ns the contractor and his friends declined to proceed with
the formation of the company. The President, however, was very
desirous of having a good water supply, and after some months of
negotiations the original contract was supplemented by a grant from
the Executive Council, who then held plenary powers from the
Volksraad, giving the proposed company the exclusive right.
Immediately after the receipt of this grant the company was formed,
the capital subscribed and the machinery and other material
purchased. In 1898, after nine years of work, during which
shareholders had received dividends averaging 2-2/3 per cent. per
annum, some differences occurred between the Company and the
consumers, and the latter combined and subscribed the necessary funds
to take action in the High Court, the object being to challenge the
exclusive right and to enable the town through its Municipality to
provide its own supply. At the same time the Government at the
instance of the townspeople opened negotiations with the Company with
a view to expropriation in accordance with the terms stipulated in
the original contract. While matters were in this position, however,
certain members of the Volksraad prominently concerned in the action
against the Company, introduced a measure in the Volksraad cancelling
the second or exclusive grant made by the Government nine years
before and recommending that the Government should either buy out
the Waterworks Company upon suitable terms or should give the
necessary facilities to the Town Council to introduce another system
of supply. The application of the Company to be allowed to state its
case was ignored, and after a short discussion the resolution was
passed and the measure became law. By the action of the Volksraad the
Company was deprived of that principal asset upon the security of
which the capital had been subscribed, and the Government were
rescued from an awkward position. The Government took no steps to
defend their action in granting the right or to protest against the
action of the Volksraad, and became, therefore, parties to an act of
piracy. The Company were thus placed entirely at the mercy of the
Government, for under the provisions of Law 1 of 1897, the Volksraad
resolution put them out of court both as to upholding their title and
claiming damages. All doubts as to the Government's complicity in
this action were removed when upon negotiations being opened for the
expropriation of the C