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now, when herein appears to lie our sole hope of re- 

 newed prosperity, to hesitate longer would be criminal. 



Unfortunately, while none will deny our necessities, 

 few, very few, are competent at this stage to realise 

 the certainty of the ultimate success of the proposed 

 remedy. Of those even who clearly admit the theo- 

 retic truth of the proposition, the vast majority will 

 at once recur to innumerable practical difficulties, and 

 if we are not prepared with immediate answers for 

 each, abandon the whole project as impracticable, for- 

 getting that it is just to sift these difficulties, to 

 gather the right facts in regard to, and bring a 

 scientific method of solution to bear upon them, that 

 we in the first instance require the powerful organisa- 

 tion suggested. 



The best European experts, selected specially with 

 reference to the peculiar qualifications required for our 

 purposes here, and working hand in hand with the 

 ablest of our Indian Revenue and Irrigation Officers, 

 will unquestionably meet with difficulties at every step ; 

 but nothing is more certain than that all such difficul- 

 ties must disappear when attacked in a thoroughly 

 systematic and scientific method. 



No matter how complicated and ill-conditioned the 

 knot, the patient tracing out of each string reveals 

 the point where the first advance may be successfully 

 made, and this done, the next and the next *' follow 

 fast and follow faster," till all that once seemed so 

 tangled becomes smooth and straight. 



But this absolute certainty of ultimate success, of a 

 success yielding results beyond what the majority 

 would now even dare to hope for, is in no degree in- 



