Failure of the Yan Yean Reservoir. 



161 



necessarily restricted to the eastern arm of the Plenty, even 

 supposing this source to be one on which we could at all 

 times depend. 



Iti the report of the Select Committee already referred to, 

 I find that Mr. Blackburn, after a careful survey of the Yarra, 

 ascertained that at a distance of twenty-five miles from Mel- 

 bourne there is a sufficient head in the river to supply the 

 City on the gravitation principle. Mr. Christy has kindly 

 estimated for me the cost of laying a thirty-six inch pipe for 

 a distance of twenty-five miles, and it amounts to the enormous 

 sum of £369,900. If therefore we are to bring our water into 

 the City from this great distance, I think it will not be denied 

 that it is far better to leave the eastern arm of the -Plenty 

 altoo-ether, and go at once to the Yarra, where we shall have 

 as much water as a thirty-six inch pipe can deliver, which 1 have 

 no doubt would suffice for a pppulation of at least 500,000. 



And it is also most important to bear in mmd that a work 

 of such magnitude would never have been thought of for a 

 moment if it could have, reached no further than the present 

 wants of the City. The preference of the gravitation scheme 

 was entirely based by the Commissioners on its supposed 

 capability of supplying at least four times the present population 

 of Melbourne, and on the facility with which it was beheved 

 that the works could at any time be indefinitely extended ; 

 and it was only very lately that Mr. Jackson, the engineer 

 of the works, is reported to have made similar statements m a 

 paper which he read before the Victorian Institute of Science. 

 I shall take the liberty of quoting a paragraph from the news- 

 paper report:— "The numerous advantages of the Yan lean 

 Keservoir Scheme were pointed out; several interesting 

 particulars were stated in the paper. The Yan Yean scheme 

 it appears can be extended indefinitely, without any addition 

 to the reservoir, so as to supply Melbourne with water even 

 if it attained the population of London. It was suggested 

 that the cheapest plan of supplying Geelong- might be from 

 the same source which is intended to supply Melbourne. 



It is foreio-n to my purpose to discuss, m this paper, the 

 opinions which Mr. Jackson has published on the subjects of 

 which I have treated ; but, as it eminently concerns the pubhc 

 to know the kind of data upon which the Commissioners base 

 their extraordinary expectations of success, I shall add a few il- 

 lustrations of the scientific views entertained by their engineer. 



Havino- disposed of Mr. Hodgkmson's pumping scheme, and 

 all other "plans for supplying Melbourne and Wilhamstown 



