238 H. G. McKINNET. 



Three excellent sites for storage reservoirs had been surveyed on 

 the upper part of the catchment of the Murrumbidgee, and a 

 preliminary examination was made of two sites on the Murray. 

 The site at Barren Jack Mountain on the Murrumbidgee proved 

 the best in connection with that river, and an estimate of the cost 

 of the Murrumbidgee southern canal scheme, including that of the 

 weir at Barren Jack was prepared. The amount of this estimate, 

 which allowed amply for contingencies, was £650,000, or £650 

 per cusec, so that reckoning interest at 4 per cent., the interest 

 charge per cusec would be £26 per annum. If the large allow- 

 ance of two hundred cusecs be made for loss and waste, which is 

 certainly in excess of all the loss to be anticipated, the estimated 

 capital outlay per cusec available for use will be £812 10s., which 

 at 4 per cent, would represent an interest charge of £32 10s. per 

 cusec per annum. 



Necessity for storage reservoirs. — With regard to the necessity 

 for supplementing the natural summer supplies in the rivers by 

 means of storage reservoirs, Colonel Home pointed out that for 

 the period of seventeen years, for which records were supplied to 

 him, there were ten years during which the storage on the Mur- 

 rumbidgee would have been drawn from, and eight years in the 

 case of the Murray. 



Murrumbidgee northern canal project. — When it proved that 

 under present conditions of settlement, the project for utilising 

 Lake Coolacumpama could not, on financial grounds be entertained, 

 the general scheme for canals on the north side of the Murrum- 

 bidgee was for a time laid aside. The extended survey of the site 

 for a reservoir near Barren Jack Mountain having shown that it 

 was practicable to store an immensely larger body of water than 

 was at first contemplated, it was no longer necessary for the canals 

 north of the Murrumbidgee to depend on Lake Coolacumpama. 

 The levels which had already been taken showed that the facilities 

 for diverting water from the Murrumbidgee on its north side 

 below Narandera, were similar to those on the south side. Examin- 

 ation of the river also showed that near the head of Cudgel Creek, 



