SOUTHERN RHODESIA: Moonshine

There was a time when young Pieter van Jaarsveld took it for granted that everybody could see water underground. He could. One day, when he was still very young, Pieter saw his father digging a well in a corner of the family farm beneath which there was obviously (to Pieter) no water. Pieter suggested another spot. His father tried it and struck a cool, clear gusher. Pieter nodded wisely. Some years later his schoolteacher lost a gold ring under the sand and Pieter found it for him with a single glance. Ever since then Pieter (now 16) has been kept busy peering through rock and sod in search of underground treasure.

He can wax lyrical over what he sees. “Water,” says Pieter, “seems to give off vibrations which appear like beams of moonlight striking through a window pane. A gold reef appears like a black ridge. Diamonds give off individual vibrations. I cannot explain them.” A Johannesburg mining syndicate was well content to let the explanations go, provided Pieter’s sharp eyes continued to seek out treasures. They put the boy under contract as a dowser.

Three weeks ago Pieter was on his way to Tanganyika on a dowsing expedition. En route he stopped at a hotel in Salisbury, the capital of Southern Rhodesia. Pieter wanted a shower. But peer as he would, Pieter could see no moonbeams glinting from the plumbing in his hotel bathroom. Salisbury was in the midst of an acute water shortage. Pieter called his manager. The manager called the mayor, who just then was sitting, racking his brains over the water crisis, in a tub containing two meager inches of water. When Pieter’s manager offered to help, the mayor leaped at the chance, bundled the boy into a car and drove round the town. Finally Pieter spotted some moonbeams. A skeptical but desperate city council set their engineers to work.

Last week, after drilling for 18 days through 140-odd feet of hard rock, the engineers hit water. Salisbury, announced the mayor proudly, was now assured of at least 403,200 gallons a week.