09 



of the action of the inspector or enoineer he may appeal to the minister 

 of the interior, but the order of the inspector will stand until coun- 

 termanded b}^ the hioher official. Durinu- hiuh Nile, or whenever 

 work is necessary to avoid disaster, the orders of the governor super- 

 sede those of the engineer, and the engineer gives notice that discord 

 exists, when the governor becomes responsible for what takes place. 

 As the work is largely of an engineering character, it is only in rare 

 cases that the governor prefers to take charge in the field. 



The classitication of improvement works provided for in articles 9 

 and 10 is worthy of notice. The governor has nothing to do with 

 awarding the contracts for excavation requiring the services of more 

 than 1,000 men, masonry work costing more than §974, or work where 

 machinery is necessary. The law provides, however, that the gov- 

 ernor shall be notilied as to the character of the contract, and he has 

 the privilege of reporting any failure on the part of the contractor to 

 the engineer. In smaller improvement works the governor and 

 engineer work together, selecting the contractor and supervising the 

 work, the governor being the judge as to the reliability of bidders. 



This regulation not only prepared the way for the irrigation laws 

 that were to follow, but made it much easier to introduce reform meas- 

 ures regarding the corvee. As soon as the contractors on large enter- 

 prises were brought directly under the minister of public works and 

 his assistants a solution of some of the la])or problems could be under- 

 taken. It was supposed at the time the regulation went into force 

 that the use of machinery would go a long way toward reducing the 

 labor of the corvee, but experience has not proven this to be the case. 

 While the need of better laws was evident to the engineers under 

 the Egyptian Government, it was impossible or impracticable to bring 

 about the enactment of a fairly comprehensive code until 1894-. 



The first article of this decree (see p. So) di'tines a canal as a w^ater- 

 way which supplies more than two villages. These are public and are 

 maintained by the government. A ditch is a channel which provides 

 water for one or two villages, or for land belonging to one person or 

 family, even if located in several villages. These latter are private 

 property and must be maintained by those deriving benefit therefrom, 

 but the government may clean them should the owners neglect to do 

 so and tax the cost against the owners. As the number of irrigators 

 under anv canal increase, the necessity for go\'ernment control in 

 this respect evidently l)ecomes greater. 



Drains are classified in much the same manner as are ditches and 

 canals. If a drain serves but one or two villages it is considered as a 

 private work, unless it serves more than 2,()00 acres. In the latter 

 case or when it serves more than two villages it is considered puljlic. 

 Drains are maintained under the same regulation as are canals and 

 ditches. This is probably due to the difficulty of distributing the work 



