30 WATER SUPPLY FOR DOMESTIC USE. 



The storage of Loch Katrine, which supphes Glasgow, is 

 5,687,000,000 gallons. It is 34 miles from the city. 



The city of Dublin is supplied from the Wicklow moun- 

 tains, 26 miles distant. 



Birmingham is spending millions in bringing water from 

 the Valley of the Wye. 



Our own Gold Creek and Enoggera resers'oirs have both 

 done service in their time, but a more reliable supply than could 

 be depended upon in these cases became necessary, and the 

 Brisbane River Scheme was formulated and carried out. When 

 this scheme was proposed we were confidently assured that the 

 water at the site of the proposed intake was of excellent quality 

 and free from sediment or organic pollution. Up to the present 

 this has not been the case ; the water, in addition to being very 

 hard, contains a large quantity of earthy and organic matter in 

 suspension, and at times is absolutely unfit to bathe in. I am 

 speaking from the experience which my own stand-pipe affords 

 me, and cannot say, of my own knowledge, what condition of 

 water is supplied to others. But this subject I intend to take 

 up and discuss fully in the near future, unless a more satisfac- 

 tory quality of water is supplied. Until now I have thought it 

 advisable to keep silent, under the impression that as the works 

 were got into regular order the quality of the water would 

 approach to that which we were promised it would be when the 

 Bill was passed through Parliament. Then, I strongly advo- 

 cated the use of filter-beds, but was assured that they would be 

 quite unnecessary. My experience of this water convinces me 

 that some means of getting rid of the suspended matters is abso- 

 lutely necessary, whether by filter-beds or subsidence tanks, and 

 that the hardness must be reduced to render it soft enough for 

 laundry and other uses. 



London is the most notable example of a city supplied by 

 river water. The city and county are supplied by eight water 

 companies, five of which draw their entire supply from the 

 River Thames, above Teddington. 



The water supply from rivers has been abandoned to a great 

 extent on account of the impurities which gain access to them 

 from the populations residing on or near their banks, and as 

 has been shown the great tendency nowadays is to secure 



