would have been about lialf an inch ; but according to tJie ivturns 

 of rainfall, it appears that from the 1 1th to the 18th the aNci'nuo 

 daily rate was about 1 inch., and this caused the great Hood whi«':i 

 culminated at Maitland on the 20th, and whicli rose to 31ft. ;5;u. 

 In tlie following month, the highest flood of recent years took })l;u-,', 

 and tlic water rose at Maitland, at 1 a.m. of April 26, to :>4ft. 

 4in. : and the commission reported, ' We are inclined to tliink 

 that during tlio height of this flood the water came down upon 

 Maitland faster than during any flood since the settlement of the 

 country.' At the same time, we know that a rainfall of 2in. a 

 day for five or six days would ? 

 a rainfall may occur, and we f 

 probably be the effect." " Such a rainfall might raise tlie wa 

 at Maitland to the level of the flood of 1820- -that is Gft. higher 

 than the flood of April, 1870." " With such an increased eleva- 

 tion the quantity which breaks over the banks at Graham's would 

 be enormously increased, and instead of passing round through 

 the back country, would break into the town, and being joined 

 there by the main body of the water, would sweep High-.'^treet 

 from one end to the other, and probal)]y leave the town in ruins." 

 In 1870 there were but two rain-gauges in the Hunter water-^h.-.l, 

 and it is very satisfactory now to find that tlie calculations b.i^'d 

 on the rainfall indicated by these two gauges is substantially b. une 

 out by recent experience. Now we ha\e 20 rain-<:aiiireh in tlie 

 same district, and we find that ;i r;iiufMll which averaged ;i Httle 

 more than lin. per day for iouv (l.^v■^, the i(.t;d Iicjiil; '< i>l. made 

 in 1889 a flood of 33ft. Gin.; in M^nvli, l>7i), tli.- t-tal r;.in in 

 four days was 5-08, and the I1o<mI :51fi. iiin. ; and in Aju-il the 

 same year, with a greater rainfall, o-[)S, tlieie was a llood of 3lft. 

 4in. Rain, therefore, as heavy ms that which fell about Sydney 

 in the recent storm would, upon the watershed of the Hunter, 

 produce five times as much water as they had in the recent Hood. 

 I am not prepared to say how higti such a flood would rise, but it 



possible appears in the (luotations above. ( )l»-.crs atinn-, ,ir SvdneV 



