The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1891

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 1418, 24 January 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1891

The Woodville Examiner, referring to the frequently recurring droughts in Hawke's Bay and Wairardpa, which ought to be the means of awakening the settlers in those summer-arid districts, quotes the following extract from an American agricultural paper :—" The late census shows quite a falling off in the population of several of the counties in the Sacramento valley, while such counties as Fresno, Humboldt, and Mendocino have made wonderful growth. The reason for this is obvious and very easily explored. Take Fresno for instance. Irrigation is the drive wheel which has revolutionised the country. Irrigation begets and compels the cutting up of large landed titles into small holdings, and the progress and prosperity of the community in which it is introduced. Ten years ago Fresno country was almost a desert. Note the change. Since the introduction of the irrigation canal large holdings are almost a thing of the past, while thousands of people are getting rich on a few acres to the

araily" Miles in extent of orchards md vineyards, handsome residences, md homes of plenty instead of jlasted wheat fields. Butte county ;S just beginning to fall into line. The progress of the thriving ccbmes of Rio Bouito, Palermo, Thermalito, and Chico Vccino have started the ball rolling. Irrigating ditches are in progress, and a few years heace will tell a very different tale. Small holdings and irrigation have bean inirrr nil uu •'•

the -wheels of the onward train of progress. The next Butte county census will schedule thousands of orchards and vineyards now rated as wheat fields, and a population five ( times the present numbers, all of | which will be brought about by a de- , velopmentof our natural advantages." | We should have no objection our- - selves,to see large runs irrigated into • small farms. A good deal of nonsense is talked bv reformers about , splitting up runs into small farms, . oblivious of the fact that land that , may be profitably worked on a large area is frequently unprofitable when sub-divided. We do not suppose that the owner of a large run, would be disappointed to find that his property was fit for small farm purposes, or could be rendered fit for them. We have known many large landowners who have been extremely anxious to partition their properties into sections, but could not get people to take them up. Again we have seen a community of forty-acre men quietly sell out their sections one after another into the hands of a big proprietor, They found that they could not make a living 01: their allotments, and so they disposed of them to someone who could word them to a profit. Legislation is useless to determine whether land shall be held in small or large blocks, as the law of supply and demand settles this and sweeps away the barriers that are set up by foolish Ministers of Lands and the unwise devices of the Land Boards. But if a factor like irrigation

were introduced into the land :mes;ion it would bring about the prosperity of both large and small Holders, and would do more good as i land settling agency than all that the Land Ministers and Land Boards aave yet been able to accomplish. In Canterbury settlers have realised the idvantages of irrigation, but here ,ve are ten years behind the middle sland with the exception of one or ,wo of our settlers like Mr William 3eetham, who are giving their )roperties a benefit which might well )e extended to the community, and vill no doubt be so extended some lozen j ears hence when the settlers lere realize that there is a profit iow being made out of vater races >y Canterbury farmers.