264 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
the
river level. From this reservoir it was distributed by a pipe and
hydrant system to the towns and the mines. Since the construction of
this fine plant, the towns have been supplied with filtered water at a
cost of is. per ioo gallons; and mines using great quantities
have a concession materially lowering this rate. The amount of water
sold to Kimberley annually has run as high as 230,000.000 gallons and
more than 300,000,000 have been supplied to the mines. The cost of the
machinery and plant was over ^300,000. Mr. E. A. Cowper, the consulting
engineer of the Water Works Company, designed the machinery, and Mr.
George Buchanan, C.E., was the constructing engineer in the erection of
the plant.
The
maintenance of peace and order on the Diamond Fields was helped forward
materially by the construction of " compounds," providing good lodging
and food for the natives, checking their drunkenness, promoting steady
industry, and enforcing restrictions essential to the common security.
The police force of the towns was from the start so small that the
toleration of this condition attests the comparative rarity of brutal
crimes on the Fields. Its very marked improvement with the growth of
the town, in later years, was rather due to the rising demand for
advance in every civic and social condition than to any increase in
disorderly conduct or the commission of crimes.
Diamond
stealing and illicit diamond buying were, beyond all question, the
worst plague of the camps and towns. Outside of this line of operation
there was practically no opening and no temptation for the professional
thief and receiver of stolen goods; but the' opportunities were
unfortunately too apparent and easy for filching and disposing of
diamonds. The sharpest oversight could scarcely prevent nimble-fingered
workers from slyly secreting tiny crystals in picking over the
concentrates on the sorting tables or in handling the deposit in the
rockers and puddling pans. While the natives were allowed to rove about
freely after their day's work was done, they had little difficulty in
transferring the diamonds to the hands of the sharpers, who were always
in wait for the chance of buying stolen stones for little money.
