97 



PERMANENT WATER SUPPLY TO SYDNEY BY 

 GRAVITATION. 



Br Mr. James Manning. 



[Read before the Royal Society, 4th August, 1875.] 



On the 9th December last I had the pleasure of addressing 

 my first paper on the above subject to this Society ; and now I 

 approach the matter once more, in order to give the results of 

 my further experiences, which have been matured by more elabo- 

 rate surveys of the locality from which I propose to supply this 

 city with an abundance of the purest water by direct gravitation. 



Before entering into the details of the subsequent surveys, I 

 desire (in the first instance) to preface this paper by saying once 

 more that, in advocating my own water-supply scheme, I have 

 only had the good of all in view, and that I am actuated by no 

 invidious motives towards all the other projects which have been 

 before the public, each of which has its own special merits ; but I 

 trust I may be pardoned, and not be thought to be presump- 

 tuous, by saying at the same time that everyone of such schemes 

 seems to me also to have its own special objections. 



It was not until 1873 and when I made my surveys in 

 quest of a good railway route into Illawarra from Sydney, that I 

 became alive to the great advantages presented by the remark- 

 able north-westerly dip of our immense coal basin from beyond 

 Kiama to Port Jackson ; that I saw the double chance of securing 

 a water supply for Sydney by direct gravitation, as well as to 

 secure an almost level railway line into Illawarra and to the 

 southern coal fields ; the dips of this extraordinary formation 

 being no less than 40 feet to the mile, from south to north, for a 

 distance of some 60 miles along the coast, and 60 feet to the mile 

 to the westward, or inland. 



It is not in my province to criticise the other and various plans 

 for supplying the city with water, unless it be perhaps to point 

 out objections to one particular scheme which does not seem to 

 have been alluded to by others. Public attention has lately been 

 brought to bear upon the merits of our present water supply, but 

 as no one seems to have given expression to the great objections to 



