T H JO 1 H ii 1 G A T J N AGE. 



391 



Chicago has had as visitors recently Sir 

 Distinguished George Reid, High Commissioner of 

 Foreign Australia to Great Britain, and Dr. El- 



Visitors wood Mead, head of irrigation depart- 



Entcrtained. ment of the State of Victoria. Australia. 



The presence of these gentlemen has 

 ibeen the means of giving, through interviews in the daily 

 papers, much information concerning the remarkable de- 

 velopment now going on in the island continent of the 

 southern hemisphere. 



It also emphasizes the fact that Australia has become 

 one of the most valuable of foreign customers for goods 

 manufactured in the United States, and this is particularly 

 true in the field of agricultural implements and earth- 

 moving machinery. 



Australia has almost an equal area to that of the 

 United States (Alaska excepted) and great progress in 

 irrigation work is going on under the guidance of Dr. 

 Mead in Victoria and the various directors of irrigation in 

 the other states of that country. South Australia, as has 

 been stated previously in this journal, has made wonder- 

 ful progress under Mr. Samuel Mclntosh, director of 

 irrigation for that state. 



In the state of Victoria, where Dr. Mead has charge 

 of this work, it is estimated that about $11,000,000 has 

 been expended on irrigation work so far, and this sum 

 will be largely increased, probably to the extent eventually 

 of nearly $20,000,000. 



While in this city Dr. Mead was in touch with manu- 

 facturers of various lines of machinery with a view of in- 

 troducing some of their products in his country. This in- 

 cludes the manufacturers of pumps, all classes of agri- 

 cultural machinery, earth-moving machinery, such as 

 scrapers, levelers and trench digging machinery. 



Investigation was also made as to the availability of 

 corrugated metal for culvert work and metal flumes to 

 conduct water over depressions, etc., and there is no 

 doubt but that the visit of Dr. Mead will eventually result 

 in the sale of large quantities of this class of machinery 

 running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. 



When Mr. Mclntosh was here in the latter part of 

 1911 he ordered machinery to the extant of some $200,000, 

 which has gone into his state, and in a recent communica- 

 tion from him he informs us that orders will be placed 

 with American manufacturers for a lot more of this same 

 class of machinery. 



The bulk of this money was spent with Chicago 

 manufacturers or the local representatives of manufact- 

 urers of outlying states, and this should teach the manu- 

 facturers that it would be worth while for them to culti- 

 vate this growing trade in Australia. The sales when 

 made, as were those through Mr. Mclntosh and other 

 representatives of the Australian government, have been 

 made direct to the states represented by these gentlemen, 

 where the question of credit cuts no figure as the govern- 

 ment stands back of all orders placed by its representa- 

 tives. 



It is safe to say that American manufacturers will 

 sell several million dollars' worth of machinery in Australia 

 within the next five years, and those who are not already 

 established there or represented by local houses should 

 get in touch with the government officials and place the 

 merits of their goods before these gentlemen so that 

 they may be considered at the time purchases are made. 



The reason why large quantities of these goods are 

 purchased in America is due to the fact that other manu- 

 facturing countries like England, Germany and France 

 are not as familiar with conditions associated with irriga- 

 tion development as are those of the United States, who 

 are continually studying the subject with a view to supply 

 the demand from our irrigated areas of the west. No 

 doubt in time European manufacturers will fall in line and 

 make a careful study of the needs of Australia and other 

 similarly situated countries, but the fact that they have 

 not done so up to this time leaves an open field for splen- 

 did work on the part of American manufacturers, and 

 those who do not improve this opportunity will have 

 regrets to register in years to come. 



At a recent meeting of the Colorado 

 To Encourage Bankers' Association held in Pueblo, 

 Investment in that body discussed the subject of an 

 Irrigation effort to rehabilitate irrigation securities, 



Securities. and to that end an official lecturer of the 



Colorado Bankers' Association was ap- 

 pointed to discuss throughout the country the value of 

 irrigation securities. 



In the old days when the N. W. Harris Co. and other 

 large operators took hold of irrigation securities, heavy 

 losses were encountered, and some of the financial houses 

 were cautious about accepting irrigation securities during 

 the time of the heavy movement in irrigation work 

 from 1902 to the time of the Trowbridge-Niver failure a 

 year or more ago. 



There has never been any doubt in the minds of those 

 who are familiar with western conditions as to the value 

 of irrigation bonds. Wherever a project has been taken 

 over, thoroughly investigated, with assurance of water 

 supply and fair soil conditions, a reasonable bond issue 

 has been considered good by conservative bankers and 

 buyers. 



The principal trouble with irrigation bonds, not only 

 in the early California days, but in recent years as well, 

 has been that ambitious individuals have formed com- 

 panies, had segregations made of land, made filings on 

 certain waters without going to the trouble of engaging 

 high-grade engineers to determine the feasibility of the 

 distribution of the water where it could be obtained, or 

 of still more importance, a definite knowledge that vater 

 would be secured in sufficient quantity to cover the tract. 

 It has frequently occurred that all of the matters of sur- 

 vey, method of distribution of the water, etc., have been 

 fully covered and protected, when some engineering fault 

 or poor construction resulting from a desire to hurry 

 the project to completion has led to disastrous wash- 

 outs which have not only eliminated the bond value, 

 but have placed hardships upon hundreds of settlers who 

 have filed in good faith on a project. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE has avoided saying anything con- 

 cerning these numerous failures, the idea being that by 

 giving publicity to such institutions much harm would be 

 done to legitimate, well-managed companies. 



It would have been much better, perhaps, to have 

 given the facts as they came to our notice, but that has 

 been a question in the mind of the publisher. 



We have, however, decided to investigate carefully 

 various projects about which questions have arisen, and 

 give the facts concerning their exploitation, water quan- 

 tity, soil conditions, etc. 



