WATER CONSERVATION FOR IRRIGATION AND OTHER PURPOSES, XJ. 
it became the duty of the present writer over six years ago 
to prepare a statement of conditions under which licenses 
in terms of the Water Rights Act might be granted for 
such works. The general rule which was proposed and 
approved of in regard to the maximum height of weirs or 
of the bywashes of earthen dams, was that this should be 
limited only by the condition that sufficient waterway 
should be left above the weir or above the bywash to pass 
on any ordinary flow in a river or creek without causing 
inundation of adjacent lands. This rule was deemed suit- 
able for the great majority of cases, and nothing has trans- 
pired to show that its effect is other than beneficial. Ifa 
series of weirs subject to this condition were constructed 
on such rivers, as the Lachlan and the Namoi, and the 
waters were utilized to the utmost by means of pumps and 
outflow channels, it might then be considered that these 
rivers were fairly turned toaccount. All that would then 
be required further to give steadiness and security to the 
use of the river waters would be the construction of storage 
reservoirs on the higher parts of the catchments. Such 
storage reservoirs would provide the means of using the 
winter flood waters to maintain a moderate flow during 
the summer months. 
There is a branch of this subject which is of much greater 
importance than might at first sight appear. This is the 
serious harm which is being done by earthen dams which 
have faulty bywashes. To appreciate the extent of the 
mischief done in this way, it is necessary to realise that in 
the Central and Western Divisions there are hundreds of 
dams with natural bywashes, that these dams are of vital 
importance for providing water for stock and domestic 
purposes throughout a large proportion of the area of these 
districts, and that these bywashes are frequently carried 
away tothe serious injury of the channels below them. To 
