CXXIi. DISCUSSION. 
success as it also possessed great possibilities as a hydro 
electric installation. 
Mr. HouGHTON said, the profession of engineering consists 
of ‘“‘the art of directing the great sources of power in 
nature for the use and convenience of man,”’ and in bring- 
ing before us his paper on “‘ Hydro Hlectric Installations,”’ 
Mr. Scott has described cases in which the great source 
of power provided by the sum in raising water from a 
lower to a higher level has been used with manifest 
advantage to mankind. Unfortunately the water supply 
of Australia has so far only in one instance been success- 
fully utilized for the generation of electricity for sale, 
except in Tasmania which is blessed with a more copious 
rainfall than the mainland, and in that one instance, Hill- 
grove, I believe that the vagaries of our uncertain rainfall 
have interfered considerably with its usefulness. As to 
the many advantages to be obtained by using hydraulic 
power for the generation of electricity I have nothing to 
say, but I take exception to Mr. Scott’s somewhat opti- 
mistic view of the prospects of so utilizing the scanty 
rainfall of the interior. He speaks of providing a balance 
reservoir to hold the water from Barren Jack during the 
period of the year that it will not be required for irrigation, 
has he considered the cost of such a reservoir? I under- 
stand that the dam of Barren Jack will cost £800,000, 
which is low compared with the volume of water that can 
be impounded, but what will be the cost of a low level 
dam to hold water for six months that has been used for 
the generation of the electric current; it would require to 
retain about 13,000,000,000 million cubic feet to hold 1,000 
cubic feet per second flowing through the wheel or turbine 
for 150 days a year. Would not the interest on the cost of 
such a reservoir do away with all the profit to be derived 
from supplying electric power from this source? Again, 
