THE WATER SUPPLY OF SYDNEY. XCIX, 
account of the metropolitan water supply, past, present 
and future, as there does not exist to my knowledge any 
connected account of the development of the system—if 
we exclude that by the late Dr. Smith, referred to by the 
Chairman, written some 40 years ago. My connection 
with the old Sydney water supply dates from 1866, where 
as a young pupil in the engineering profession I had an 
opportunity of dragging a chain over the watershed or 
dressed in dungarees descended into the pump well to take 
measurements for alterations or repairs. The paper by 
Dr. Smith, quoted by the Chairman, will form a valuable 
link in the chain of developments of the water supply to 
the city of Sydney and suburbs. I haveadistinct recollec- 
tion of having to take charge of a gang of men about 1868 
to tap the hills surrounding the Botany swamps to increase 
the flow into the engine pond reservoir, and although it 
was stated that the supply of water would give out ina 
few months, the engines maintained a supply of between 
4 and 5 millions per diem to Crown Street—the supply from 
Busby’s bore being limited to the soakage en route, as no 
water passed into the inlet. The whole of the watershed 
from Randwick and Waverley to the engine pond reservoir 
being one vast sandy sponge, the depth of sand being in 
some places 100 feet deep, would account for the shortage 
in storage when the surface water disappeared. About 
1873, large tube wells were experimented with in the 
Lachlan Swamp area near the inlet of Busby’s bore, under 
direction of Francis Bell, c.E., then City Engineer; although 
the inflow was all that was anticipated at first, the system 
had to be abandoned on account of the fine sand choking 
the bottom. It became evident that if water was to be 
conserved in the Lachlan Swamps it could only be by con- 
structing dams as in the case lower down in the Botany = 
Swamps. The rapid development of the suburbs near to 
Sydney, and to which the Botany system was gradually 
