THE^NEW COLONY 329 



first steamer, bringing on the mails from Singapore in 1852, the 

 imports of the colony of Victoria had risen from 744,000 in 1850 

 to over 4,000,000 per annum, a fact which fully accounts for the 

 timely intervention of the British merchant. 



The city of Melbourne laboured under three serious disad- 

 vantages at this time. It had a very unsatisfactory water supply ; 

 no scheme of sewerage ; and an important area of it was liable to 

 disastrous inundations when the Yarra was swollen by heavy 

 rains or melting snow in the ranges where it took its rise. The 

 original choice of the town site was determined by the existence of 

 a natural barrier across the stream which prevented the tidal waters 

 from the bay polluting the upper reaches of the river. Above this 

 slight rocky obstruction, known as "the falls," the water was 

 drawn for the town supply, and at the date of separation it had no 

 other available source. A long row of wooden platforms, carrying 

 pumps, adorned the northern margin of the stream above Princes 

 Bridge, and from these water carts plied a busy trade in all seasons, 

 conveying this necessary of existence to the houses of the citizens 

 at 5s. per load. Though the houses, as a rule, had tanks and 

 barrels for the conservation of the rain water, the best of them 

 could hardly pass through a summer without external supplies 

 which were sufficiently costly to make the matutinal bath a luxury 

 and generally to handicap cleanliness. Apart from the question 

 of cost, however, the purity of the supply was steadily deteriorating 

 with the progress of settlement up the Yarra Valley, and in the 

 nearer populous suburb of Eichmond, whence the surface drainage 

 at least converged on the river. What had sufficed for a population 

 of 5,000 became a menace and source of alarm when that number 

 increased to 25,000. The plain indications of prejudicial effects 

 on the health of the community induced the City Council to call 

 for a report from their surveyor in January, 1851, which, when 

 received, gave quite a shock to the custodians of the public health. 

 The city surveyor declared in effect that the combination of animal 

 and vegetable decay, intensified by the refuse of fellmongery yards 

 and kindred industries, and the general dirtiness of the method of 

 distribution, rendered the fluid supplied deleterious, if not absolutely 

 dangerous, for human consumption. Owing to the disorganisation 



