L. A. B. WADE. LXVII. 
1884. Such works should naturally have been carried out 
by the Department of Public Works, but in those days the 
questions of occupancy and revenue were considered para- 
mount, and they were administered by the Department of 
Lands. Later on they were transferred to the Department 
of Mines, and after that to the Chief Inspector of Stock. 
It appears that the various Governments treated the subject 
with small respect, and it is clear that it was not con- 
sidered important, although all the travelling stock routes 
were waiting to be opened up. 
In 1884 a prolonged drought had so intensified the public 
clamour that the Government appointed a Royal Commis- 
sion to report on Water Conservation under the presidency 
of Mr. (now Sir) William Lyne. This Commission presented 
three reports, of which the first, giving an abstract of the 
information available at that time, is still useful for refer- 
ence. The principal advance made was a recommendation 
that the complicated tangle of riparian rights which had 
been imported with the English Common Law should be 
finally disposed of by proper legislation. It may be remarked 
that the recommendation was ignored for ten years. The 
commission expired in 1887 and its officers were transferred 
to the department of Mines. 
During the next few years the officers continued the 
work begun by the commission, making surveys of various 
sections of the country, procuring gaugings of the rivers, 
and drafting the information. There seems to have been 
a perennial difficulty in securing funds for such purposes, 
and the small sub-branch was subjected to several retrench- 
ments, and transferred from one Minister to another in a 
manner ill calculated to promote its progress. However, 
since that date, the whole subject has become of more 
importance, and at the present time all works of conser- 
vation are dealt with in the Department of Public Works, 
as, no doubt, they should be. 
