THE WATER SUPPLY OF SYDNEY. CXI. 
prepared from his figures in 1902, for calculating the 
increase up to 1912, the figures given in 1902 Commission’s 
report having been reached last year. Water authorities 
usually adopted the plan of taking the number of houses 
supplied with water and multiplying by 5; this gave satis- 
factory figures upon which better dependence could be 
placed. It might appear to be a crude method; but what 
was wanted was the population served with water each year, 
and it was evident from what I have said that this could not 
be arrived at by the figures supplied by the Statistician, 
which only applied to the metropolitan area; but the Board 
delivers water to consumers far beyond that area. 
Mr. Deane, in referring to the work of the Royal Com- 
mission of 1902, said he was prepared to admit now that 
the best thing had been done in building the Cataract dam 
to impound the larger quantity of water. In view of the 
position taken up by my colleagues on the Royal Commiss- 
ion of 1902, and subsequently during the controversy on 
the height to which the dam should be raised, whether to 
impound 7,000 million or 21,000 million gallons, I must take 
this opportunity of thanking Mr. Deane for his admission, 
which I cannot but regard as a compliment to myself, and 
I must congratulate him on his magnanimity, and on his 
showing that he has the courage of his opinions. I would 
jocularly remind those who are still reticent about the 
matter, that there is some truth in the adage, that ‘‘It is 
a good thing to know when to come in out of the wet.”’ 
Mr. Houghton was of opinion that “‘some consideration 
should be given to the riparian rights of the people on the 
lower rivers. The drainage from this upper portion of the 
rivers should not be taken away wholly in the manner it 
had been done in the past, and was now proposed from the 
heads of the Woronora and O’Hare’s Creeks.’’ To this I 
would reply that the matter received the earnest consider- 
ation of the Commission in 1869, and they recommended 
