212 T. W. KEELE. 



centage will not be reduced below the level it has already 

 reached. 



Having briefly sketched the manner in which the water 

 is brought into the city and distributed, the important 

 question of security may be referred to. Are the citizens 

 satisfied that their water supply is as secure as it should 

 be, and that when turning on their taps they may reason- 

 ably expect to draw from them all the water they require ? 

 Apart from the sufficiency of the storage, which I shall 

 presently refer to, there has been recently developed a new 

 and startling danger, namely, the deliberate interference 

 with the supply to the higher zones by industrial strikes^ 

 which have for their object either the partial suspension of 

 the supply of coal by the ''slowing down" process, or its. 

 total stoppage when the strike has lasted sufficiently long 

 to exhaust the immense reserves of coal which must be 

 maintained to meet such emergencies. The recent great in- 

 dustrial strike has surely brought forcibly {before the 

 citizens of Sydney the very precarious position in which 

 they can be placed by a stoppage of the coal supply. The 

 various public utilities were all, more or less, affected, but 

 when we consider that we were actually within measurable 

 distance of an interference with the pumping of water to 

 the higher levels, and that a continuance of the strike 

 would have resulted in the pumping engines ceasing work,, 

 the seriousness of the situation is at once brought forcibly 

 before us. We might possibly manage for a little while 

 without gas, or electric light, but we cannot exist without 

 water for domestic purposes and the flushing of sewers. 

 The complete stoppage of water for even a day or two would 

 indeed be a calamity, but it is not too much to say that a 

 further continuance would mean an exodus from the city 

 before the expiration of a week. 



Following quickly upon this coal strike the citizens were 

 afforded another demonstration by a band of lawless men 



