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A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



can bear a waggon-carriage of three hundred miles when the market-price is favourable, 

 but for the export of agricultural produce there must be either river or railway transit. 

 The colony is now on the eve of another great improvement which more than anything 

 else may be expected to promote the settlement of population in the interior and that 

 is irrigation. Although the rain-fall west of the range is comparatively light, and shades 

 off towards the plains, as a study of the rain-fall map will show, still data enough have 

 already been collected to show that a very large amount of water is available for 

 irrigation if it be only carefully conserved and distributed ; and in addition to what falls on 

 the surface there is the large under-current of water which has come down from 

 Queensland. The soil in many parts is extraordinarily rich, and the heat forces vegeta- 

 tion whenever there is moisture. It is only the irregularity of the rain-fall which has 

 kept agriculture back, as it does not pay a farmer to lose three crops out of four ; 

 but with a continuous supply of water there is no limit to the possibilities of cultivation 

 in the interior of the colony. The only ground for anxiety is as to the extent and remu- 

 nerativeness of the market for the produce. In the preceding pages we have described 

 the country as it is ; but that which is, is only the beginning of that which shall be. 



