168 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN INSTITUTE.  [VOL. XI 
in architectural beauty, situated often on low-lying and otherwise most 
unsuitable ground areas. Too often no serious attempt is made to lay 
out the streets with taste or to erect the houses with due provision for 
a reasonable amount of comfort and sanitary safeguards. They often 
seem to be erected at haphazard in close proximity to the works, and in 
the midst of an atmosphere contaminated with grime and smoke. Very 
little provision is made for open spaces, garden facilities and park areas. 
The matter is left entirely to the whim of the manufacturer and the 
machinations of the land speculator. 
The proper housing of workmen should, I venture to say, be as much 
the concern of Boards of Health as the disposal of sewage or the pro- 
vision of a supply of pure water. If due care be taken now by adequate 
legislative action we can easily see te it that at a very small additional 
cost homes can be provided for our workmen pleasing in design, artisti- 
cally located in healthy locations, and with properly laid out areas for 
garden and recreation purposes which will give the moral and aesthetic 
natures of our working people a legitimate chance of development. 
Our water supplies in Western Ontario will also have to be looked 
after. At the present time these are drawn for practically all the towns 
in this district from sources which in the near future cannot fail to become 
contaminated. In the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron we have an in- 
exhaustible supply of pure water. With this as a source it would seem 
to be quite a.simple engineering problem to erect reservoirs on the 
height of land in the counties of Perth and Waterloo, Wellington, or 
Dufferin, which would supply the whole of Western Ontario. If this 
were done the pumping plants in all the cities and towns in the 
district could be dispensed with, and one plant of suitable dimensions, 
if properly located, would suffice for all. We have seen how in England 
and Scotland vast sums of money have been expended and how great 
physical difficulties have been overcome to furnish the cities of Glasgow, 
Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and London with a 
plentiful supply of pure water. In Western Ontario the problem would 
I venture to think, be a comparatively simple one to solve. It would 
however require to be dealt with in a broad way, but with the example 
of the successful development of the Provincial Hydro-electric scheme 
before us, it is a problem which our different municipalities, towns and 
cities might readily undertake to consider, confident that a satisfactory 
and yet simple solution can readily be found. 
But I must close my remarks. 
In what has preceded I have endeavoured to present a few aspects 
of the question of industrial research as they appear to me. My treat- 
ment must necessarily be inadequate and defective. I have not had the 
