BY R. C. RINGROSE, M.A. 205 
has become of the water? This question resolves itself into 
two :— 
1.—This relates to the supply of water above the ground. 
How much water is carried away by rivers or streams, or stored 
in lakes, in any given area of natural drainage ? This question 
then becomes one of physical geography, which is, of 
course, intimately connected with the geology of the country. 
Now, in order to deal with the question, it will be necessary to 
map out the colony and determine the areas of natural 
drainage—a subject which still requires to be worked out. 
The country would then have to be divided into natural dis- 
tricts showing the water system. I may say that this has 
already been done in England by the Water Supply Commission, 
and in a colony like this where the greater part of the land is 
still unsettled, I maintain that it is the duty of the Government 
to be able to give the fullest information on this head. 
2.—The question of the underground water supply. This isa 
much more difficult one, but not less important, for we see that in 
seasons of drought like this, whole districts are depending on 
underground water supply. Now this part of the question depends 
entirely on the geology os the country. Engineers admit that 
for information relating to underground water-supply they must 
rely on the work of geologists. It is for engineers to get 
and store the water when they have been shown where the areas 
fir sinking exist. The supply of underground water must 
depend entirely on the nature and structure of the rocks. I 
cannot do more in this paper than refer to the various reports 
of the Committee on Underground Water Supply, published 
by the British Association; to several papers by Mr. Abbott, in 
the Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales; 
to the account of the Water Supply Conference in England 
(‘‘ Nature,” August 14, 1884, vol. xxx., p. 375), and more 
especially to a statement in a paper by Mr. H. C. Russell,* 
* Proceedings Royal Society New South Wales, vol. xvii., p. 129. 
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