CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. Is 
CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 
By T. W. KEELE, M. inst, C.E. 
[With Plates I. - III. ] 
[Read before the Engineering Section of the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, 
May 20, 1908. } 
The Water Supply of Sydney, Past, Present, and Future. 
InN considering the question of a suitable subject for an 
address to the members of this Section, it has occurred 
to me that I could not do better than describe, ina general 
way, the water supply of Sydney, it being a subject to 
which I have given a considerable amount of attention, 
and one which will no doubt afford ample scope for discuss- 
ion, if members think it desirable to.enter upon it when I 
have finished what I have to say on the question. 
No paper on this subject would be complete without a 
description of the manner in which the first settlers pro- 
vided themselves with this necessary commodity, and in 
doing this, I shall quote largely from a most interesting 
paper by the late Professor Smith, read before the Roya] 
Society on 14th October, 1868, to which members are 
referred for more complete information. Professor Smith 
went to an immense amount of trouble in searching old 
records, to enable him to prepare his paper, and as the 
volume in which it was published is now out of print, the 
information he collected 40 years ago, will, 1am sure, be 
interesting to those who are studying the question at the 
present time. 
The Tank Stream 1783 to 1830.—He states that the 
first fleet which arrived in Botany Bay on 18th, 19th, and 
20th January, 1788, being disappointed with the capabilities 
of that locality for the founding of a settlement, was brought 
round to Port Jackson, and the whole of the people, num- 
1—May 20, 1908. 
