THE WATER QUESTION.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3670, 29 September 1880, Page 3

THE WATER QUESTION.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) , g lßi —i n your report in your issue of the 25th, referring to tho stopping of my battery and closing down the shaft, you say it is apparent the "Council cannot make fish of one and flesh of another, and that the Grahamstown battery proprietors are complaining loudly every summer of the scarcity of water. By these remarks you appear to be under the impression that I wish the Council to grant me concessions which they would not grant to others. Such is not the case. In applying for water I did so in accordance with the Government Gazette, a copy of which j I enclose. I confess that I was then under the impression that the Committee appointed, to report on the water supply, to use your own words, would not make fish of one and flesh of another, but I soon found my mistake. When at the first meeting of the Council the Chairman of that Committee brought up a report recommending the granting of water to the Golden Crown, well knowing that it must be taken from some person already using the water, as there were not enough for all that were then using it; and I consider it unfair alter companies and priyate individuals have procured machinery to work by motive power that the water should be taken from them, or a price put on that will make it unprofitable to use ft. As you will see by the Gazette. notice, the Government charges was 7s 6d for horse power, taking the fall into consideration. The Council charges £3 for three head, irrespective of fall, so that the Hape Creek with 30ft. of fall and 131b pressure to the inch is expected to pay as much as the Golden Crown with 150 ft. of fall, and 601b to the square inch pressure. And there is still another reason why the batteries on the flat should pay more than the Karaka or Hape Creeks. The cost of laying the water on to the batteries on the flat amounts to £10,0C0; the interest'on that at 10 per cent, is £1000 per annum. Is it fair to ask the Karaka or Hape Creek, which has cost the Council nothing, to pay their portions of that interest? 1 think not; nor do I think that those who would charge £14 per week or £728 per annum for 13 horse power can have the interest of the field at heart. I have worked the mine for some time without profit to myself, not wishing to'discharge the men until I got the' engine shaft at work, which I hope to do shortly, as working with horses with heavy water has been very expensive, having to. drain a large area of frountry.—l am, &c, > W. S. Gbeehville. Hape Mine, Sept. 27th, 1880.