64 



of each minister are dictated by a British undersecretary, it is but 

 seldom that measures are introduced that have not the indorsement of 

 the English. 



The irrigation oflicials are under the minister of public works and 

 include an inspector-general of irrigation, one inspector of irrigation 

 for Upper Egypt and one for Lower Egypt, and an inspector-general 

 of reservoirs. These officials are all English, and all but the inspector- 

 general of reservoirs have permanent positions, and his will doubtless 

 last until reservoir construction has been completed. In the same 

 rank with these officials stand six heads of the irrigation admioistra- 

 tion, who are native Egyptians. The head of the technical service 

 is an Egyptian, and this branch is closeh' allied with the irrigation 

 administration. To him are referred all technical questions relative 

 to the issuance of licenses for pumps and other lifting devices. The 

 survey department is in a way connected with the irrigation w^ork. It 

 has an English director. Two other departments, one dealing with 

 towns and buildings and the other with antiquities, have but little to 

 do with the irrigation administration. The two inspectors for Upper 

 and Lower Egypt and the heads of the drawing and mapping divisions 

 have their offices at Cairo. 



pjgypt is divided into irrigation districts, which, for convenience, 

 are known as circles, and each circle has an inspector. The inspectors 

 of the lirst and second circles have their offices at Cairo, the inspector 

 of the third circle is at Alexandria, of the fourth at Mineh, of the 

 fifth at Keneh, and of the sixth at Sohag. The directors of the first, 

 thii-d. and fourth circles are English. The remaining three are Egj-p- 

 tian. The inspectors of the circles have immediate charge of cleaning 

 canals, building smaller diversion works, repairing masonry structures, 

 keeping gauge heights on the Nile and on canals, and dividing the 

 water among canals in accordance with the area under each or as the 

 inspector-general may otherwise instruct. Under these men are other 

 officials, most of whom are natives, who travel about and see that the 

 instructions of the inspectors of the circles are carried out. Ordinarily 

 the responsibility of the engineer ends when the water is turned into 

 the canals. 



Every canal which serves more than two villages is held to be public, 

 and comes directly under the irrigation administration. There is 

 nothing in the law which requires a certain discharge to be supplied in 

 the canal during any part of the year. There is nothing to prevent an 

 irrigation official closing one canal or all at his pleasure. When water 

 is supplied the canal the irrigator can use as much as he can lift and 

 convey to his land. What he does not need he is free to waste. If 

 the canal supplies too much water and floods adjoining land, or if it 

 fails to supply enough to irrigate the farms depending on it, the irri- 

 gator has no recourse except to apply for a remission of a part or all 

 of the tax ordinarily paid. 



