THE TOWNS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 271 



Cannonbar ; but all its northern breadth is given over to sheep, and probably will be 

 held exclusively for sheep through many future years. But it may be so developed and 

 improved by water conservation and irrigation, by the reservation and storage of the 

 extra-growth of good years, as to be habitable and tolerable, and ultimately profitable, 

 through any succession of seasons or of cycles. 



Generally speaking the western and north-western portion of New South Wales 

 constitutes a district distinctly marked out by Nature as having its own special character. 

 Hitherto it has been purely pastoral, except so far as it has been interfered with by 

 mining adventurers. In a state of nature the country is not very occupiable any distance 

 back from the Darling. When first taken up by speculative pastoralists the land was only 

 available for grazing purposes for half the year, and not even that unless there had been 

 an average rain-fall. But by dint of much labour in increasing the water-supply many 

 large districts have been made pasturable all the year round. For increasing this water- 

 supply two methods have been adopted. The first has been to gather the surface-water, 

 and this has been done by selecting natural hollows, deepening them and running plough- 

 furrows towards them. In this way the surplus rain-fall is collected into large earthen 

 tanks. The soil excavated makes a high bank around, and this breaks the play of the 

 wind over the water and diminishes the evaporation. Many tanks of this kind, however, 

 have been prepared for over three years before enough rain fell to fill them. 



The other method of storing water is by sinking wells. The subterranean supply 

 has these two advantages : it is cooler, and it is not exposed to evaporation. Generally, 

 however, it has to be pumped to the surface, and the wells are costly to make and costly 

 to maintain. Scores have been sunk without tapping water at all, and in. many other 

 cases the water has been too salt for use. But the enterprise of the squatter is often 

 rewarded by a well which never fails even in the driest season ; in fact, the well is quite 

 independent of the local rain-fall, for the water pumped up in the basin of the Darling 

 has fallen first upon the western plains of Queensland, and having soaked in there is 

 pursuing its under-ground course to the sea. 



The natural fodder of the "Great West" consists of grass and the various salsolaceous 

 plants. The former, however, exists only a short time after rain, the intense, heat soon 

 turning the green herbage into something resembling live hay, after which it dries up 

 into chips and powder and is blown away by the wind, leaving the ground as bare as 

 a road. Yet with all these drawbacks the country has been not unprofitably occupied, 

 for it is remarkably healthy for both sheep and cattle ; the squatters, who in the main 

 have been a highly enterprising class, have already done much to protect themselves 

 against the irregularities of the climate, and every year they are learning more and more 

 the art of turning the great western country to account. Forbidding as the land looks 

 to a stranger in the bad season, this vast district is a very valuable province of New 

 South Wales, and comprises within its area several of the richest mines and many broad 

 tracts of the finest pasturage in the country. 



For the sake of convenience in dealing with the public lands the colony is divided 

 into three territorial divisions, and these again into ninety-five land districts, under the 

 administration of sixteen land boards. The Eastern Division extends from the Dumaresq 

 to the head-waters of the Murray, and comprises the nine land board areas of Albury, 



