Artesian Wells. 397 



that, under happier auspices and more advantageous circumstances, 

 expenditure, which by no means appears large, may be further re- 

 duced. Another difficulty is that some of the items which make up 

 the full cost, such as Kafir labour, fuel, water for drilling, and wagon 

 transport, are not supplied by the Government, and consequently 

 reliable accounts of such expenditure cannot be kept. An approxi- 

 mate figure may, howe\'er, be arrived at b\- taking an average over 

 a large number of boreholes put down during a long period, which 

 figure, of course, must l)e understood to appl\ to the cost of a large 

 number and not to any single one or small number of artesian wells. 

 Roughly, it may be stated that :?,ooo boreholes between 10 and 800 

 feet in depth, and varying from 2 to 6 inches in diameter, put down 

 b\ this Government during the past five years have cost on an average 

 ^^50 each. The cost per foot varies from 4s. to ^£4, and no average 

 price can J)e .stated that would in anv wav be of value to either the 

 general public or professional men. 



RESULTS OF BORTNG. 



Artesian wells have been put down in nearly even.' division of the 

 ■Colony, Namaqualand, Bechuanaland, and the Transkeian Terri 

 tories, with success, and from the experience thus gained it may be 

 safely deduced that an excellent supply of underground water exists 

 almost all over the Colony, at a reasonable depth, which, being 

 tapped by boring, flows at the surface or can be utilised by means 

 •of an ordinary deep well pump, and, moreover, at a cost within the 

 means of nearly ever\- farmer. Although the wells yet bored are not 

 large enough to permit of any extensive irrigation, agriculturists are 

 only too glad to make use of them for the high cultivation of small 

 areas, as is evidenced by about a thousand acres of garden ground, 

 orchards, and lucerne fields, irrigated from boreholes in diff"erent parts 

 of the Colony. To the stock-farmer, however, they are a source of 

 pros[>€rity and wealth, as the supplies alreadv met with are amply 

 sufficient for watering stock. The loss by drought by this means can 

 be absolutely avoided, and by tapping supplies in different parts of 

 a farm its stock-carn,ing capacity can be considerably increased. 

 Were there any question regarding the results of boring for water, 

 the great, nay. ovenvhelming. extent to which owners and occu[)iers 

 •of land have availed themselves of the facilities afforded for obtaining 

 a good water supply from underground sources would loudly testifv 

 to the value and beneficial character of the results achieved. 



rCBLIC BCILDIXGS AND VILLAGE.S. 



The advantages of this mode of obtaining supplies of pure water 

 for gaols, asylums, court-houses, and other public buildings, soon 

 became api>arent to the Government, and at many of these buildings 

 in different parts of the Colony the succes.sful boring operations 

 <-arried out have been the means of effecting a large economv 

 in charges consequent on the substitution of boreholes for other and 



