144 On Hie Water Supply of Sydney. 



of the waterworks companies there are 1001 distinct places of 

 settlement containing a population of 8S8,088, including eighty- 

 nine towns above the number of 2000 population.' ' The Com- 

 missioners, nevertheless, are of opinion that when the sewage 

 and other pollutions are excluded from the Thames, and the Lea 

 and their tributaries, and perfect nitration adopted, water taken 

 from the present sources will be of suitable quality for the sup- 

 ply of the metropolis.' — [Builder, 7th August, 1869.] In ex- 

 planation of this apparent anomaly I must refer to the ' Thames 

 Conservancy Act of 1866,' which the Commissioners rely upon 

 being put in force to prevent sewage passing into the river, or 

 into any of its tributaries, for a distance of three miles upwards. 

 We need not wait sixty years for the population ot the George's 

 River watershed to approximate to that of the Thames (sixty 

 years is the time required at 4 per cent, increase for the present 

 population) before passing a similar Act. At the present time 

 the vested interests affected by such an Act would be very tri- 

 fling, compared to the immense saving to be effected by obtaining 

 our water supply from the George's River. The two most 

 important interests likely to be affected will be the paper mill, 

 and woolwashing establishment at Liverpool ; these two estab- 

 lishments use together about 90,000 gallons of water per day, 

 which is now returned to the river below the dam at Liverpool. 

 The Royal Commission for the water supply of London, in 

 referring to the pollution of rivers say, ' They agree with the 

 report of the former commission (of 1865) appointed to inquire 

 into the best means of distributing the sewage of towns, the gist 

 of which is, that the right way to dispose of town sewage is to 

 apply it continuously to land ;' and that ' it is only by such 

 application the pollution of rivers can be avoided.' [See Builder, 

 28th August, 1869.] By means of sewage irrigation upwards of 

 fifty tons of Italian rye grass (fresh cut for horses and cows) 

 have been produced from four to seven crops in one year ; but 

 root and cereal crops are also beneficially grown with sewage. 

 At Lodge Farm, near Barking, nearly every kind of crop is grown 

 with sewage by irrigation. The result is not likely to be less 

 beneficial here, where the average heat is 13' greater than in 

 England, and droughts much more frequent. 



Most of the chemists who were examined by the Royal Com- 

 mission agree that the sewage water, in passing over the land, 

 would part with its bad qualities and become fit to be mixed with 

 the river water that is supplied to London. There is also a 

 natural purification continually going on in all running waters, 

 not only from the oxygen brought into it from its motion, but 

 also from fish, frogs, and other animal and vegetable life found in 

 all fresh water rivers and lakes. 



