PAST AND PKESENT SANITARY CONDITION OF SYDNEY. 527 



The old City Council was abolished by Act of Parliament and 

 was succeeded by a body termed City Commissioners. To these 

 gentlemen the city is indebted for the first movement in the way 

 of improving, and providing for the sanitary wants of the com- 

 munity. This movement connnenced about thirty-six years ago, 

 and it is within that period that any progress in Sanitary Science 

 has been made. 



Under the City Commissioners a system of sewerage was 

 devised with the vie^^' of intercepting the sewage from the slopes 

 rising from the valley of the Tank Stream and discharging it at a 

 point remote from the principal shipping centi'e. 



The main sewer starts from Fort Macquarie and extends through 

 the Government Domain to the Excliange, receiving the sewage 

 from branch sewers in Macquarie, Phillip, Elizabeth, Castlereagh, 

 Pitt, and Geoi'ge Streets. 



The system was not carried out without considerable trouble 

 and expenditui-e of funds owing to the natural formation, through 

 which the bulk of the work was constructed, being sandstone. 

 The sesvers were designed in accordance with the best principles 

 known at the time, and have answei'ed the purpose for which they 

 were carried out. 



On completion of tlie work houses were connected thereto and 

 the old cesspit gradually disappeared, although there were not a 

 few instances where the facilities atforded were not availed of, the 

 old order of things being adhered to. 



The system commenced was gradually extended to other drainage 

 areas of the city, but under different authority ; the City Com- 

 missioners being replaced by the present City CoriDoration in 1857. 

 Considerable progress has been made since the City Corporation 

 assumed control of civic aft'airs in Water Supply and Sewerage, 

 in forming and macadamizing roads, sti'eets, &g , in kerbing, 

 guttering and paving, in constructing markets, warves, forming 

 parks and other recx'eation grounds, providing public drinking 

 fountains and urinals, cleansing and watering streets, tkc. 



It was found necessary, owing to the growing requirements of the 

 city, to extend the source of water supply, the limited catchment 

 of the Lachlan Swamps being inadequate to meet the demand. 

 The increased supply was found in the Botany Swamps, and by 

 impounding the water by a series of dams between Randwick and 

 Botany roads, a daily supply of 5,000,000 gallons equal to twenty- 

 five gallons per head of poj^ulation was available, the catch- 

 ment ai-ea being about six square miles. The increased supply 

 enabled the authorities to extend the sewerage works to all parts 

 of the city and to provide such conveniences foi- the public 

 as materially tended to improve the sanitary condition of the 



