FARM LANDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 13 



The cost of fencing is — for sheep-proof fence, £f>0 to £00 per mile ; for 

 rabbit proof fencing, £80 to £100. Post and rail fences are not used. 



The cost of well-sinking is about 25s. per foot up to 100 feet, including 

 timbering and centering. There are few wells sunk in the district, water 

 being chiefly obtained by boring. The cost of sinking a 4-inch bore with 

 tank and windmill would be about £200. Permanent water is generally 

 found at a depth of from 80 to 1 20 feet. 



It is a sound, healthy district for sheep, there being practically no disease. 

 Rabbits are well in hand, and the country carries on the average about a 

 sheep to 3 acres improved. 



There is good railway communication both with Sydney and Melbourne in 

 the eastern and central parts of the district. The Moama to Deniliquin 

 Railway connects the southern portion of the district with Melbourne. 

 Railway lines from Griffith to Hillston, and another from Barmedman to 

 Rankin's Springs are in course of construction. The cost of transportation 

 is about Is. 6d. per ton per mile, the roads being good natural roads, level, 

 hard, and dry in the dry weather, soft and often exceedingly heavy when wet. 



The Crown lands in the district are mostly leased under improvement and 

 scrub-clearing conditions, or reserved for specific purposes, the Murray red 

 gum forests being a profitable asset of this State. 



Kempsey Land Board District. 



Comprises Coffs Harbour, Bellingen, Dorrigo, Nambucca, Bovvra, Trial Bay, Kempsey, 

 Port Macquarie, Camden Haven, and the Bellinger, Macleay, and Hastings 

 Rivers. 



The country is generally hilly to mountainous, with alluvial flats on the 

 Hastings, Macleay, and Bellinger Rivers and their tributaries. In the 

 southern portion of the district the soil is for the most part of a rather poor 

 nature, the country consisting of gravelly ridges, with patches of shallow 

 •dark loam with a yellow clay subsoil. 



The ridges leading to the Comboyne carry a dark loam, with quartz-gravel 

 in places. On the Comboyne itself there is a great deal of deep, red- 

 volcanic soil from 20 to 30 feet deep, and the country is undulating 

 to hilly tableland, well watered, formerly all heavily timbered, carrying a 

 softwood scrub now mostly cleared. 



The Comboyne is not as high as the Dorrigo plateau, and the climate is 

 milder 



On the Hastings River there is a good deal of alluvial soil, of rich 

 quality and considerable areas of rather sour tea-tree flats. The bulk of 

 the country is hilly in nature, with a rather shallow loam on the surface. 

 The best of the land along this river is alienated ; large areas are ringed and 

 held as grazing leases. 



Between the Hastings and Macleay the country is hilly, with gravelly 

 ridges carrying a sandy loam to black loamy soil. The best of the country is 

 along the creek frontages, and is here also nearly all occupied. 



The Macleay is an old settled district, and farms on the alluvial land are 

 worth from £40 to £85 per acre. There is not a great deal of Crown land 

 available. The soil on the ridges varies from stony country to a red or black 

 sandy loam with a clay subsoil. The alluvial land is sometimes of great 

 depth. The Upper Macleay is well watered. On the Lower Macleay salt 

 water is often struck when sinking for wells. 



