[River Murray]. [JOHNSTON, Captain E.N.]

Captain Johnston's Report of the General Scheme for the Improvement of the River Murray; together with Plans and Estimates. [Bound together with] Report on Improvements in the Vicinity of the Mouth of the River Murray, South Australia

Adelaide, R.E.E. Rogers, Government Printer, 1912 [and] 1913.

Foolscap folio, 66 pages plus a folding chart, 3 large folding plans or charts (describing a typical plan of a lock and weir, and charting the effects of certain reservoirs on navigation) and a large folding map of the Murray (555 × 910 mm, the 'section between Swan Reach and Wentworth ... showing locations of lock-sites', with a very large inset map of the entire length of the river), [and] 32 pages plus a folding map ('Proposed improvements in the vicinity of the mouth of the River Murray', 537 × 518 mm).

Contemporary full morocco lettered in gilt on the front cover 'Captain Johnston's River Murray Reports'; the original spine is missing and has been replaced with a fairly pedestrian piece of cloth, giving it a quarter cloth look; extremities rubbed, bumped and a little worn; title pages a little marked (with the second one a little foxed along the top margin); neat repairs to a few trifling tears to the folding plans (with a tape-stain to an old repair along one fold of the last map); slight nicks to the bottom edge of some leaves in the first paper; overall in very good condition.

The ownership signature of Arthur Searcy (1913) is written in pencil on each title page. Arthur Searcy (1852-1935) was Controller of Harbors from July 1911 and Chairman of the Harbors Board Committee until his retirement at the age of 65 (information from the Searcy scrapbooks in the State Library of South Australia). He was the older brother of the more well-known Alfred (1854-1925).

Loosely inserted are retained duplicate typescripts of two letters (in all, four pages foolscap) from Searcy, as Chairman of the Board, to the Minister of Marine, regarding proposed works at Victor Harbor (one page) and Goolwa (three pages). The letters are signed and dated at the head by Searcy (August and September 1922 respectively); the one on Goolwa raises numerous objections to Johnston's scheme. Three related contemporary newspaper cuttings (one printing a lengthy letter from Simpson Newland) are also present. The September 1928 ownership signature of E.H. Bakewell is written in pencil on the recto of the front free endpaper. Bakewell was managing director of the South Australian Reinforced Concrete Company, which makes sense in this context.

Item #80313

Price (AUD): $1,100.00
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