680 Mr. James Manser gh [March 18, 



of Radnor, Brecon and Cardigan. These rivers are tributaries of the 

 Wye, which, passing through Radnor, Brecon, Hereford, Monmouth 

 and Gloucester, joins the Severn near Chepstow. 



Diagram No. 1, being a map of England, shows the relative 

 positions of Birmingham and the Elan shed, with the aqueduct 

 (§0 miles). It also shows the Stockton and Middlesbrough 

 (35 miles), the Manchester Thirlmere (100 miles), and the Liver- 

 pool Vyrnwy (66 miles), schemes all executed ; and in addition the 

 Welsh scheme for London (170 miles), projected by my friend 

 Sir Alexander Binnie. 



In order to obtain complete control of the drainage area, and thus 

 secure the water from pollution, the Corporation asked Parliament to 

 allow them to acquire the whole of it by purchase, a proposition which 

 induced the opposition of the landowners, the Commoners and the 

 Commons Preservation Society. The Bill was also opposed by a 

 number of property owners upon the line of aqueduct, by a small 

 section of Birmingham ratepayers, by the Corporation of Hereford, 

 and by the London County Council ; the ground of the last-mentioned 

 opposition being that the source of supply was an exceptionally good 

 one, that therefore the Council might some day like to get hold of it, 

 and that Birmingham ought to wait until London had made up its 

 mind. We were most effectively assisted in combating this ojjposition 

 by your worthy Honorary Secretary, Sir Frederick Bramwell, who 

 had been engaged in the Liverpool fight twelve years previously, and 

 was able to testify that a similar objection was made at that time by 

 the Metropolitan Board of Works to the taking of the waters of 

 the Vyrnwy to the great Lancashire seaport, and to show that the 

 London water question was no further advanced in 1892 than it was 

 in 1880. This London contention was met by setting out in detail 

 the many streams in the Welsh mountains which were available for 

 the Metropolis, but too low for Birmingham ; streams which, when pro- 

 vided with proper storage reservoirs, were competent to supply nearly 

 500 miUion gallons a day without touching the Elan and Claerwen. 



In addition to these oppositions we had of course to fight — as 

 happens in all water Bills of this class — the question of the amount 

 of compensation water to be paid to the river for the right to divert 

 the water authorised to be taken for the supply of Birmingham. In 

 the case of works established upon the rivers of Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire, whose waters are utilised for manufacturing purposes 

 nearly up to their sources, this is a serious question, but fortunately 

 in the whole course of the Wye, and the Elan below the point of 

 abstraction, there is not a single case of such utilisation even for 

 driving the wheel of a corn mill. This did not, however, prevent 

 most exorbitant claims being set up by riparian owner's on account 

 of their fishing rights — not, however, by the net-fishers in the lower 

 reaches who make their livelihood out of the fishing, but by sports- 

 men who handle a rod for diversion. In the Bill as deposited we 

 had proposed that the quantity of compensation water should be 22J 



