\ 



PUBLIC WORKS— ROADS AND BRIDGES. 



295 



strikiBg contrast to some of tlio cities of the old world. The last 

 report of the Board shows that diirin<,^ IHDi the average consinnption 

 of water was 34-2o g-allons per estimated head of population per diem, 

 the average daily supply being lo,730,000 gallons, and the estimated 

 population supplied being 401,380. The revenue received was £ 1 (H ,1G7, 

 which, after providing for working expenses amounting to t3{t'274' 

 enabled the Boai'd to provide interest at the rate of 3-54 ])er cent, on 

 a capital of £3,440,014. The cheapness of the Sydiuy water supply 

 is very clearly brought out by a table prepared by the Board showing 

 the water rates and charges of some of the principal cities of Australia, 

 England, and America. The assessment for a house of £50 annual 

 rental in Sydney would be, as shown by that table, £1 5s. In Adelaide 

 the same house would be charged £2 lOs. ; in Belfast (Ireland) £2 

 Is. 8d. ; Dublin, £1 9s. 4d. ; Bradford (England) £3 5s. ; Liverpool, £2 

 16s. 3d.; Manchester, £2 10s.; Dundee (Scotland) £2 14s. 2d.; Edin- 

 burgh, £1 lis. 3d.; while under the London Companies it would be 

 about £2 10s. In Boston (U.S.A.) the charge is low, viz., £1 Os. lOd., 

 but in Montreal (Canada) it is as high as £4 8s. 6d. 



Mention should also be made of the works which the Government 

 have carried out for places outside Sydney Almost every town of any 

 size in the Colony now has its water supply. The scheme for the towns 

 embraced in what is called the Hunter River District, viz., Newcastle 

 and suburbs, East and West Maitland, and Morpeth, is a very 

 extensive one, and is managed by a Board constituted on the lines of 

 the Metropolitan Board. In the case of other towns the works have 

 been constructed by the Government, and then handed over for 

 administration to the local municipalities, who enter into an agree- 

 ment to repay the cost in a certain number of years. The benefits 

 which these towns derive from a constant water supply, situated as 

 many of them are, in the dry interior, cannot be over-estimated. 



The Sydney sewerage system, in its present complete form, is of 

 comparatively recent date, the works having been only commenced 

 in 1880, and although so far as the city and immediate suburbs are 

 concerned, it has now been in operation for some years, the works for 

 tiie outlying suburbs, although well advanced, have not yet been 

 completed. Briefly described, the works consist of a main northern 

 outfall sewer which collects the sewage of the portion of Sydney and 

 suburbs which naturally drain into Port Jackson, and discharges into 

 the Pacific Ocean at a point about 5 miles to the south of Sydney Heads. 

 The sewage of the southern district is collected into a separate system 

 and conveyed to a sewage farm on the shores of Botany Bay. The 

 scheme also comprises a system for the western suburbs, which also 

 discharges on to the sewage farm at Botany. In addition to the 

 extensive reticulation works in connection with the main scheme, 

 numerous stonnwater drains have been constructed where foul and 

 insanitary creeks formerly existed. The amount expended on th9se 

 works up to the end of 1894 was £1,745,120, the revenue received by 

 the Water and Sewerage Board, by which they are administered, was 

 £93,134, the net interest on capital after payiiig working expenses* 

 being 3-72 per cent. The effect which the construction of these works 

 has had upon the health of Sydney has been most marked. In 1875 

 measles and scarlet fever proved so destructive to life that a Royal 



