The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1888. IRRIGATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1932, 30 August 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, AUGUST 30, 1888. IRRIGATION.

Several weeks ago we published an account of the irrigation works m progress at Mildura and Benmark, ia Victoria and South Australia, under the supervision of Messrs Chaffey Bros. The water for irrigating about half a million acres of land is obtained from the Murray river, which is ample at present for all the demands made upon it, but "when.the scheme is more extensively gone into will be inadequate m the dry season to fully meet the requirements of the settlers. The extent upon which the irrigation system has been entered into and the immediate success which has followed the introduction of the water to hitherto dry and arid land should go far to assure those m this County who favor irrigation to proceed earnestly m the direction of initiating a scheme which must ere long benefit the whole community. If those who can see benefit and profit looming m the future from an extensive irrigation scheme, will persevere lin their efforts to induce our public bodies to go into the matter fully, they will be doing a service to the whole district. A gentleman who recently visited the irrigation colonies of Messrs Chaffey Bros., writes to the v Auckland Herald " m terms of warm approval ot the efforts there being made to farm a large extent of dry country by the irrigation process. He says : — " The system adopted is such that persons desirous of settling under such favorable circumstances may do so, no matter whether they be possessed of large or small means ; and those who do not care to personally occupy at present may have their land fully planted and tended till such a time as they may be able. Already a vast amount of work has been done at Mildura, and large and small blocks are being purchased daily, a steady stream of settlement being the result. What I should like to see would be the establishment of such settlements m North New Zealand, and doubtless such would flourish with little, if any, irrigation, and people would be drawn together and form a community, whose interests would be identical, where social institutions might prosper, to the advantage as well of the settlers themselves as .of the country at large. Allow me to say that those who have determined 1 to leave New Zealand for Australia might do worse than entertain the idea of throwing m their lots with the special irrigation colonies of Mildura and Benmark." Purchasers of the land at Mildura who pay not less than one-fourth m cash will hay« the whole of their land fully cleared and ploughed up ready for planting, and the Messrs Chaffey Bros, also undertake at a reasonable figure to plant with orange, vine or other crop, and tend, ; weed, prune, and care for the same, including the careful and regular irrigation of each tree by means of the very complete system by which the waters of the Murray are lifted by powerful engines to the level of the land, over which it is conveyed artificially to the highest point of every 10-acre section, and m cases where planting is undertaken to each tree so planted. The extra wheat yield alone which the Ashburton Plains would produce under irrigation would soon cover all first cost of water supply. The results from the irrigation farm have been sufficiently bountiful to satisfy the most sceptical. If the question were more generally discussed, and if our public bodies considered it on the broad grounds of welfare to the agricultural community, operations might be commenced on a scale suitpd to the capital at present likely to be available. When the success of irrigation was proved beyond a doubt we should soon have every farmer on the Plains joining hands to extend the pyetem gtili farther,