CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS. 1X. 
question afresh. Their report (remarkable chiefly for its length) 
was laid before the Legislature in August of the same year. 
“They did not take up, as the City Committee had done, the 
merits of the different schemes, but restricted themselves to an 
examination of the Botany Swamps, as being undoubtedly the best 
available source ; and they recommended that the stream flowing 
down from Lachlan Swamp should be intercepted at a point 
about a mile anda half above Lord’s Dam, and the water pumped 
up to a reservoir at Paddington, capable of holding 12 million 
gallons. They held that a supply of about 20 gallons per head 
would be sufficient, while the City Committee assumed that 40 
gallons ought to be provided. 
Pumping from Botany, 1858 to 1889.—“On the Ist of 
January, 1854, the management of the city passed from the hands 
of an elective Council to three Commissioners appointed by the 
Governor, and this arrangement lasted for three years. The 
Commissioners took up zealously the question of water supply, 
and passed speedily from inquiry to action. In 1854 (a very 
dry year in Sydney) they erected a small pumping engine at the 
lower, part of the Lachlan Swamp, for the purpose of throwing 
more water into the Tunnel; by this adding 150,000 gallons to 
the daily delivery, and at the same time, they entered on the 
necessary preliminaries for obtaining a new and more abundant 
supply from the lower end of the stream at Lord’s Dam. It was 
not, however, until November 1858, that the pumping engines at 
Botany were set to work, and that system of supply commenced 
which we enjoy at the present time (October, 1868). Since then 
we have experienced some very dry seasons, and occasionally the 
pumps have not been fully served by the stream ; but the Muni- 
cipal Council has always been on the alert, and on the whole 
Sydney has been kept fairly supplied with water. Every dry 
season, however, has stimulated a fresh inquiry. In 1862 only 
24 inches of rain fell, and a Select Committee of the Legislative 
Assembly was appointed to investigate the state of the Water 
Reserve. 1865-6 were rather dry (each year giving about 36 
