Failure of the Yan Yean Reservoir. 117 
tour, and'I shall not soon forget the pleasure and instruction 
it afforded me, and through their kindness in furnishing me 
with their measurements and calculations, I am enabled to 
submit to you this evening my opinions on the Yan Yean 
reservoir scheme, based on more correct data, and more exten- 
Sive inquiry. 
There is a considerable discrepancy in the published 
accounts of the amount of water consumed by different cities. 
It appears that London and some other cities in England 
are supplied with 30 gallons per head per day, Glasgow is 
supplied with 30 gallons per head, by steam-power, Notting- 
ham consumes 40 gallons per head, and the Croton aqueduct 
at New York is calculated to discharge 60,000,000 gallons in 
24 hours, which for a population of 500,000 gives 120 gallons 
per head. 
Great credit is due to the City Council for haying from 
the first laid it down asa settled principle that Melbourne 
should be supplied at the rate of 40 gallons per head. At 
the same time I cannot regard this amount as adequate in a 
sanitary point of view to our actual requirements. Melbourne 
and New York are in similar latitudes, and considering the 
hot winds and dust storms, and the very dry atmosphere and 
long droughts that are peculiar to Australia, a more liberal 
supply of water would be required here than in New York. 
For public baths and fountains, for thoroughly watering 
the streets, cleansing the gutters, and flushing the sewers, for 
extinguishing fires, and limiting their rapid and destructive 
progress, the water supply of this city should not be measured 
by so many gallons per head, the supply should at all times 
and under all circumstances be amply sufficient for any 
increased or unforeseen demand that might arise; but it will 
be shown in this inquiry that there is no such ample supply 
at Yan Yean to satisfy such luxurious anticipations, and we 
must be contented to limit our wants to the supply we can 
command. And in the event of a drought, to use the words 
of the Select Committee, “it is incontestible, that the most 
careful provisions would be necessary to guard against any 
unnecessary waste of water.” 
I shall, therefore, assume forty gallons per head as the 
amount that it will be necessary to provide for this city; and 
this is the amount upon which Mr. Blackburn and Mr. Hodg- 
kinson based all their calculations, in their evidence before the 
Select Committee. 
There is one important point in which I must differ from 
the Select Committee, and that is in limiting the amount of 
