XII. J. DAVIS. 



For this purpose it is certain that a better site could not have 

 been chosen than that at Willoughby Bay, for while not so 

 remote as to entail an expensive length of outfall sewer, the 

 immediate surroundings are so precipitous that the neighbour- 

 hood of many buildings is a remote possibility. Moreover there 

 is facility for allowing the sewage to gravitate through every stage 

 of its treatment, thus saving the expense, entailed in many 

 similar works, of pumping. 



The necessity of Sewerage works even at that date could not 

 be questioned, as the natural watercourses had become so polluted 

 with sewage, that they were little better than foul open sewers, 

 most dangerous to the health of the people residing along 

 their course, and more especially so where discharging into 

 tidal waters. These evils were worst at Careening Cove and 

 Neutral Bay on the South, and Willoughby Falls Creek on the 

 North. 



The question, however, was allowed to remain in abeyance 

 until 1886, when the pressing necessity for immediate action 

 again appears to have asserted itself upon the authorities. By 

 this time, although only four years had elapsed, the population had 

 doubled itself. At the end of the year, at the instance of Mr. 

 Bennett, a further comprehensive and independent investigation 

 was made by Mr. G. H. Stay ton, M. Inst. C.E., of the Sewerage 

 Department, and on the data collected a scheme of sewerage was 

 submitted by that gentleman. This scheme though differing in 

 extent and detail from the original proposal, embodied the same 

 principles. 



At the suggestion of the Engineer-in-Chief for Sewerage, the 

 Secretary for Public Works moved Parliament to submit this 

 amended scheme to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on 

 Public Works. The evidence taken by the Committee resulted 

 in the recommendation to Parliament that the scheme be carried 

 out by the Government. 



The drainage area of the amended proposal was 888 acres, with 

 -an existing population of 12,000, and an ultimate maximum 



