Note Footnote a: — APPENDIX H.

Two official pages of the 1893 report are devoted to the "misuse of water," a member of Parliament having already objected to the application of the word "waste" to water allowed to flow unchecked from bores. The aggregate capacity of the ten Government bores then flowing was 5,000,000 gallons daily, all measured; while of the 137 private wells the flow was estimated at 100,000,000 gallons daily. This total of 105,000,000 gallons would be equivalent to a rainfall of 29 in. on 91 square miles of country. This was the rate of average rainfall on the assumed outcrop of water-bearing country that supplied the artesian area. And it had to be remembered that a part of this rainfall of 29 in. had to be carried off by streams as well as by evaporation, and therefore did not sink into the water-bearing strata of the arid west. As to the extent of the outcrop, it was estimated not to exceed one-eighth of a mile, with a total length of 1,600 miles, which meant a total supply of 200 square miles of water-bearing outcrop area.a Arguing on these and other grounds, the report contends that the falling off of the yield of many bores affords proof that, wherever the supply comes from, the outflow already exceeds the inflow. The Engineer can only regard as wasted two-thirds of the water that now flows from the artesian bores in Queensland; indeed, adopting the language of an American, "the waste is a crime against the well-owner and against the State."