In this connection, a brief sketch of the water supply of St. John will not be without interest. It is only half a century ago that the inhabitants of this city were dependent on wells for the water which they drank and used. Even at later date than that it used to be sold about the streets from tall casks, at a penny a bucketful. The chief wells were in King's Square, Blockhouse Hill--the vantage ground of many a well-contested fisticuff battle between the rising generation; Princess Street, near Charlotte; Queen Square, the foot of Poor House Hill, which in winter made such a splendid coasting road; and in Portland close by the first public hydrant, now in Main Street. In 1820, agitation was made for a better system of water supply; but it was not until 1825 that the question took definite shape, and an Act for the incorporation of a water company, with a capital of £10,000 passed the Legislature. Surveys were at once made, and estimates were laid before the stockholders, but the capital subscribed was deemed insufficient to enable them to go on with the work in hand. The money was accordingly lent out on interest until the next year, when each stockholder received back the sum he had paid in, with three per cent. added. A number of new wells were sunk at once, and every effort made to secure for the people a fuller supply. In 1832, Hon. William Black, Nehemiah Merritt, James White, John Ward, George D. Robinson, Thomas Barlow, Hugh Johnston, John M. Wilmot, James Hendricks, Thomas Millidge, Robert W. Crookshank, Zalmon Wheeler, Robert Parker, William B. Kinnear, Richard Sands, Lauchlan Donaldson, Charles Simonds, James T. Hanford, William Leavitt, and Noah Disbrow had an Act passed for the Incorporation of the St. John Water Company. It started with a subscribed capital of £20,000, five per cent. of which was to be paid in a year from the date of the passing of the Act. The shares were placed at £5 each. Directors were to be elected every year, and consist of thirteen in number, and seven of the old directors were to remain in office each year. In 1834, a new Act was passed, amending the one which was sanctioned two years previously, but the Company was not regularly organized until 1837. Colonel Baldwin, C.E., during this year, made surveys, and on his advice the first practical attempt at bringing the water into the city from Lily Lake was made. An engineer was appointed, and, under his management, the first City Water Works were built. The water was not brought, as in the opinion of eminent engineers it should have been, directly from Lily Lake to the city by its own gravitation, but was taken from the tail of Gilbert's Mill, and conducted thence by a sluice to a reservoir or a cistern, which was placed a few yards to the south-west of the Marsh-bridge. An engine and pumping-house was erected over the cistern, a steam-engine and gear were procured, and the water was sent through a