to the Town of Geelong. 41 



enable us to have a constant high-pressure supply to all, and 

 on such a scale as would be ample for the rapidly increasing 

 population, and of such a nature as in all future time could 

 be supplemented without loss or deterioration to the then exist- 

 ing works ; being, all things considered, tbe cheapest and 

 best ; — the annual cost of the maintenance of such a system 

 being a mere bagatelle as compared to the numerous advan- 

 tages gained by its adoption. 



It being now an admitted axiom with all hydraulic engi- 

 eers of any standing in the profession in the mother country, 

 (not wedded to antiquated notions,) arising, no doubt, as a gene- 

 ral result, from the inquiries instituted by the several European 

 Governments into the subject — that water collected in reser- 

 voirs from the rainfall over an extensive catch-water district, 

 is not only purer than river water, but infinitely superior to 

 well water, artesian or others, all of which are liable, more 

 or less, to much mineral impregnation. To such an extent is 

 this now impressed on the minds of the profession and scien- 

 tific men in general, who may have turned their attention to, or 

 made the subject a study, that the effect has been that nearly 

 all the principal cities of Europe and America — (those in the 

 Mother-country being London, Birmingham, Sheffield, 

 Newcastle-on-Tyne, Halifax, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, 

 Edinburgh, Dumfries, Glasgow, Greenock, Dublin, Bel- 

 fast, Londonderry,) — either are or about to be so sup- 

 plied, where possible, notwithstanding the princely sums 

 which have been lavished on the old systems, and which are 

 being abandoned and replaced by having recourse to the 

 gatherings from the comparatively pure rainfall and natural 

 surface drainage, where such is practicable, and if possible 

 from the hilly country watershed, being, as a matter of course, 

 purest near the original source, besides giving a command 

 over the lower levels on which the inhabited districts are 

 generally situated. 



Taking the foregoing as a truism, and who can doubt it, as 

 regards the old country, how much more is it applicable to this 

 country and to this particular locality, the subject of the pre- 

 sent paper, where the rivers are either originally unfit for such 

 uses, or are being rapidly rendered so. The Moorarbool, saline, 

 brackish, nauseous. '.The Yarrawee, originally one of the purest, 

 least saline, and most wholesome river-waters in the colony, 

 has become totally unfit for domestic purposes, — quite turbid 

 from the uses made of it by the mining population running 



