Imperial Valley press., 1910-08-06

tuSlueeT Cidke aS JO the u1tnCultleS which have prevented a full supply of water reaching the valley settlers. Mir. Clarke stated that the trouble was due to the lowering of the Colorado River and the sitting up of the canal above the intake.
 He gave resume of the work now being done at the river and stated that in his opinion, unless something unusual transpired to check the work, 1 the normal supply of water would reach the Imperial Valley ranchers within twelve or fourteen days. He stated that he had no anticipation of shortage of labor, that he was using Indians for the rough work, and white men for the skilled labor
 Engineer Scoby gave a report of his observations at tho river taken for Water Company No. 1, and stated to ! the Court that he wished to correct statement purporting to have been made by him and printed in the Inn perial Standard, which made him say | just the opposite of what he intended. He sent a report in which he stated Not enough men for two shifts" but the Standard printed it, Are enough men for two shifts" thus making it appear that work was purposely lagg- ing at the intake, when the reverse was the case.
 MT. Scobey's estimate, based on his observations of the work of the dredg- CT, was tha- ten days would be re- quired to dredge the canal so as to open up a good channel to the intake
 Col. Holabird was interrogated by Attorney Britt, and gave a complete and explicit statement of the case, which was convincing to the large as- semblage of water users present in the courtroom that he had used dili- gence in prosecuting the work.
 He stated that in June he had req sons to anticipate shortage of water this season unless steps were taken to prevent it, and that he had so re- ported to the officials of the water companies at a meeting held in El Centro, and had asked that they put | him in position to finance the work by buying receivers certificates; that they had agreed to do this, but a week or so later rescinded their action Col. Holabird then detailed his efforts to secure a dredgel and his lack of success until he found the second hand dredger at Stockton, which he purchased for S17000 plus the freight to the Colorado River thus anticipat- ing the order of the Court authoriz- 1 ing this expenditure He stated that 1 because of the dredger being second hand and tte large amount of money l involved in it's purchase, he had in- structed Engineer Clarke not to ac- cept it until it was set up and tested, but that as soon as it was demon- strated that the machine would do the work it was accepted and every ef- fort was made to keep it in constant operation.
 The expenses of placing the tem- porary dam across the river, said Col Holabird, would be approximately S42, 900, and he had enough funds on hand to meet all demands until the 10th or 18th of August. He stated that he intended to keep the dredge always in action if he had money enough at his command. When asked if i, was his intention to use the mon ey paid for water rentals by Water Company No 1 to further the work of obtaining more water for the Valley, he said:
 Most certainly. know of nothing now that would divert it. I shall ask the Court for an order to build the weir, so that it will be a Iart of the record"
 Col. Holabird stated that a second dredge should be secured to be placed below the heading and that this should be kept in action.
 Judge Cole stated for the informa- tion of the people assembled in the court-room
 "Very few realize what a tremen- dous amount of work is involved in carrying on the details of manage ment of this great water company To meet the requirements of condi- tions confronting us in delivery of water to the mutual water companies