LXVIII. REVIEW OF WATER CONSERVATION IN N.S.W. 
Four acts of Parliament have, up to the present time, 
been passed to deal with Water Conservation. As the 
whole of the operations of the department are carried on 
under these acts, I will briefly describe them now :— 
The Public Watering Places Act was passed in 1884, and 
was designed to promote the policy of providing water 
supplies to stock when travelling on dry routes. At that 
time, the more remote districts of the colony were only 
accessible in wet seasons unless some water supplies were 
created along the roads. The act provides for the establish- 
ment of reserves and public watering. places, and gives 
authority for the construction of the works necessary to 
yield the supply. When the works are completed they are 
placed in the hands of a caretaker, or leased. Consumers 
are charged for water at the following rates :—horses, 
cattle, or camels, one penny per head, sheep one shilling 
per hundred, goats and pigs, one farthing per head. 
At the present time there are 315 tanks, dams, wells, or 
springs, administered under theact. The tanks are usually 
excavated to a depth of 15 or 20 feet, and their capacities 
range up to five million gallons each. In addition, there 
are 63 of the public watering places supplied by means of 
artesian bores. The act may be said to have served the 
purposes for which it was intended, but the revenue hitherto 
derived from the rates has not been sufficient to recoup 
the working expenses. It would be impracticable to arrange 
a reasonable system of rating which would entirely cover 
the expenditure, yet the direct benefit to stockowners, and 
consequently the indirect benefit to the country, is very 
great. Public watering places must therefore be classed 
with those other works, such as ferries, for example, which 
only make an indirect return to the State. 
The Artesian Wells Act was passed in 1897 to enable 
groups of settlers to have a bore driven by the State on 
