, 1875-09-01

w POAS W 0NOA TG0NS NNC
health of the people and the welfare of
the island so completely depend on the
storage of wholesome water in all those
localities which are likely to suffer from
drought. 1t appears to the Commission
ers that the storage of water is as much
the duty of an enlightened community as
the storage of any blessing Of Providence.
Would it not be q disgrace to a communi-
ty if an over-abundant harvest of grain,
or any product of the soil, were allowed
to run to waste simply because, Mt the
moment, no pressing need compelled its
being carefully garnered? Joseph, when
he knew that seven years of g%rievous
famine were to follow upon seven years of
abundant plenty, took the pr~ecaution,
knowing that the decree or the law was
unalterab|e, to store up, out of the album
dance OF the seven years of plenty, sufi-
cient food to last throughout the seven
years of scarcity. 1t is the bounden duty
of a community, in respect of the rainfall,
to 90 and do likewise. The duty, then,
being obvious and imperative, how can we
fulfil it? Now, one source of supply is
readily attainable There should be a
tank attached to every church, chapel,
and public building throughout the island.
This alone would give wholesome water
to many thousands of people. Every
estate, too, constitutes o little village in
itself, and the owner of it might easily
provide an ample supply OF water for his
labourers by having a tank attached to the
buildings on it. 1t might also be wise to
pass q law giving to Commissioners power
to acquire land for the purpose of sinking
wells and giving free access to oil par
ishioners to obtain water and to acquire
the right of the use of any existing wells.
This would be a wise enactment, for it
would ensure that being properly done
which want of means or want of energy
might leave undone. 1t would also be
wise and expedient because, by providing
them with wholesome water, the labour-
ers on our plantations, on whose labour
the prosperity of those plantations de-
ponds, would be kept in q healthy con1i-
ton, and thus be rendered capable of
more sustained and arduous labour.
These, then, are two obvious ways Of
storing up the rainfall and making it
available for domestic purposes. But
why not utilise the springs at Coles
Cave, which are said to be capable Of
yielding 100000 gals. of water daily,
which could be brought to the surface
at a quarter of a mile from its source.
The whole of St. Georges and Christ
Church could be supplied from this source
at an outlay of $4,000. There are,
doubtless, other springs-Porey's Spring,
for instance-which could be made more
efficiently available for the supply of st.
Thomas's and St. James's parishes. Again,
the present reservoir of the Water Works
Company is incapable of holding all the
water that falls into it during the rainy
season. 1t is a pity to see the amount of
overflow from this source, running, as it
does frequently, to utter waste during the
rainy season.
Again, for the purpose of irrigation,
dams might be constructed across suitable
r%avines, thus preventing the rainfall from
finding its way too rapidly to the sea.
The po~rousness of the coral rock would
probably allow of the ultimate escape of
this supply but its detention would cause
the water, whilst finding its way to the
sea, to fill the wells on its course, and, by
reducing the temperature OF the earth,
possibly cause a further condensation of
the atmosphere to fall as rain on its sur
face. The %rsvines, too, might possibly,
. Ff-r 49, 80 a n L-F- goa F.- tZLf1 49, ~ = n