hope shortly to be in a position to inform you definitely what steps it has been decided to take to place the Sanitary Board on a new basis.

The Government is indebted to the Retrenchment Committee for its valuable report on the expenditure of the Colony and the possibility of effecting economies in its administration. I have forwarded the report to the Secretary of State, and have submitted most of the recom- mendations of the Committee for his Lordship's favourable consideration.

Gentlemen, there are one or two other matters connected with trade, education, crime, and exchange compensation, to which I feel bound to refer, but I will do so as briefly as possible.

Trade, as represented by shipping and emigration, received, as I have already stated, a severe check in the spring and summer of this year. Emigration was practically stopped for four months and trade to the adjacent ports was disorganised by the quarantine restric- tions imposed and by the absence of numerous Chinese merchants who fled from the Colony. Notwithstanding these hindrances, however, vessels with a total tonnage of no less than 11,813,136 tons passed in and out of the waters of Hongkong during the ten months ending the 31st October last. The cargoes of those vessels aggregated 6,209,191 tons, being a difference of 111,755 tons of shipping and 98,512 tons of cargo as compared with the same period in 1893. If we exclude the junk trade from this calculation, and it was naturally most affected by local causes, the difference between the first ten months of 1894 and 1893 would be 24,000 tons of cargo in favour of 1893.

The revenue collected by the Harbour Department to the 31st October last was $4,000 less than that collected during the same period in the previous year.