The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1913. MR WRAGGE’S LATEST.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 36, 13 October 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1913. MR WRAGGE’S LATEST.

j Mr Clement Wragge, possibly the most noted meteorologist in Australi asia, has a quaint way of doing things jand was always delighted to astonish the world with a prediction regardling an impending storm Generally 1 he tacked a striking name on his pre!dieted disturbances, and a Xew Zea- • • land statesman, it will be remembered, was once accorded the doubtful .honor of lending his name to a eye-j jlone which, did not smash things up quite so badly as Mr Wragge led us to believe it would. Not long ago he was interviewed in Sydney and told j the pressman that if he were Prime Minister of the Commonwealth he would at once proceed to dam all the ( important rivers in Australia, obtaining whatever funds were needed from British monev-lenders, who would recogni.se the soundness of the invest-, •oent. Thus the country would, he j said, be opened up to a grand system of inland navigation. The locked rivers could be connected by intercanals. following largely the plan adopted in the Punjaub, India, and elsewhere. By this means Mr Wragge is confident the country could bo made to yield 100 per cent, more than it is now producing. Irrigation now plays an important part in the prosperity of many countries, and on-

gincering skill has made it possible to undertake great works. Mr Wragge’s proposal, however, is almost too large to be seriously considered, though it is undoubted that the conservation of Australia’s river waters lor irrigation purposes would add untold wealth to the country.