86 Transactions. — Miscellaneotcs. 



attempts to supersede tliem by the construction of drains on even less suit- 

 able lines, the litigation and heart-burning which have been always connected 

 with them, and the danger to the public and the injury to the adjacent pro- 

 perties, arising from the construction of deep open drains alongside the 

 public roads — I think it will be unnecessary for me to bring any further 

 argument in favour of my next proposition, which is — that before laying out 

 the streets of a new town the lines of surface and subsoil drainage should be 

 decided on, and reserved for drainage purposes. 



Next in order comes the question of the storm- water outfalls. 



In almost every district, however level the ground, there will be found 

 depressions, which, although not fed by springs, and therefore not coming 

 under the designation of water-courses, are the channels by which, in heavy 

 rainfalls, the storm-water passes from the upper to the lower levels. Instead 

 of blocking up these natural channels, as is too often done in the formation 

 of streets, they should be utilized, straightened, deepened, and connected 

 with suitable outfalls to the rivers, so that the storm-water shall not unneces- 

 sarily be thrown on the street gutters ; but that, on the contrary, the latter 

 shall have such freedom of escape into the storm- water channels as to avoid 

 all chance of the streets themselves being flooded. 



And when the lines of surface and subsoil-drainage have been marked 

 out, the storm-water channels reserved, and the position and levels of the 

 outfalls defined, and not before, we may proceed to lay out the streets of our 

 town ; taking care, in doing so, to grade the streets in such a manner that, 

 with a minimum of earthwork, the surface-water on every property may 

 drain, by gravitation, into the street gutters, and the latter into the outfalls. 



There is nothing quixotic, or unreasonable, in these propositions, which 

 simply aim at defining the sequence of steps to be taken in laying out a new 

 township ; but they involve a great principle, which underlies the whole 

 question of sanitary reform, viz., — that, in a new country, the work of 

 the engineer should precede, and not follow, that of the settlement sur- 

 veyor ; — and until this principle is recognized and acted upon by Colonial 

 Governments, not only in the planning of townships, but in many other 

 matters connected with the preparation of a new country for successful 

 settlement, the history of colonial progress will always be a record of 

 costly struggles to regain facilities of communication, drainage, and water- 

 supply, which have been heedlessly sacrificed by handing over the Crown 

 lands to private ownership, without the one reservation of conditions 

 essential to the general welfare of the community. 



Now, let us suppose our town to have been judiciously laid oiit as above 

 described, and provided, in every part, with an efficient surface, subsoil, 

 and storm- water drain ao^e. 



