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appointed him as an assistant. (Fig. 3.14.) He then worked with the Glasgow Corporation

Water Works and furthered his studies at Glasgow University. Later he joined the staff of Sir
John Wolfe Barry before being recruited to South Africa in 1882. He arrived at the Cape on

28 December in the company of another young Scot, James Rawbone.

The two young immigrants were less than charmed by their first impressions of Cape Town,
which was windy, dusty and badly drained. As they explored the dimly lit St. Georges Street

they were annoyed by the stoeps of buildings which projected across the sidewalk and which

ended abruptly and steeply at street corners. Hogmanay was to be a dreary time for the two
spirited young Scotsmen. They vowed there and then that, if at all possible, they would return

to their homeland on the next ship.

But it wasn’t possible, as they had contracts to honour. Rawbone would make his mark in the

Colonial Forestry service, and become the founder of the well-known Rawbone-Viljoen
family, the apple-growing pioneers of Elgin. Stewart had to report to the Hydraulic Engineer

of the Colony, John Gamble.

Stewart arrived for work on 1 January 1883 and found that the programme for the first day of

the year consisted of an official picnic on Table Mountain. The party for this event included
well-known politicians such as John X. Merriman (a land-surveyor by profession). The Chief

Engineer duly read the rain gauges as part of the official duties. There were other practical
sides to the visit as Stewart was introduced to some of the dam sites which Gamble had

identified as potential new sources of water for the growing city.

The picnic was a pleasant and gentle introduction to more pressing tasks. Before long young

Stewart was crawling through the pipes below the Molteno Reservoir in order to find some
reason for the dam’s failure, and, we may suppose, his efforts led to a solution of the

problem, since the reconstructed Molteno Reservoir is still in service.

In later months his duties took him further afield. He was sent to assess the potential of the

Olifants River at Clanwilliam for irrigation, and he looked at the possibility of irrigating the
Harts River valley with water from the Vaal - both schemes were to be implemented some

years later. He worked out schemes for water supply to Barkly West, Cradock, Burgersdorp
and Aliwal North, and he made a favourable impression not only on his boss but also on