WATER SUPPLY FOR DOMESTIC USE. 



By The Hon. W. F. TAYLOR, M.D., M.L.C., M.R.C.S., 



Dip. Public Health. 



[Read before tlie Royal Society of Queeiisland, December 15, 1894.] 



The importance of making provision for an adequate supply of 

 pure water for domestic use cannot be overrated in a country 

 such as this, destitute as it is of natural sources to a great extent, 

 and liable to periodical seasons of prolonged drought. That the 

 attention of successive Governments in the various colonies has 

 not been more directly and practically given to this matter has 

 been a surprise to me for many years past. Had some steps 

 been taken to remedy nature's defect in this respect in the 

 interior of the country, the results must have been highly bene- 

 ficial to the community at large, by encouraging close settlement 

 on lands — now lying waste — improving the rainfall and dew 

 precipitation, and rendering the climate more equable. One- 

 fourth of the money spent on non-productive works during the 

 last ten years would, if judiciously employed, have converted 

 dry gullies and lagoons into lakes and sheets of permanent water. 

 In 1884 I forwarded a report to the Queensland Government on 

 "Water Supply and Sewage Disposal (embodying the results of 

 my investigations when last in Europe), in which the following 

 paragraph occurs : — " A plentiful supply of pure water is of vital 

 importance to every community, more especially in tropical and 

 semi-tropical countries. The matter is of special interest to 

 Queensland, for destitute as this colony is of large rivers and 

 natural storage reservoirs, such as lakes, artificial means must 

 be resorted to in order to supply the deficiency, and wells, tanks 

 and dams be largely depended upon for the future water supply 



