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where such buildings now exist be re-construct- ed the Colony will never be secure, and the health and the commercial interests of the Colony must ever remain jeopardised. If on the other hand, these insanitary buildings have to be re-modelled at a sacrifice by owners of considerable value, without any fair and rea- sonable compensation, the effect will be, apart from the feeling of injustice, to discourage the inflow of capital from the Chinese, who, as wisely said by many eminent persons, are the real backbone of this Colony.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND waste or use in excess of their fair share or by cutting off the supply to their houses and leaving them to draw water for themselves from public fountains; but it is unfair and unreason- able to give them in return for the rates they pay less than a fair proportion of the available
water.
To check the excessive consumption of water in Victoria the proposals in the Government Water Bill seem the most practical that can be suggested. They are, pat shortly, to give house owners the option either of having the supply to their houses disconnected and letting their tenants draw their water from public fountains | (which are to be provided in plenty) or of having the supply measured by meter and paying for the excess used above a quantity
The effect will also be felt by the various local companies, financial corporations and private individuals, who have advanced on mortgages, in the full belief that their securities were absolute. The constant inflow of capital from outside sources for advances on and invest-proportionate to the ratable value of their ments in landed properties, will also be dis couraged.
It will be admitted, I think, that at any cost the health of the Colony must be secured as speedily as possible, which can only be attained by weeding out not only the dwellings recom. mended to be resumed by the experts, but all those that are pronounced by them to be equally insanitary; which will only be left to be dealt with by the above quoted sections.
It may be argued that the immediate cost of such a sweeping measure would be too heavy to bear. But when it is considered that the annual recurrence of plague and other diseases, and the interference with commerce thereby entailed through quarantine in every direc❘ tion, it will be at once apparent that such an argument cannot be admitted, as it is! out of all proportion in its reasoning to the great importance of the subject. Here again, it must not be forgotten that the majority of land-owners. seven-eights being Chinese, and, as the cost of resumption having to be borne by the rate-payers, 95 per cent. of whom are also Chinese, the balance of the community, though sharing in infinite pro portion in the cost, will be equally benefitted by this apparentextensive resumption.-Yours, &c..
AHMET RUMJAHN.
WATER BILL: SOME CRITICISMS AND SUGGESTIONS.
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TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS." Hongkong, 2nd July. In Hongkong we have only a limited supply of water, but sufficient even without augmentation of the present sources of supply to afford every one, with reasonable economy, enough for every legitimate purpose the whole year round.
houses. The distinction between "domestic' and "non-domestic" supply is at the same time abolished and the charge for water is the same whatever purpose it is used for. But the quantity as provided in the Bill that may be used free,of xtra charge is far too small for the needs of the population and absurdly disproportionate to the total quantity available.
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By the Bill excess consumption" is thus defined-"any quantity of water ascertained by meter at having been used in a tenement in excess of a quarterly allowance, which at 50 cents per 1,000 gallons would be equal to per centum on the (annual) rating valuation of the said tenement."
Thus in a house rated at $1,200 the quarterly "free
allowance would be x 2 x 1,000 8,000 gallons, or between 8 and 89 gallons a day. On the same house the water rate would be $24 per annum and the annual “free allowance 32,000 gallons, rosting the house holder 75 cents per 1,000 gallous.
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Now the total ratable value of Victoria and the Peak District is a trifle under 87 140,000. According to the proposals in the Bill the total 'free" allowance will amount to only 47 million gallons a quarter, or 188 million gallons a year out of a total available minimum supply of over 1,200 million gallons or rather less than one sixth of the whole or about 2 gallons a head of the population per di-m. In the present Water Ordinance it is laid down that the "prescribed domestic supply "shall in no case be less than 5 gallons per head per day, and the experience gained in Kowloon, where water is drawn from public fountains by the inhabitants for their own use, shows that people actually use about 7 gallons a head a day.
To stiut the "free" allowance as proposed is, Iverture to think, to inflict unnecessary incon- venience or expense on nearly the whole popu- lation of Victoria aud the Peak District. If the whole population were to draw their water from public fountains the consumption at the Kowloon rate would be under 550 million gallons a year. It would therefore seem not unreason- able that at least one half of the total minimum available supply should be taken as the maximum to be distributed "free" in the houses of rate- payers instead of one sixth, as proposed in the Bill.
From June last year to the end of May this year was the dryest season ever known in the Colony for many years, yet in that period there were actually distributed from the reservoirs over 1,200 million gallons of water-a quantity which if it had been spread evenly over the year would have given over 34 million gallons a day, or about 16 gallons a head a day to the population of Victoria and the Peak District.
The reason why the quantity was not suffi- cient last year and why larger quantities have not been sufficient in former years to avert |
serious shortage in the supply at the end of In order to provide for the time when an the dry season, is known to be the excessive increased supply will be available in Hongkong, consumption in dwelling-houses in Victoria. I would suggest that "excess consumption " be In both the Peak District and Victoria water defined as any quantity of water ascertained is laid on to every house, but in the Peak Dis-by meter as having been used in a tenement in trict the supply to each house is measured by meter and excessive consumption has to be paid for, while in Victoria there is no effective check of any kind on the quantity of water used.
excess of a quarterly, allowance of 20 gallons, or of such number of gallons not less than 20 as the Governor in Council may from time to time prescribe, for every dollar of the annual valuation of the said tenement."
