The Mumcipatity of New Amsterdam. 249 



In the end the Board agreed to keep up the road. In April of the 

 following year the canal had been completed, a Gwynne's centrifugal 

 pump had been laid down and also a substantial foundation for the erec- 

 tion of an engine and tank, but the Government had not } r et made any 

 advance towards the loan. In November, 1874, the Board con- 

 sented to pay ^2,000 for the right of haying down pipes across 

 Vrvheid. By this time the Board had spent nearly $45,000 on 

 the works, or $15,000 in excess of the Government loan. The Board 

 memoiialised the Court in the course of which it related the opposition it 

 had encountered, and prayed that the necessary Bill should be introduced 

 and passed to allow of the laying down of the pipes along the public road 

 between the ketting on the western boundary of Pin. Lochaber and the 

 town. Owing to these difficulties and the Government having delayed in 

 paying over a further sum of $10,000 to the Board, which had been 

 granted by the Combined Court in 1874, very little progress was made 

 with the works. In June of the following year a sum of .$4,000 was 

 advanced towards the $10,000, the balance being promised on the actual 

 completion of the works. When the year 1879 opened the Water Works 

 were not completed but operations had begun. Loans were falling due 

 and the Board was constrained to ask for a further loan of $30,000. A 

 sum of $25,000 was lent at 5 per cent, interest and the painting of the 

 works was taken in hand. To-day they consist of a cast iron rectangular 

 tank holding 20,000 gallons, supported by a cast iron and steel structure 

 45 feet from the ground. The engine house is phced immediately under 

 the tank at its base. The plant consists of one horizontal high pressure 

 Worthington pumping engine, to deliver 300 gallons of water per minute 

 against a pressure of 120 lbs. per square inch ; one horizontal triple ex- 

 pansion Worthington pumping engine, to deliver 600 gallons against the 

 same pressure ; two Babcock and Wilcox boilers, each 64 h.p., with 

 furnaces for w T ood fuel and a Cameron feed pump. At the Canje Creek, 

 some five and a half miles to the south, is a twelve inch centrifugal pump 

 and oil engine, delivering 2,000 gallons of water a minute. The canal at 

 the Lochaber or north end is 3 rods wide, tapering down to one rod at the 

 other end. 



While efforts were being concentrated on procui-ing a water supply 

 and concurrently on increasing the efficiency of the Fire Brigade, the 

 progress of both enterprise's being followed by a sympathetic, interest by 

 the Hand-in-Hand Fire Insurance Company and Mr. Nicholas Cox, the 

 Inspector General of Police, little attention could be paid to the sanitary 

 exigencies of the tow r n. Nor was there an abundance of funds wdiere- 

 with to do it. The Board, however, w 7 as not unmindful of its obligations. 

 Seeking advice, it bespoke the kind offices of two sugar planters, who 

 were commissioned to inspect the town and advise what were the most 

 urgent sanitary measures to be undertaken. One of these experts was 

 Mr. Foster Massiah, who was afterwards overseer of the East Demerara 

 Water Conservancy. The other was Mr. George Welchman, then manager 

 of Pin. Blairmont. This was in July, 1877. These men, who were each 

 paid $25 for their report, recommended the sinking of the koker at the 



