UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3733, 18 December 1906, Page 4

UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES.

A writer in a recent American tnaga"i e calls attention to the vast nndeveii i ed regions of the world, and shows it,at there is still plenty of room for exf , nsion, with no lack of encouragment ] t, r the enterprising man who has sutiie ent determination to turn his back ii[ on civilisation and go out and subdue the wilderness. The contributor reiei rad to paints out that the throwing o;:en of extensive settlement in Western Canada, the irrigated parts of the United States, or Boutnern Siberia w 11 co if.iitute just as real an expansion of the world as the discoveries of Columbus did ! The wheat-producing districts of Canada alone are estimated to have a cnnlined area exceeding that of Russia in Europe. There is no necrfsdy tor the Canadian Government, to st p pouring a human stream into the Dominion until the population shall exceed 100,000,000! It is considered that by far the larger part of Argentina is w.-il adapted for agriculture, and that at least 240,000,000, acres there c mid be cultivated without irrigation. Not more than 8 per cent of that vast te lit ry has ever been used. Thirty y ;,'i s ago it was usual to refer to the w .’Stern districts of the United States a a '• desert,” but that “ dessert ” now a;tually represents some of the most ferule country in America. The writer directs attention also to the undeveloped states of Australia, and predicts that, as population shall increase, there will be a vast exapns’on in the rural industries, and that many parts of the continent now considered to be too arid for use will be fully utilised. The artesian water supply with which many parts of Australia are favoured will, he thinks, had in tune to extensive settlement. This view on the whole (writes the Adelaide Observer) is sound, and one great objective in Australia snould be to push settlement out towards the centre of the continent. To what extent this can be done by artesian boring is a matter for serious consideration but certainly water conservation is among the most pressing public works in the Commonwealth.