INLAND WATER SURVEY 243 
ings and all others interested in the flow of rivers and streams. This is the 
pressing need for a complete and systematic investigation of the water 
resources of the country carried out under auspices of an unquestionably 
impartial and disinterested character. 
The call for a national Inland Water Survey dates back for many years. 
It can be traced as far as the time of the eminent engineer Telford, who, in 
1834, prepared a report on the Means of Supplying the Metropolis with 
Pure Water. During the century which has elapsed since then, it has been 
repeated on numerous occasions in the proceedings of scientific and technical 
societies and in reports presented to the Government by various commis- 
sions of inquiry. Of late, it has become so widespread and insistent that 
in September 1932, at the instance of a number of engineers and scientists, 
the British Association appointed a representative committee of professional 
men and departmental officials to inquire into the whole matter and to 
consider the possible organisation and control of such a survey by central 
authority. 
This committee made a careful investigation extending over many months 
into all the available sources of information, and in the end drew up a Report 
which was presented to the British Association in September last. The 
Report, a copy of which is appended, sets out the urgent representations 
which have been made from time to time during the past fifty years for a 
thorough examination and an efficient control of the national water resources, 
in accordance with the practice of other leading countries, which it is shown 
have instituted and maintain organisations for investigating, conserving and 
allocating their own supplies. By way of exemplification, it is only necessary 
to quote the following brief but emphatic statement from the Final Report 
(1921), of the Water Power Resources Committee of the Board of Trade : 
“We find that the difficulty in fairly allocating the natural sources of 
water is becoming greater year by year in England and Wales, and the evidence 
we have heard proves beyond doubt the urgent necessity in the national 
interests of some measure of control of all water, both underground and 
surface, in order that the available supplies may be impartially reviewed and 
allocated, and may be made to suffice for all purposes in the future. In 
consequence of the increase of population, the improvement in conditions 
of life and the growing requirements of industry, the demand for water is 
steadily increasing, and the problem of meeting future needs is giving rise 
to anxiety in many parts of England and Wales.’ 
To this it may be added that the recently issued (1934) Report of the 
Committee on Scottish Health Services appointed by the Secretary of State 
for Scotland affirms, with equal conviction, cause for similar anxiety in 
' Scotland, and urges that ‘a technical survey of the water resources and 
supplies of Scotland should be undertaken at once.’ 
Justifiably impressed by the overwhelming weight of evidence, the British 
Association Committee came unanimously to the following conclusions : 
(1) That a systematic survey of the water resources of Great Britain is 
urgently required, and 
(2) That the Survey, in order to be of maximum utility, should be con- 
ducted by a central organisation, preferably under a Government 
department, independent of any interest in the administration, 
control or use of water. 
After consideration of various alternatives, it was decided to recommend 
that a beginning be made in a comparatively small way financed by sub- 
scriptions from individuals and bodies interested, with the prospect of being 
ultimately incorporated in a Government department. 
