N.S.W IRRIGATION SCHEME.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 March 1921, Page 3

N.S.W IRRIGATION SCHEME.

PERIOD OF MUDDLEMKXT TO END o li SYDNEY, Fob. 22. N The N.S.W. Government announces p that the present system of control of N the great Murrumbidgce lirigation area is to end, and that something new 01 is to he introduced, with a view Iq ai ✓->, making the scheme self-supporting. pi The Murrumbidgee Irrigation aiea, * on which have grown up the two towns tl of Leeton and Yarico, is the biggest nl venture of the kind in this part of the world. The Murrumbidgee river was harnessed by the huge dam at Burrinjuck, and the water directed over a wide area of most fertile hut arid country. Upon the area thus irrigated there have grown up flourishing rural industries—fruit-growing, poultry-rais-ing, pig-farming, and general farming of all kinds. '' The N.S.W. Government, in the past ten year's, lias sunk no less than £(j,0()0,000 in this huge undertaking. <lf \ The taxpayers did not object. It was d< felt that a fine flourishing series of set- n Demerits were being established, which 4,1 must eventually add much to the gen- 11 eral wealth of the State. But, year in after year, a loss of working of not less tr than a quarter o' a million sterling lias been recorded, and at last it has been 2 * borne in upon everyone that these ex- 2 tensive settlements ought really to he af paving their way, and that the annual loss is really the result of the opera- 1 lions of muddling officialdom. All the State industrial undertakings labour v< under this curse of officialdom. On hi paper, they ought to be paying hand- £ somely : hut under lire control of worthy old gentlemen who have been provided at with comfortable posts, they almost in- h< variably eat heavily into the State’s revenues. In the few cases where they have been put under oflicicnt Ipisiness management and freed from their load A of accumulated deficits they have done well—and this is what may happen to the Irrigation Area. v The Commission which administers the Area has been the subject of most scathing reports by authors. “The conelusion arrived at lias been that it was futile even to .make suggestions, let alone to arrest improper expenditure, irregular procedure or the piling up ot unwarranted debts,” was one ol the Auditor-General’s remarks. The following undertakings carried on on the Area by the Commission all made losses last year—abattoirs, water supply, canning factory, accommodation houses, bacon factory, power-house, etc., etc.