Perth streets were crowded with busy people. Mechanics, masons, labourers, and domestic servants, although immigrating from the east in great numbers, were not easily procured, and high rates of wages were demanded and paid. There was especially a dearth of masons and domestic servants. The Government introduced a number of the latter from England.
Perth and Fremantle were not alone advantaged by this influx; the eastern goldfields population, particularly Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie, and Menzies, was greatly swelled. Here also accommodation could not be found for the incoming thousands. In February Kalgoorlie and Menzies were crowded with strangers. Many applied for miner's rights or for employment on the mines, but it must be said that the general standard of the arrivals of 1896 was not so high as that of previous years. These people were not prospectors and experienced miners. The approaching completion of goldfields railways was calculated to reduce the hardships of life on the interior desert, and hence a percentage of the inflow. The splendid stamina and appearance of the mining people of 1894 was now being leavened by men and women of a lower order. It was even difficult for the leaseholders to obtain sufficient miners to work their properties as required under the labour covenants. The arrivals of 1896, instead of being of the stuff of pioneers, were rather of those who wait until an easy way has been paved. Some resembled the camp followers of victorious armies of olden days. During the Christmas and New Year holidays Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie were thronged with men from the mines in the desert. In February and March Menzies gained an unexpected accession of people. Provisions became scarce, and the town was for days without bread. Flour was sold at £65 per ton. Hitherto there been comparatively few females in the towns, but in 1896 they became a fair percentage of the population. In February Coolgardie was overrun with educated penniless foreigners and Englishmen. They expected to quickly obtain congenial work, but unless they were willing to take positions as miners their careers were precarious. Fever cases were numerous in Coolgardie in March, and the hospitals there and in the other centres were over-crowded. In the same month rain fell over the eastern fields, and the public health soon improved. By the influx of people throughout 1896 the dimensions of the goldfields towns were enlarged. Kalgoorlie now became a serious rival of Coolgardie in matter of population. The monthly returns of immigration into Western Australia in 1896 were: January, 7,111; February, 5,774; March, 5,831; April, 3,277; May, 3,335; June, 2,425; July, 3,331; August, 4,289; September, 4,980; October, 6,122; November, 4,888; and December, 3,852—total, 55,215. The departures numbered 19,266; and the population increased from 101,235 in 1895 to 137,946 in December, 1896.
The agitation concerning the water trouble was continued early in 1896. In January a crisis took place at Woolgangie. No water was to be obtained, and the Government was compelled to run water trains from Northam to that centre, whither the contractors had now laid the new line. The route from Woolgangie to Coolgardie was almost waterless. The Government set works in progress for obtaining water by boring and by conservation in the various districts throughout the eastern goldfields. While these were proceeding Mr. C.Y. O'Connor, the engineer-in-chief, drew up a report upon a gigantic scheme for supplying the Coolgardie Goldfields from reservoirs in the Darling Ranges near Perth. It was a proposal as bold as any ever projected. The original cost of pumping 5,000,000 gallons daily from a reservoir on the Helena River to Coolgardie was set down as £2,500,000. The length of pipe was placed at 330 miles, the diameter of pipe at 80 inches, the velocity of water per second at 2 feet, the net height to which the water had to be pumped at 1,350 feet, the effective horse-power required at 2,716, and the actual horse-power required (being effective horse-power plus 33 per cent.) at 3,612. The pumping engines and sheds were estimated to cost, at £55 per horse-power, the sum of £200,000; the main pipes (including valves, &c.) at Fremantle, 90,000 tons, £1,470,000; the carriage of same from Fremantle, £140,000; the laying and jointing (including excavation and filling in of pipe trench, &c.), £220,000; the reservoirs, £300,000; and the distributing mains (including trenching, laying, and jointing, &c.), 100 miles, £170,000; total, £2,500,000. The working expenses per annum, including interest and sinking fund on total capital cost at six per cent., were set down as £320,000. The cost to the public, on the assumption that 5,000,000 gallons would be sold daily, was estimated at 3s. 6d. per 1000 gallons. It was proposed to pump the water to the top of Mount Burges, near Coolgardie, whence reticulation was to take place. It was believed that water could be delivered cheaper by this method than any other, and also that an ample supply could be obtained on the Darling Ranges.
It would be true to say that the mere boldness of this proposal astonished people throughout the goldfields, and in all parts of the world where it was understood. On the other hand it was conclusive proof to all critics that the Western Australian Government had a supreme confidence in the permanent issue of the gold deposits. While it pleased the people, they seemed to doubt, because of its immensity, whether the scheme was feasible. Mr. O'Connor, while not wishing to advise that the proposal should be furthered, was quite convinced that the work could be undertaken. He was supported by other authorities. The Government, after long and serious debate, decided to introduce an authorising bill to Parliament, and proved that they were even more ready to give the goldfields a water-supply, no matter the cost, than the goldfields people themselves. There were many who advised that large bores should be first put down in different parts of the mineral area to see if artesian water could be obtained, and there were many who held that the scheme should not be accepted until a commission of prominent European and Australian experts had pronounced upon its practicability. When Parliament met in July the Government programme included this great work. It was declared in that sketch of the proposals for the session that the scarcity of water on the Yilgarn and Coolgardie Goldfields had for a long time engaged the anxious attention of the Government, and that after several years' experience, during which the work on the mines had been much impeded for want of water, the question had become so pressing that it could no longer be left undecided. Because of the immense interests involved in the speedy and proper working of the mines, of the many millions of money that had been invested in them, and of the fact that the future prosperity of the colony was so closely bound up in their speedy development, Ministers rather than hesitate, decided to at once undertake to supply sufficient water of a good quality.
When the measure was subsequently introduced slight opposition was shown to it in the Legislative Assembly, and it passed the Legislative Council in September. A proposal was made in the latter Chamber to refer the bill to a Select Committee, but this was defeated by a substantial majority. A Loan Bill, authorising the raising of £2,500,000, was asserted to on 23rd September. A second Loan Bill for £3,500,000 was assented to in October, and was designed for the construction of new goldfields railways and for other extensive public works. Since September, 1896, considerable
