HALIFAX WATER WORKS. — JOHNSTON. 73 



military authorities. In the year 1844 a eoiupany composed of 

 local men was formed, with a capital of £15,000, nnder the 

 name of the Halifax Water Company, which on the 17th of 

 April obtained a charter from the legislature of Nova Scotia, 

 for the purpose of supplying the inhabitants of the city with 

 water. An amendment to the act of incorporation was passed 

 during the same year, providing that the city council might 

 make such ordinances as might be deemed necessary for raising 

 such monies as might be rexjuired to furnish the city with 

 public fountains, hydrants and fire phigs. abundantly supplied 

 with water, by causing a fair and proportionate rate, not less 

 than £400 in each and every year, to be made upon the whole 

 property of the city ; and that the said company should in con- 

 sideration of the said annual payment of £400, erect and build 

 in the city eighteen fountains and hydrants and twenty-five fire 

 plugs. The first meeting of the company was held at the 

 Exchange Coffee House on the 22nd July, 1845, when a board 

 of directors, consisting of James B. Uniacke, Thomas Hoster- 

 man, W. A. Black, William Lawson, Jr., William B. 

 Fairbanks, James N. Shannon, and William Stairs, were 

 elected. Mr. Stairs refusing to act. the Hon. Michael Tobin 

 was elected in his stead. Mr. Uniacke was elected president, 

 and continued to act as such until 1855. Mr. Charles W. 

 Fairbanks was employed by the directors to make surveys of the 

 lakes adjoining the town, and on their completion Mr. John B. 

 Jarvis, a well known engineer of ^STew York, was engaged to 

 report on a scheme to supply the city with water. 



On the 28th August, 1845, he submitted his report to the 

 Company recommending that the water be brought from Chain 

 Lakes — two lakes about 2^ miles long, situated about 1| miles 

 from the head of the Xorth West xVrm — by a line of pities to a 

 reservoir on Wind Mill Hill (now called Camp Hill), the 

 elevation of this reservoir to be 170 feet above mean low tide. 

 That the Chain Lakes be connected by an open channel or canal 

 with Long Lake (formerly called Beaver Lake) about 1200 



