68 NOTES ON ADMINISTRATION OF WATER SUPPLY. 



the water without fail to the cultivators according to an appointed 

 rotation, to punish any attempt to interfere with this rotation, to 

 decide regarding applications for new supplies or for the transfer 

 of the position of outlets, and to prevent any kind of waste. The 

 canal engineers, whether they be Royal Engineers or civilians, 

 are the outcome of the competitive system, the only exceptions 

 to this rule being furnished in the cases of a few civilians and 

 Staff Corps Officers of long service. For many years past the 

 first step towards the attainment of an appointment in the 

 Department of Public Works in India, whether the candidate 

 proposes to enter the service as a Royal Engineer or as a civilian, 

 is the passing of an open competitive examination. The course 

 of training necessarily differs, as the curriculum for civilians 

 includes only civil and mechanical engineering, and subjects bearing 

 on these, while that of the military cadet, though involving these 

 subjects to an important extent, embraces also the studies necessary 

 to qualify for the higher scientific branch of the military service. 



The canal and other great irrigation works in India are in all 

 cases constructed by Government and managed in the manner 

 described. The success of the system of canal administration in 

 Upper India is beyond question, though the attempt to engraft 

 the principle of local government on it proved a failure. The 

 management of branch canals and distributaries will probably 

 in the course of time be placed with satisfactory results in the 

 charge of local associations of landholders. It does not, however, 

 seem surprising that a nation which has been the victim of 

 successive conquests from time immemorial and which has never 

 hitherto been permitted to have a voice in the administration of 

 its own affairs, should be slow to develop a talent for governing 

 itself. The present system is undoubtedly that best suited to the 

 conditions of the people, though it is not altogether in accordance 

 with the spirit of the present tendency of European nations. 

 Hence while we can learn useful lessons from the principles of 

 Indian Canal Law, there are many points in its administration 

 which we are not likely to imitate. The great principle which 

 lies at the root of the legislation in Northern India, as well as in 

 Spain, Italy, and France, is that all great natural supples of 

 water belong to Government, and that it is the duty of the 

 Government to deal with them in the manner most advantageous 

 to the public. This is the principle on which was based the 

 Draft Bill given in the First Report of the late Royal Commission 

 on the Conservation of Water in this colony, it is the principle 

 adopted (avowedly from that Draft Bill) in recent legislation 

 in Victoria, and, so far as can be judged from the experience 

 of other countries, it is the only sound basis on which the natural 

 water supply of a country can be administrated. 



