Wa^er Supply of Belfast. 75 



Commissioners went first to the Woodburn district. The 

 gathering ground was at that time a howling wilderness. Now 

 those commons are cultivated, and there is certainly every 

 reason for filtering the water caught off them. In looking out 

 for any more extended supply for Belfast what I would say is, 

 get away from the city and from any possible source of pollution 

 or contamination, because one of the first conditions of filtering 

 is good raw material. 



Professor J. D. Everett — I had occasion a few years ago to 

 express my views upon this subject, having been asked to pre- 

 side at a lecture on filters in the Workingmen's Institute. I 

 then expressed the opinion that the Water Commissioners 

 should filter the water before supplying it to the town, and that 

 this would be much less trouble than for every consumer to 

 clean the mud out of his cistern and use his own filter. T am 

 of the same opinion still. I have tried from time to time to 

 obtain the best possible filter for my own use. The one which 

 I have been using for some time is Maignen's, which provides 

 every facility for renewing the cleansing material. One point 

 strikes me as strange in Mr. Macassey's diagram — the filter 

 appears to be standing on its head. The common sense course 

 in cleaning out anything would appear to be to clean out the 

 coarse particles first and the fine ones last. Here, however, we 

 have fine sand at the top, then gravel, then stones. I suppose, 

 however, the object of the gravel and stone is merely to support 

 the sand. I conceive that this project will be of very great 

 value to the town, and I must congratulate Mr. Macassey on 

 putting it so clearly before us. 



Mr. E. N. MacIlwaine — I must join with the gentlemen 

 who have already spoken in thanking Mr. Macassey very much 

 to-night, and in congratulating ourselves on the hope that we 

 shall very shortly have very pure water to drink. Perhaps I 

 have had more experience than most people here in drinking 

 impure water ; and as an illustration of the benefit of using 

 sand as a filter I may mention, when living in Queensland, at 

 times the only water available was very impure, and the means 



