400 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



Under the present system the Government supply machinery and 

 material and skilled labour, and the farmer transport and rough 

 Kafir labour. This method has acted very well, as the cost of the 

 boreholes has not been great, and in the event of failure to obtain a 

 .su])ply the loss sustained by the farmer has not been heavy; but 

 in boring deeper holes the cost will become too heavy a hiss for the 

 farmer to bear if unsuccessful, while success would unduly enrich him 

 at the expense of the taxpayer. He .should, under these circum- 

 stances, at least pay the whole cost of the work, which has jffobably 

 increased the value of his property ten times. An equital)le plan 

 would be for the Government to select sites where there appears to 

 be a probaljility of tapping supplies of artesian water, and enter 

 into an arrangement with the landowner to bore the hole. The 

 agreement should be that if the borehole yielded over a certain 

 quantit) of water under certain conditions, he (the landowner) should 

 repay the full cost in instalments, extending over a period of 5 or lo 

 years, but that if no adequate quantity of water were found Govern- 

 ment should bear the greater share of the cost. There would seem 

 to be few difficulties in the way of carrying out such a scheme, which 

 would encourage enterprise in the agricultural industr}- very consider- 

 ably ; and as the proportion of successes is far larger than that of 

 failures, the refunded amounts would probably be largely in excess 

 of those chargeable to the Government. With Municipalities and 

 Public Institutions pa) ing full cost of boring, and a large refund from 

 the farming industry, the net cost to Government would n(jl l)e a great 

 part of the ^500,000 required, 30% perhaps, and the ample repro- 

 ductiveness of this expenditure in increasing other sources of revenue 

 should recommend it as an ouliav which would be repaid indirectly 

 in the course of a very few \ears. 



REFUND OK STATE-AID. 



The enormous possibilities latent in the development of this 

 source of water supply, and the resulting appreciation in the value of 

 land benefited by the use of the underground water, more than pio- 

 mise that a step further may be taken in the direction of refun<ling 

 the cost of sinking artesian wells advanced bv the Government. 

 Manx landowners assess the increase in \alue of a farm on which a 

 good boring has been made at 100% per morgen. but on some pro- 

 perties it is much more after a good supply of flowing water had been 

 tapped, .sometimes ten times its former value ; but, estimating the 

 increase in value to be only 50%. an average sized farm of. say, 500 

 morgen, previously worth ^500, would realise jQ'i$o, and if the bore- 

 hole costs ^50, the enhanced value, dire("tly due to it, would be 

 ^200. As there are some 100,000 square miles of the Colony as vet 

 undisposed of, it is almost certain that goo<i sites for boring could be 

 .selected on i ,000 Government farms where water Mas much needed, 

 and the execution of the work would ])roduce an increase in the value 

 of the land equal to a sum which would pay off the amount not 

 refunded bv the agricultural industr\. as well as the charges for 



