By  the  Chairman :

Q.  Is  that  your  idea  of  the  proper  way  to  handle  this  problem?
A.  That  is  what  I  stated  some  years  ago,  before  the  Board  of  Trans-
portation and  Trade  here  in  New  York.  It  seems  still  to  be  the
feasible  way,  for  the  State  to  go  to  some  inexhaustible  supply  and
aqueduct  the  water  down  through  the  State,'  and  run  out  lateral
mains  and  supply  the  whole  State,  and  then  levy  the  cost  upon  the
cities.  The  cost  would  not  be  one-sixth  of  what  the  cities  are  now
pajdng  individually  to  supply  themselves  with  water,  the  whole
thing  being  concentrated  and  done  by  all  the  cities  combined.
Q.  How  can  the  present  needs  of  Brooklyn  be  relieved,  without
making  a  private  contract?  A.  Brooklyn  is  no  danger  of  lack  of
water.  We  have  had  now  one  of  the  dryest  summers  that  we  have
known  in  a  long  time.  Our  water  has  not  run  out.  The  news-
papers give  credence  to  these  statements.     First  is  the  official  state-


Nos.  2G-27.]  3G31

irents,  and  then  the  newspapers  accepting  them  as  though  they
were  tnic,  and  then  people  get  alarmed.  The  capacity  of  Long
Itland  for  water  is  something  immense.  There  is  a  law  now  that
we  cannot  go  down  to  Suffolk  connty.  By  what  influence  that  law
was  passed  I  do  not  know.  It  surely  is  very  easy  to  repeal.  It  is
as  easy  to  repeal  a  law  as  it  is  to  pass  it.  If  the  city  needed  water
from  Suffolk  county  I  guess  the  Legislature  would  let  it  go  there,
sooner  than  to  have  them  go  without  water.  There  is  nothing  to
he  feared  on  that  head.
