THE 1RE1 GA T10X A GE. 357 



from one branch of the Department to another are not advisable and 

 are sparingly effected. 



The different Provinces of India, each ruled by its Governor or 

 Lieutenant Governor, with Secretaries for the various departments of 

 the administration, are in some respects comparable to the different 

 States of the Union of the United States of America; and the Govern- 

 ment of India, to the Federal Government of the United States; after 

 making full allowance for the very important and distinguishing 

 point of difference, that the Government of India is mainly bureau- 

 cratic, while that of the United States is representative. Again such 

 powers of local self-government as a Province has, have been dele- 

 gated by the Government of India, which is in all matters supreme, 

 and always retains in its own power the appointment of Provincial 

 Governors and their chief officials and Secretaries. 



This supremacy of the Government of India over the administra- 

 tion of the Provinces effectually safeguards the country against an 

 existing and useful irrigation canal being deprived of its water supply 

 from a river, by the construction of another canal higher up the river 

 in perhaps another Province. For no such canal can be constructed 

 by any private person or company without the express permission of 

 the Government; for it is laid down in the law that the Government 

 is the sole owner of all the water in all natural streams and lakes, 

 and every project for a canal would have to receive the sanction of 

 the Government of India, before any expenditure could be incurred by 

 a Provincial Government on its construction. Before that sanction 

 could be given, the report on the project would have to clearly show 

 that, either no existing rights or interests would be injured by the 

 construction and working of the proposed canal, or that if any such 

 injury would result, full compensation or reparation was provided for. 

 As a matter of fact, no private canals of any size or importance exist 

 in North India. There are a few small ones whose supply does not 

 appreciably affect the volume of water in the rivers that feed them. 

 And in the case of all Government canals full investigation is made, 

 and care taken to provide against any detriment to existing irrigation 

 rights. In this respect the solicitude of the Government for the pro- 

 tection and well being of the people is strikingly paternal, and even 

 grand-motherly at times. The improvement of the country and the 

 colonization of the waste lands is slow but sure. All this is in strik- 

 ing contrast with what has taken place in the Western States of the 

 United States, where irrigation is a necessity for the cultivation of the 

 country. Private enterprise, not only unrestrained, but encouraged 

 and allowed full scope for the development of its schems, has rapidly 

 engraved the face of the land with numerous canals and ditches and 

 turned grass prairies and barren unproductive tracts into green fields 



