The Water Supply of Sydney. 95 



and the latter part of '67 very dry, with only 9£ inches in six 

 months, which had the effect of starting inquiry once more, In 

 September, last year, a Royal Commission was issued, appointing 

 five gentlemen to take up the search for a more abundant and 

 trustworthy supply of water, and these Commissioners have not 

 yet sent in their final report. 



The present state of the supply is this : — At Lord's Dam, the 

 drainage of nearly seven square miles falls into Botany Bay The 

 pumping establishment there comprises three steam engines of 

 100-horse power each, two of which are generally kept going 

 night and day. The total quantity pumped last year was 

 956,000,000 gallons. A 80-inch main, about four miles long, 

 leads to two reservoirs, one at Crown-street, 139 feet above the 

 sea, holding 3^ million gallons, and the other at Paddington, 214 

 feet above the sea, and holding 1-| million gallons. As these reser- 

 voirs contain less than two days' supply, and as the great defect 

 of the system is the want of storage for water in wet seasons, 

 efforts have recently been made to form dams on the Botany 

 stream, so as to preserve a surplus in wet seasons to make up the 

 deficiency of dry. Six of these dams were constructed, but 

 three were partially destroyed by heavy floods in the early part 

 of this year. Had they remained efficient they would have pro- 

 vided (along Avith the two ponds near the engine-house) storage 

 capacity for 250,000,000 gallons. The total cost of the works 

 for supplying Sydney (including the two service reservoirs, but 

 excluding the cost of distribution) has been nearly £150,000. 

 The cost of pumping up the water last year was £1700 ; and if 

 to this we add the interest on cost of plant, we find the total 

 cost of supplying Sydney (still excluding the distribution) to be 

 about £33 per day, or less than half a farthing per head of the 

 population supjDlied. The water is distributed through the whole 

 of Sydney proper, together with the municipalities of Glebe, 

 Darlington, liedfern, and part of Paddington, by about 105 miles 

 of piping. 



When the present system of supply was completed in 1858, 

 the population of Sydney and suburbs was about 87,000. At 

 the present time it must be about 118,000. Of this number, 

 about two-thirds share in the public supply of water ; and adding 

 the quantity delivered by the tunnel to that pumped from Botany, 

 it appears that the distribution is at the rate of nearly forty 

 gallons per head, — a fair supply, if only it could be kept up and 

 fairly distributed, and all could share in it. But we have no 

 sufficient provision for a long drought, and there is nothing to 

 spare for thousands of people in the suburbs, or for the natural 

 increase of our population. Supposing, however, that these 

 defects were remedied, we should not rest content with 10 gallons 

 per head. In a hot climate like this there ought to be a super- 



