100 Mr. John H. Balfour Browne [March 17, 



Aqueducts, or channels by which water is conveyed along an 

 inclined plane, were known to the Greeks, but there are no remains of 

 those they constructed. The Eoman aqueducts were amongst the 

 most important of their great works, and the present supply of Rome 

 is still carried by these artificial rivers, sometimes through passages 

 cut in the hills, sometimes on arches bridging the valleys and carrying 

 the water across the plains. One of these aqueducts is 62 miles in 

 length. We in this country have had to go even further afield for 

 our water sources. A large portion (56 per cent.) of the supply of 

 Liverpool is brought from the river Vyrnwy, in North Wales, a dis- 

 tance of 68 miles. Leicester is 60 miles from the sources of the 

 Derwent Valley Water Board supply ; Birmingham gets its water from 

 Radnorshire, a distance of 74 miles ; and Manchester from Thirlmere, 

 by means of pipes and aqueducts, a distance of 96 miles. Paris 

 derives some of its water from the Champagne district through pipes 

 and aqueducts 80 miles in lengtli, and some from Yanne, a distance 

 of 104 miles. There has, too, been a suggestion that London should 

 draw its public water supplies from Wales, which would involve 

 carrying the water about 200 miles. This scheme was first suggested 

 by Mr. Bateman in 1867. He proposed to collect the rainfall on 

 204 square miles, and, by means of an aqueduct 173 miles in length, 

 to bring 230 million gallons of water a day to London, and he 

 estimated the cost at £11,400,023. About the same time, too, there 

 was a suggestion to carj-y the water of Ulleswater and Hawswater, 

 which it was said could supply 550 million gallons a day from an area 

 of 100 square miles to the Metropolis, supplying Liverpool, Leeds, 

 Bolton, Bury, Blackburn, Huddersfield, etc., on the way. These 

 great ideas were of course too large to be realised in these small 

 times, and many of these towns have, since the suggestion was made, 

 supplied themselves with water by means of comparatively small 

 scale works instead of becoming parties in a national undertaking. 



The difficulty of meeting the demands of such large towns is 

 obvious, from the fact that it involves such great works and such 

 heavy expense to secure an adequate supply. To-day, the ratepayers 

 of Birmingham are paying not only water rates, but contributing out 

 of the ordinary rates £64,000 a year to meet the heavy annual 

 charges in connection with their Welsh scheme. Such a fact indi- 

 cates that for places far from the sources of supply, and with wealth 

 comparatively small to that of the great Midland towns, the difficulty 

 of securing any supply for their future wants has become increasingly 

 difficult, and may soon become impossible ; and in this aspect the 

 question of the future water supply of our populations becomes a 

 significant political question, and because it is a matter of real 

 importance to the health and trade of our great town populations, it 

 has received no attention at all at the busy hands of our platform 

 politicians. And yet, in my view, no matter is more worthy of serious 

 consideration and attention, none which is more urgently practical, 



