to the Town of Geelong. 37 



the honour to be engineer, and having proved the great dif- 

 ference of purity between our own and the water in the Yan 

 Yean reservoir, I therefore object on principle to its intro- 

 duction to Greelong. 



One, among other errors, which might have been obviated 

 by the appliances of engineering forethought and skill, namely, 

 the shallow embankment, causing the back water for aeon- ( 

 siderable acreage within its perimeter to be so shallow in its 

 depth as must inevitably cause increased loss from extra evapo- 

 ration, absorption, and the moisture entering vegetable life ; 

 consequently rendering the water apt to vegetate and become 

 highly impure. 



What a splendid opportunity was here lost, and which pre- 

 sents itself to a comprehensive mind, in the possibility > of 

 having the finest artificial inland lake in the world, impounding 

 water enough, and to spare ; the annual value of which, as a 

 motive power alone, or for irrigation purposes, would have 

 been equivalent to the interest of the entire expenditure, 

 large as it has been. 



In addition to the first outlay in such a proposition for sup- 

 plying Geelong, there would be an annual charge by the Mel- 

 bourne Commission for the water itself ; and I may mention that 

 their scale being, to large consumers, six shillings per thou- 

 sand gallons, it follows that at this rate, on my estimated con- 

 sumption of fifty gallons per head per diem, it would amount 

 to an annual tax of £5 95. 6d. on man, woman, and child ; 

 or on the population of 50,000 to £273,750 per annum— a 

 sum, less than two years' expenditure of which, on our own 

 account, would be more than sufficient to give us the same 

 quantities per head on an increased population for many gene- 

 rations to come. 



On the supposition even that the Melbourne Commission 

 modified this rate for Greelong, it would still remain a fallacy. 



In reference to such a proposition, I would observe that the 

 Yan Yean Water-works are as yet untried ; it is true that 

 the floods of a more than ordinary wet winter have all but 

 filled the reservoir, and disappointed the prognostications 

 of some, who had fears on the subject. It is my own opinion, 

 however, that with some modification, it will prove ample as 

 regards quantity for the purposes for which it was originally 

 designed, and a little more. I would therefore seriously ad- 

 vise the proposers of so preposterous an extension not to step 

 out of their own proper sphere, to remember the adage that 

 " charity begins at home," in good truth not to be spendthrift- 



