WATER RACES IN COUNTIES.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 385, 28 July 1876, Page 3

WATER RACES IN COUNTIES.

Water races arc to vest in tho Counties in which they are situated. Tho Counties are to bo bound to maintain such works In proper and sufficient repair. In case tho County neglects to fecop or maintain such works, money duo to such defaulting Couuty ia to bo kept back by the General Government. How will thia work ? Lot no take the County of Clydo and tho Mount Ida \Y ntcr "Race and Channel. Could oar own Municipal Council manage the Mount Ida Worka ? Wo will not ttay they could rot, but content ournolvesi wftn fluggesting the question as a teat of wlu.t the Government propose. Suppose a County Council elected, consisting of nine Councillors, elected from Naseby, Hamilton, St. Bathana, Blacks, Clyde, Roxburgh, &c., bow often could such a Council meet? Poa■ibly eit times in tho year * quorum could be obtained. It in an utter ab■uj;dity to suppose a public body meeting under such circumstances could initiate a nyntein of management lor tho water works. We vent ure to state that it will take all the acutnen of half •-dozen men locally concentrated, a d devoted for a considerable time, for two or three days a woek, to nothing else, td give anything like financial satisfaction to tho capital account or to the mining customer. Wo do hope Pla very strong protest will be made to induce tho Government not to no foolishly divest itself of tho power it; now baa to really confer a benefit upon tho Goldfielda without cost. If the proposition is carried—being euro that it •will not work, being also doubtful as to whether a County Council for the Couuty of < lyde will ever meet at all •—wo do state with some confidence tbat the water race will never be co.ui{>leted at all. The contractu already et may, it ia true, be done ; but the water will never come in. While the Government are chuckling as to the nuccess of their policy of evasion our -best prospects are thrown, to the winds.