The system under which water is supplied in Victoria having thus been proved unsuited to At 20 gallons per dollar of the ratable value, the circumstances of the Colony, it has become & $1,200 house would receive 24,000 gallons the clear duty of the Government to try to a quarter or 266 gallons a day. It may be ob devise some scheme whereby excessive conjected that this allowance is more than enough; sumption, or in other words waste, may be so it is in an European house occupied by one checked, while most of the available supply is family with only about 15 inhabitants, but the distributed-for water hoarded is no use to any number of such houses in the Colony is com- one. This should be done as far as possible paratively small, and in European houses rated without imposing on such householders who do at less than $100 and in Chinese houses the not use more than their fair share of water any quantity will only be just about sufficient for greater burden than they a e already called up the reasonable needs of the inhabitants on to bear in the form of the 2 per cent. water rate, which is supposed to, and I believe in fact does, cover the annual cost of the water-supply of the Colony. It is perfectly fair and reasonable to punish householders who abuse the privilege of a house-to-house supply, by charging them heavily for the water they
小
The only sound reason for giving less than I have suggested is that the Colony cannot afford so auch without risk of shortage in the spring; but as far as I can make out from the in- formation at my disposal, the Colony will in all probability have always more than enough,
If the increased "free" allowance. I suggest
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[July 5, 1902,
be granted, it is probable that landlords of houses occupied by well-to-do tenants will accept the responsibility imposed on them; but whatever the allowance, it is unlikely that the landlords of honses occapied by poor people will risk hav- ing to make payments, which they will hare” difficulty in recovering from their tenants.
To arrive at the approximate number of houses in which the house-to-house supply is likely to be continued, is difficult; but I venture to think that it will in no case exceed one third of the whole, or say between two and three thou shad. I take this outside figure in the following" calculations, because the fewer houses that keep their supply, the less will be the total consump- tion of water; but I wish to keep on the safe side, These houses will be the more highly rated and less thickly populated houses in the town. Now fairly large houses occupied by well-to-do Chinese families, one to a floor, have from 25 to 30 inhabitants, at least, and shops in wealthy districts, where the whole house is occupied by the shopkeeper or merchant and his fokis, have from 15 to 20. To be on the safe side, let a low average be taken and say a fourth of the population-i.e, 50,000—inhabit a third of the houses, giving an average of about 20 per house. Again to be on the safe side, let the ratable value of these houses be put high, and say they are rated at half the total valuation of the city which is a little less than $7,000,000. Taking these figures, the total amount of water which may be cousumed "free" in houses to which water is laid on will then be 70 million gallous a quarter, or 280 millions a year. Assuming this is all consumed, which is nn- likely, and adding an allowance of 20 million gallons for excess consumption, which is pro- bably ample and will bring in $10,000 a year revenue, and the total consumption will come to 75 million gallons a quarter, or 30 millions a year. The remainder of the inhabitants of Victoria will have to draw from public fountains: assuming they draw at the Kowloon rate they will use about 95 million gallons a quarter, or 380 millions a year. So that the total consump.
tion of water in Victoria at the "free" allowance suggested will at the outside amount to 170 million gallons a quarter, or 680 millions a year. At this rate the consumption of water in the Colony for the eight dryest months in the year-2.9., September to May-will be 453 million gallons plus the water consumed in the Peak District, which will amount to about 6 million gallons a quarter, or 16 gallons for the eight months, making a total consumption for Hong- kong of 469 million gallons. During these eight months last year and this year, the period of greatest shortage ever known in the Colony, there were actually distribu'ed from the reservoirs over 600 million gallons. So that taking the rate of distribution I propose, there will be at the end of the dry season, without taking into account the saving affected by a smaller distribution during the summer months when the system proposed in the Bill is in force, a surplus stock under, the most unfavourable circumstances sufficient for about a quarter's consumption-a margin amply sufficient to provide for all public services throughout the year and to justify the adoption of my proposals. —Yours, etc.,
MARCUS W, SLADE.
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P.S.-At the rate proposed the total “free allowance for Victoria and the Peak district would be 571 million gallons a year, which is equal to 7 gallons a day per head of the total population (213,000) or only a third of a gallon more than the experience of Kowloon shows that people are willing to draw and carry for themselves.
THE WATER BILL.
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TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PEESS."
(Translated.) SIE.-May I be allowed to speak once again? With regard to the matter of the water meters, I do not quite understand if the amount of water to be allowed to each be in the ratio of the person is to
If this is 80, and amount of rent paid. the amount allowed is more with a high rental and less with a low rental, then such a measure tends only to increase the distress of the poor. This cannot be according to righteousness: there must be a failure some, where; and therefore I have no alternative but
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