450 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



in the clearest manner the mutual obligations of the users of water, 

 and providing for the imposition of penalties on those who contra- 

 vened its regulations. The law is a judicial one only, the 

 administration of water is left entirely to Government. This may 

 appear a drastic measure, but, in the management of a large irriga- 

 tion system, liable to shortage of water, is very necessary, in order 

 that the spirit, as well as the letter, of fair distribution to all may 

 be carried out. All disputes between users of water are, however, 

 decided by a sort of moving water court, composed of the Governor 

 of the Province, who is an Egyptian, two prominent men of the 

 district, nominated by both contending parties, and the Irrigation 

 Officer. This last advises on issues of fact for the information of 

 the " water court," which then gives its decision in accordance with 

 the terms of the law. 



Now, Egypt and Soy.th Africa have not a single point in 

 common, either in their physical features or in the characteristics 

 of their inhabitants. 



In Egypt, irrigation of a primitive kind, but extensive in 

 amount, has been practised from the earliest times. In South 

 Africa, or, at any rate, in the Transvaal, irrigation such as will 

 enable the natural resources of the country to be fully utilised is not 

 possible under the present water law. There is an oft-quoted 

 proverb relative to the natural tendency of man to insist on pur- 

 chasing his own experience ; an expensive process. It is to be 

 hoped that South Africa, with the mistakes of other countries to 

 guide it, will not insist on taking the circuitous route to prosperity 

 that they have done, but will display sufficient acuteness to take the 

 obvious short cut to extensive irrigation which, if not absolutely 

 necessary for, is, at least, a powerful aid to agricultural develop- 

 ment that a good water law affords. In spite of the dissimilarity 

 between the two countries, and, assuming that extensive irrigation 

 in South Africa may be permitted, some useful lessons can be drawn 

 from Egypt that are applicable to this country. 



The first of these is that the study or construction of large 

 schemes is not inconsistent with the execution of small ones. The 

 investigation of the Nile as a whole, and the construction of large 

 works on it in no way interfered with numerous small works being 

 constructed to distribute water fairly to every cultivator, some of 

 whom owned not more than half an acre. Similarly in South Africa 

 the construction of large works need not, if properly carried out, 

 interfere with small ones for individual farmers. 



The second is that engineering details should not be interfered 

 with except by engineers. Had Mehemet Ali and the rulers that 

 succeeded him allowed the French engineers to build the Barrage 

 in their own way, instead of insisting on an original and somewhat 

 peculiar method of treating foundations, that structure would have 

 been capable of doing its work in 1861, if not before. Egypt, conse- 

 quently, would have reaped the benefit of it at least twenty years 

 before it did. Instead of this, the work stood, a monument of 



