WATER WORKS ON GOLD FIELDS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 46, 15 September 1864, Page 3

WATER WORKS ON GOLD FIELDS.

The following is extracted from a letter which appears in a recent number of the ~JLrg'M.' The inhabitants of cities scarcely feel- a- water tax. But to enable the miner to work profitably,-^© mushave a large quantity of water at the lowest, possible cost ; and this can onlyrbe accomplished by adopting the plans hitherto carried out with neverfailing success, riot only in California, but 'in.rthis country, wherever private enerprise was alto wed to take up its legitimate positipn untrammeled by Government influence or control. It seems strange that the advocates of this scheme never drew a comparison between it and similar works in California, the only country that can be deemed analogous to it in undertakings of 'this kind;" Perhaps the, most impartial mode of drawing a comparison will be to use Mr Brady's own words, a3 uttered before the select committee of the Victorian House of Assembly: — ; ,- ■ . " In California extensive water- works have been executed, the sources in all cases being rivers' dammed np, and the conduit by fluming and ditching. Tho flume is generally 4ft wide by 2£ft high and open ditches in proportion, and the inclinations vary from 10ft to 29ft to the mile. The cost of these ditches has been from £1000 to £20,000 per mile, and vary in length from ten miles to thirty or forty. Of twelve water companies, the profits varied from twenty to sixty per cent, per annum. As a general rule a fall of" lft Gin to the mile is sufficient for an aqueduct where the depth of water is from 2ft to 3ft. " Before the same committee, Mr Brady further states, in reference to races in California, that they pay as follows : — " Columbia Ditch Company four per cent, per month ; ditch in the Rich Gulch, twelve per cent, per month ; ditch in the head of Rich Gulch, six per cent, per month'; two ditches ia Butte City, five percent, per month.; small ditch in Jackson, costing 1700 dol. pays 100 dol. per day ; Deer Creek and Prairie City, three per cent, per month; Coon Hollow, ten per cent, per month ; Rock Creek Ditch, near Q-eorgetown, five per cent, per month ; Natouta Water- works, twelve per cent, per month ; Auburn and Bear River twenty per cent, per annum ; South Fork (Yuba) Canal' cost between 600,000d0l and 700,000d01. and yields a profit of 2ooodol per week ; Gold- Hill Ditch, fort-two per cent, per month. The ditches in Nevada County pay from six to fifty per cent, per month. I may state here what Mr Brady omits, viz., that these works were all constructed when wages for labor were five dollars per man per day, or equal to three times the current rate in Victoria, and over a country presenting more engineering difficulties than any on the Coliban line of canal, unless they were selected by theoretical engineers for the pleasure of expending the public money and exhibiting a want of skill in surmounting them. By Mi- Brady's own acknowledgement, every ditch in California has an average of ten times the gradient which he recommends, and are ail in a prosperous condition ; while on the other hand, the only two great water companies of Victoria have proved miserable failures — and according to Mr Brady's statement before the same committee, o?ily attributable to " bad engineering and worse management." It will be seen from the foregoing statements of Mr Brady, that the works constructed upon sound practical principles in California and this country have b-ion highly remunerative, and lean perceive nothing in the hydrostatic engineering antecedents of that gentleman to induce a belief in his infallibility, or yet to justify him in trying the experiment of a low gradient, which has always failed on the gold fields, when, by using in a proper manner the fall at his dispoal, all engineering obstacles could be avoided and the expenditure reduced throe-fourths, rhus bringing it within reach of private enterprise ; and if such a speculation would not be found remunerative to a private company, I sej n > 1 •gitimate reason why the districts of Castlemaiiii; and Sandhurst should be favored or pampered at the expense of all other districts of the colony. HYDRODYNAMICS. Melbourne, August 29.