INTERCOLONIAL WATER RIGHTS AS AFFECTED BY FEDERATION. 237 



powers had been obtainable. Under these circumstances it is an 

 important question to consider whether any difficulty would be 

 likely to arise with the Federal Government if these works were 

 undertaken. 



Taking first the case of the river Murray, the diversion of a 

 large quantity of water as proposed, would have a perceptible 

 effect in lowering the river, and any injury thus caused to the 

 interests of navigation would be augmented if the storage of water 

 in the reservoir were permitted to interfere materially with the 

 flow of summer freshets. On the other hand, the Murray is by 

 far the most regular of our rivers in its flow, and a good discharge 

 can always be depended on during the latter half of the year. In 

 Colonel Home's report it was pointed out that during a period of 

 seventeen years there were nine years throughout which a supply 

 of 1,300 cubic feet per second was available for diversion, or that 

 as a rule, a large storage reservoir such as Colonel Home recom- 

 mended, would be utilised to only a limited extent. During the 

 spring and early summer months, the discharge is so great that 

 the reservoir could be filled and the full supply maintained in the 

 proposed canal without any interference with navigation. The 

 only periods — and they are periods of very short duration — during 

 which the navigation would be interfered with in any degree, 

 are when the river is falling below or rising above navigation level. 

 At such times the storage reservoir could be used in such manner 

 as to minimise, if not entirely prevent any temporary injury which 

 might be done to the interests of navigation. Taking all points 

 into consideration, it appears safe to assume that although the 

 river Murray forms part of a boundary for three different States, 

 the questions arising in connection with the use of its waters and 

 with interference with navigation will not be so difficult to settle 

 as in the cases of other rivers which are less uniform in their flow. 



The Murrumbidgee may fairly be regarded as a river in the 

 early stages of decrepitude. Its average discharge is not sufficient 

 nor its floods of sufficient duration to carry on the silt which is 

 brought down from the higher parts of its catchment. In evidence 



