Busby's salary had in the meantime been increased to £500 a year, and the colonial office had questioned the necessity of retaining his services any longer and demanded a report on the project in 1832. The water-supply scheme was not completed until September 1837. It had involved the excavation of a tunnel about 12,000 feet (3,660 m) long, but the proposed reservoir at Hyde Park with pipes throughout the city was not gone on with. Busby's appointment terminated on the completion of the waterworks, and in August 1838 the payment to him of a sum of £1000 was sanctioned as a gratuity.