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Show PAVING THE WAY. Surprises are of two kinds in this world, agreeable and disagreeable. The anticipation antici-pation of a surprise is exhilirating, and p.uts one on the qui t ire. Even the fulfillment ful-fillment of the prophesies, of which we hear occasionally in Salt Lake City, is nothing, more than a realization of sur-prises sur-prises long since predicted. The beauty of these prophetical susprises is that they are realized whenever a person's mind is in a certain condition ; and while they are fully realized in one generation, they serve for future generations equally as well. The great benefit that a prophesy t confers upon humanity is that it is good for all time, a sort of eat the cake and have it too. Prophesies, like patent medicines, are a source of comfort to many people, and to deprive them" of an innocent pleasure would be to do them a great wrong. The surprise that awaits the denizens and taxpayers of Salt Lake City is not the fulfillment of a prophesy uttered in the times of the megatherium or the tailed man, but it is one of those heaven born surprises which have their birth in this city. The fathers of this beautiful surprise sur-prise are our gracious city fathers, and the child to be accouched is a brother to the little girl who was born of the water of the Salt Lake City canal whose advent cost the taxpayers forty thousand dollars, not that they might have water supplied them, but that an old and useless canal might be bought from the Mormon church. How beautiful it is to see the water of Salt Lake City canal descend forty-five feet to meet the waters of the church canal ! How ugly and insignificant is the "meeting of the waters" of the lakes of Kilarney when compared to the meeting of the waters of the Salt Lake City canal and the old church canal ! Did the purchase of that old and worthless canal by the guardians of our property and the conservators of our rights, seem an outrage and a wrong perpetrated upon the taxpayers to aid the Mormon church ? If any such there be who so think, their minds arc darkened by prejudice and they are deprived of the power of seeing the true principle of finance which underlay under-lay that scheme. "Let no such man be trusted." .. On last Tuesday "night 'the Mayor addressed ad-dressed a communication to the City Council on the question of the water supply which comes from City Creek canyon. He called the attention of the Council to a report which was made to the Council July 17, 18S3, by the Council Committee on Waterworks. This report was made at the time there was some talk in the city about the establishment of marble works up . the creek, and the eoinmitte in their report, among other things, Baid : Upon investigation by the committee, we 1' find that the increased demand for water from the mains has materially reduced the pressure in the pipes, and we think it necessary neces-sary that a greater force should be obtained, ho that the water can be furnished to the inhabitants of the city, living on the higher lands, and that better means might be furnished fur-nished far the extinguishing of fires, etc. We recommend that the tanks, heretofore authorized by the Council to be constructed, bo placed at a point high enough up the canyon, to give, at least, double the force now in the pipes. Tot accomplish this purpose, we recommend recom-mend that the Mas'or be authorized to negotiate nego-tiate for the purchase of the acquired water right of the parties owning the Old Empire Mill, situated immediately above our present water tanks, before the erection of any new buildings or works at t he old site, and to take such other steps as may in his judgment, judg-ment, be necessary to preserve, intact, the rights of the citizens of this city to the undisturbed un-disturbed use of the waters of City Creek. Those were very good recommendations, in the main, and should have been acted upon at the time, but they were allowed to rest in peace until now. The Mayor, in his communication, 6a3Ts: Upon investigating this matter it hns been ascertained that the "Old Empire Mill property" prop-erty" and the "New Marble Works property" mentioned in the report are obstructions "in the way of carrying out the designs of the Council in making the contemplated improvements im-provements in our waterworks system: and there are other obstacles in the wav of the corporation controlling the waters" fiowhi" from City Creek. The lauds occupied by the creek bed and adjacent thereto, beginning at a point immediately .east of First East street, opposite what is known as the "Old Blacksmith Shop," running thence easterly and northerly along said creek for a distance of a mile or more, are now owned bv Mr J. C. Kingsbury, of this city. Mr. Kingsbury's Kings-bury's claims oover an area of about acres, and include the "Old Saw Mill Water Power." the "Old Empire Mill Water Power," the "New Marble Works Water Power," and the large gravel beds formerly used by the city for street grading purposes. The ground immediately above and adjoining ad-joining this tract of land is owned by the corporation, and the creek is practically controlled by the city from that point to the north boundary line, a distance of about six miles. The water powers now established on the creek are a standing obstruction to the far mer development or our water works in the canyon, and it appears to be necessary that the .corporation should become possessed of the absolute control of City Creek in the interests in-terests of the citizens. I there recommend to the careful cousid-oration cousid-oration of the Council the proprietv of ne-pot ne-pot latins; for the whole tract of land owned by Mr. Kingsbury, that the corporation niav be secured in the control of City Creek, and the large gravel deposits for the use and benefit of the city. , I cannot too stronglv urge npon you the necessity of early action in the matter, as I consider it to be of great importance to the future of our growing city. That all looks as straight as a die, doesn't it? Well, it isn't. It looks as though this were the initiation of the contemplated con-templated purchase, but in reality it is the close of it, and is done pro forma. In the first place Mr. J..C. Kingsbury is not the owner of the 220 acres, which include "the 'Old Saw Mill Water rower,' the 'Old Empire Mill Water Power,' the 'New Marble Works Water rower,' and the large gravel beds formerly worked by the city for . street grading purposes." The records may Ehow the title to be in him, but he holds that projerty in trust for the Church of Jesus Christ of. Latter-day Haints. Of course this fact will in no wise affect the nom inal price which the committee will probably prob-ably report that they have agreed upon with Mr. Kingsbury, and which they will "deem very reasonable, considering all the circumstances." And as we consider all the circumstances, we are fully convinced con-vinced that the price will be reasonable when we think that- the church might have demanded $100,000 in place of $50,-000. $50,-000. The cat's out of the bag and we can't catch it. After all, the price is really very low when we think of the luxuriant sage brush and the aesthetic sunflowers which grow upon these barren hills, and it really is a blessing in disguise, dis-guise, for the price might have been treble $50,000 and the city would have paid it. In the world and among the corrupt and wicked, this transaction would have been termed a "steal," but here in our pure atmosphere and pure city it is nothing more than an economical economi-cal administration of public funds for the benefit of the tax-payer. |