200 Air and Water Poisoning 



have already announced it to the Civic authorities and to 

 the Medical Profession, and the journals have transmitted 

 the information to the public. 



I now place on the records of this Society, briefly, that we 

 tracked the drains of Whittlesea, such as they are, house, 

 land and swamp, till we found ourselves at the inlet sluice 

 of the reservoir ; we then started back, and ran up all the 

 creeks and gullies one by one, and found them to rise in 

 Whittlesea or the surrounding homesteads and pasturages. 

 I was surprised, and by no means well pleased, to find my 

 favorite Yan Yean endangered by such evil communications. 



I believe the real state of the case to be this : Whittlesea 

 drainage is literally " going " to the Yan Yean reservoir. 

 But only literally, it has not gone into it yet, or, if at all, 

 only lately to an unappreciable extent and under the least 

 injurious conditions, as in flood. Happily swamps and flat 

 country with much porous soil intervene. This land is 

 gradually soaking up the filth discharged upon it. When it 

 is saturated it will be a never failing source of water poison, 

 and those who are then living may have to abandon the 

 costly and splendid work whence we now derive that 

 invaluable blessing, a copious supply of good wholesome 

 water. The remedy must be applied now, if ever. 



More than eleven years ago I ofi'ered, in a voluminous 

 report which I was called on to prepare for the Commission 

 of Water Supply, some suggestions for the improvement and 

 preservation of the water. One of them, a plan for clearing 

 off" the suspended impurities which were an unavoidable 

 accident of a newly opened work, was promptly adopted 

 with satisfactory results ; and another, for stocking the 

 reservoir with fish, frogs, and snails, at a time when the 

 quidnuncs were crying out against the water because it 

 already contained living beings, was I believe acted on, 

 though not to the extent that I desired. 



The effect of another suggestion made at the same time 

 will be judged of when I quote it. The report already cited 

 concludes with these words : 



" / sincerely hope that the Government will not, for the 

 sake of a small present return in the shape of land sales, 

 sanction so great a prospective and irremediable evil as the 

 formation of townships on, or even near, the banks of the 

 reservoir." 



. I have spoken strongly because I feel earnestly that the 

 several evils which I demonstrate are fraught with danger, 



