162 



Failure of the Yan Yean Reservoir, 



from the Yarra^ as impracticable and absurd^ Mr. Jackson 

 considers that the Merri Creek swamp^ were it not for its 

 distance^ would be a very eligible site for a store reservoir for 

 the City ; and says, that it receives the drainage of about 

 thirty square miles. 



He says, also, "the necessity of constructing a store reser- 

 voir would not be manifest to a casual observer, but, as it 

 would appear from the evidence of those settlers who have been 

 estabhshed on the banks of the River Plenty for the longest 

 period of time, that at a ford known as the Bridge Inn Ford, 

 the Plenty has been known, on several occasions, to cease to 

 flow, the necessity becomes more obvious." 



He further says, "I found that the Yan Yean reservoir 

 would receive the drainage of eighteen square miles. (Mr. 

 Hodgkinson's measurement is four and half square miles) an 

 area which, in my belief, is sufficient in itself to afford an ample 

 supply of water for the City, without looking to any other 

 source ; but, as droughts of two or three years' standing have 

 been known to occur, I consider it advisable to lead in the 

 Plenty River." 



He further adds, "that the reservoir can be made to receive, 

 in addition to the Plenty River, the drainage of upwards of 

 120 square miles of surface." The Survey maps give sixty 

 square miles as the area of the Plenty basin. 



It needs no additional arguments, as it appears^ to me, to 

 show the great advantages which a Yarra gravitation scheme 

 would possess over a gravitation scheme having the eastern arm 

 of the Plenty as its only source of supply ; but if these are 

 wanted, they will be found in the fact that if we are to be 

 satisfied with the supply of our present wants only, at the 

 enormous cost of 369,900/., and if we are to depend upon the 

 eastern arm of the Plenty for this supply on the constant ser- 

 vice principle, we have no guarantee whatever that our wants 

 will really be supplied after all, or that the supply will be equal 

 to the actual demand. At forty gallons per head per day, the 

 eastern arm is no doubt fitted to supply 100,000 inhabitants, 

 if we are prepared to chance the droughts ; but it has been 

 practically found that there is no way of limiting each indivi- 

 dual to his forty gallons, if the distribution is on the constant 

 service principle. And the Comissioners of Sewerage and 

 Water Supply, backed by the opinion of the Select Committee, 

 have, very properly, from the first, determined to supply the 

 City on this principle, and it would be a sad retrogression in 

 sanitary economy to revert to the antiquated method ot inter- 



