Failure of the Yan Yean Reservoir, 



117 



tour, and I shall not soon forget the pleasure and instruction 

 it afforded nie, and through their kindness in furnishing me 

 with their measurements and calculations^ I am enabled to 

 submit to you this evening my opinions on the Yan Yean 

 reservoir scheme^ based on more correct data, and more exten- 

 sive inquiry. 



Tlierc is a considerable discrepancy in the published 

 accounts of the amount of water consumed by different cities. 



It appears that London and some other cities in England 

 are supplied with 30 gallons per head per day, Glasgow is 

 supplied with 30 gallons per head, by steam-power, Notting- 

 ham consumes 40 gallons per head, and the Croton aqueduct 

 at New York is calculated to discharge 60,000,000 gallons in 

 24 hours, which for a population of 500,000 gives 120 gallons 

 per head. 



Great credit is due to the City Council for having from 

 the first laid it down as a settled principle that Melbourne 

 should be supplied at the rate of 40 gallons per head. At 

 the same time I cannot regard this amount as adequate in a 

 sanitary point of view to our actual requirements. Melbourne 

 and New York are in similar latitudes, and considering the 

 hot winds and dust storms, and the very dry atmosphere and 

 long droughts that are peculiar to Australia, a more liberal 

 supply of water would be required here than in New York. 



For public baths and fountains, for thoroughly watering 

 the streets, cleansing the gutters, and flushing the sewers, for 

 extinguishing fires, and limiting their rapid and destructive 

 progress, the water supply of this city should not be measured 

 by so many gallons per head, the supply should at all times 

 and under all circumstances be amply sufficient for any 

 increased or unforeseen demand that might arise ; but it will 

 be shown in this inquiry that there is no such ample supply 

 at Yan Yean to satisfy such luxurious anticipations, and we 

 must be contented to limit our wants to the supply Ave can 

 command. And in the event of a drought, to use the words 

 of the Select Committee, " it is incontestible, that the most 

 careful provisions would be necessary to guard against any 

 unnecessary waste of water." 



I te^hall, therefore, assume forty gallons per head as the 

 amount that it will be necessary to provide for this city ; and 

 this is the amount upon which Mr. Blackburn and Mr. Hodg- 

 kinson based all their calculations, in their evidence before the 

 Select Committee. 



There is one important point in which I must differ from 

 the Select Committee, and that is in limiting the amount of 



