50 On the Supply of Water 



Assistant Registrar for Victoria), which satisfactorily show 

 that, from a mean of five consecutive years, commencing with 

 1847 and ending 1851, both inclusive, the Melbourne rain-fall 

 was as high as 32-63 inches, whilst London was but 24-04 

 inches, taken from a mean of twenty years antei'ior to 1846, 

 showing a difference of 8*59 inches, or, in other words, an 

 extra one hundred and twenty-five millions of gallons of rain 

 per square mile, leaving a large balance in favor of colonial 

 account, and which but requires the appliances of skill to col- 

 lect and turn to many profitable uses. 



It is a matter of the utmost regret that no earlier com- 

 plete series of rain- fall data for Victoria (than those I have 

 enumerated) are extant ; though several parties, as amateurs, 

 formerly kept registries, yet, from change of residence or 

 other causes daily occurring in a new country, many of them 

 have been so irregularly kept (most dropped into disuse) as 

 to afford but little reliable information. 



It will be seen, however, that from such as we have, the 

 authorised registers of the Australian colonies, — that of 

 Victoria, kept at Melbourne, — New South Wales, at Sydney, 

 — South Australia, at Adelaide, — and Tasmania, at Laun- 

 ceston, — 'all of which I have repeated as an addenda to Table 

 No. V. — give a mean of 34 - 4 inches per annum, being, as I 

 know, about two and a-half inches in excess of the mean of 

 Great Britain, on the authority of Professor Thomson, a 

 name well known in meteorological science. These regis- 

 tries which I have collated are astounding facts, and from 

 such authorities will rather astonish Europeans who have 

 never been out of the bounds of that hemisphere, and whose 

 preconceived notions lead them to consider we have but little 

 moisture here. I doubt not that this will even startle many of 

 our old colonists, now resident in the mother-country, whose 

 rain experiences whilst in the colony, without scientific regis- 

 ters, led them to imagine we had very much less rain here 

 than in England, whereas quite the reverse is the fact. 



It is not out of place here to reply to a query which may 

 have, or at all events will, occur to your minds. Has the 

 author of this paper kept any register at Wormbete? I 

 answer in the affirmative. Considering it to be a prudent 

 step in the eyes of my Commission to strengthen the opinions 

 already enunciated by me in regard of this locality, I at 

 once had a rain-gauge manufactured on the best principle, 

 placed under the care of a gentleman of known honor and 

 integrity, John R. Hopkins, Esq., and who, equally with 



