A GOVERNMENT HEAD OF WATER.

Kumara Times, Issue 2073, 21 April 1883, Page 3

A GOVERNMENT HEAD OF WATER.

[to the editor.] Sir—Of late there has been a disposition on the part of the miners connected with the sludge-channel to wait patiently and bide the course of events. About eight parties are entirely at a standstill till such time as the capacity of the head race tunnel is increased, and all have shown a willingness to accept the inevitable. .New troubles are however being thrust upon us by the increase in the price of water which is being effected at present : for such I hold to be the result of the alterations to gauge-boxes now being done. The regulations are not very explicit on what really is a head of water, and may be got by any means that will give 60 cubic feet per minute; so we may take it for granted that the regulations mean that 60 cubic feet per minute is a head of water. Now I hold that Mr Gow has a right to satisfy the miners using the Government water that by his recent alterations to gauges he is supplying 60 cubic feet per minute. On the other hand it is a disputed point about 6'* cubic feet per minute being a head of water, as some qualified engineers in the colony maintain that it takes 90 cubic feet per minute to make a head of water. The real facts of the case are simply these, that we have beeen paying £3 per week for a certain measurement of water and the Government have raised the price of that quantity by percent., knowing in the meantime that the price at present is unreasonably high and must in the nature of things be reduced. When the demand for a reduction takes place, if the Government should be in need of votes they can then magnanimously reduce the price by 12J per cent., and get the credit of having done a good-natured action. Will this community be gulled by such trickery? That august personage the present Mining Inspector, who has wriggled into preferment through his extraordinary zeal for government interest (often at the expense of communities that he has been connected with) has spoken, and the words that came out of his mouth were these—that a 5-inch by 20-inch opening, with a 6-inch pres-sure-board gives three heads of water, in the usual 12ft. level box. And the small fry re-echo, So mote it be ! A Cove up the Lead. April 20, 1883.