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66
WATER-SUPPLY.
which shall be from 30 to 50 per cent. less than our
present water-charges. The proposed area for the
collection of this supply is in the extensive range
of sandy soil in the south of Surrey, extending
around Farnham, about ten miles in each direction.
Since the publication of the first Report made on
this subject by the General Board of Health, unremitting
inquiry has been advancing, under their
direction, into all details of the plan; and the Honourable
William Napier, who, with others, has
been engaged in the investigation of the proposed
sources, has advocated an important modification,
which promises to reduce very considerably the
anticipated expense of the undertaking. The essential
and most important principles which governed
the Board, in arranging their plan, were, first, to
seek their supply in a silicious soil, where little soluble
material could exist for its contamination;
secondly, to take possession of the water so near
to its source that all its original purity might
be preserved; and, during conduction, to isolate
it from those contaminations which are incidental
to the onward passage of a stream through miles
of promiscuous country. To fulfil these indications,
there were two conceivable courses; and studious
local inquiries could alone determine which of them
was preferable: on the one hand, if the streams
which represent the natural drainage of the country
should be found uniformly pure and copious, they
might admit of being conducted bodily into the