CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS, Ri, 
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 provided (along with the two ponds 
near the engine house) storage capacity for 250 million 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 (1866) was £4,700, and if to this we add the interest on 
the cost of plant, we find that the total cost of supplying Sydney 
(still excluding the distribution) to be about £33 per day, or less 
than a farthing per head of the population supplied. The water 
is distributed through the whole of Sydney proper, together with 
the Municipalities of Glebe, Darlington, Redfern, 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 (1867) 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 
40 gallons per head. Ina hot climate like this, there ought to 
be a superabundance of water, as well for public health and 
safety, as for personal comfort and convenience. Sydney, how- 
ever, is not favorably situated for an abundant supply, and it 
cannot be procured without enormous outlay. The words of Sir 
Thomas Mitchell in his evidence before the City Committee, in 
1850, are as true and forcible now as then. ‘I cannot,’ he said, 
‘but see that the weakest point in the character of this great 
city—for a great city it is likely to be —is the present insufficient 
supply of water. I should, therefore, desire a more certain source.’ ” 
This terminates Professor Smith’s most interesting 
historical sketch of the water supply of Sydney. I trust 
