Failure of the Yan Yean Reservoir, 



115 



referring to the able report of the Select Committee of the 

 Legislative Council on Sewerage and Water Supply, that 

 those gentlemen who were best qualified to give an opinion 

 on the subject were unanimous in describing the deterioration 

 which the water would undergo by being stored in the Yan 

 Yean reservoir. The language used by one physician was 

 that the water would be almost incurably contaminated; by 

 another, that he should not like to use the water himself. 



As regards the purity of the water, therefore, I think the 

 Commissioners liave disregarded the best interests of the pub- 

 lic in a sanitary point of view. 



4. I object to the choice of the Commissioners, because it 

 was based on insufficient data. The Select Committee, in 

 their report, say our meteorological experience in these 

 colonies by no means justifies the sanguine anticipations of 

 Mr. Blackburn, who himself admits that a continued drought 

 for two years, or even eight months, would render the whole 

 scheme a feilure;" and they state the following very grave ob- 

 jections to the reservoir scheme. 



1, " That it would seem to be against all experience that 

 any of the sources of the Plenty should be constant in all 

 seasons. 



2. " That sufficient allowance has not been made for the ef- 

 fect of evaporation over so large a surface as 1,200 acres, 

 the proposed superficies of the reservoir." 



And, while they were of opinion that the advantages upon 

 the whole preponderated in favor of the gravitation scheme, 

 they preferred to adopt the course taken by Mr. Hodgkinson 

 in his evidence, and declined giving a positive opinion on the 

 subject. 



It is difficult to see what peculiar advantages the Select 

 Committee had in view, without referring to the estimates of 

 the two rival schemes which they were contrasting- The ad- 

 vantages which one scheme of water supply possesses over an- 

 other, are always reducible to a money value. 



The following are the estimates for the two schemes, which 

 were under the consideration of the Select Committee in 

 January, 1853. 



First Cost. Annual Expense. 

 Modified Gravitation Scheme £162,713 £1,450 



Mr. Hodgkinson's Yarra Scheme 99,689 7,600 



The objections which, in the opinion of the Select Com- 

 mittee, appHed to Mr. Hodgkinson's plan, had reference 

 exclusively to the annual expenditure for coal and supervision. 



