130 



almost now become a settled industry, and although we may expect this year 

 to hear of many samples being sold below cost price, on account of bad 

 preparation, yet there is reason to suppose that all well-got-up samples will 

 fetch remunerative prices. 



Should this industry prove successful, it will clearly be necessary that the 

 cultivation of the plant shall be proceeded with on a large scale, and no one 

 who has observed the growth of the plant, but will have perceived the 

 enormous advantage which irrigation may produce in the returns to be derived 

 from it. If a drain be cut through a flax swamp, and the stagnant water 

 thereby set in motion, the stunted flax, of 18 inches or 2 feet high, immediately 

 springs up to a height of 8 to 10 feet. It is said that in the old days of 

 Maori flax cultivation, the plants were irrigated, although always planted on a 

 hill side. 



There is, I should think, no dispiiting the point that irrigation would add 

 immensely to the returns to be derived from flax cultivation. 



It remains, therefore, to be considered what districts in this province are 

 most favourable for irrigation. 



Excluding, at present, any small valleys in this immediate vicinity, and 

 proceeding to more extensive districts, we find a lowdying country of sand- 

 hills, swamps, and alluvial flats, extending from the coast at Paikakariki to 

 the Rangitikei river. This country is intersected by streams and rivers, and a 

 great quantity of, at present, comparatively valueless land, might, by irrigation, 

 be made to yield a large annual return. Among the rivers on this coast, the 

 Manawatu might be used for what is called warjnng — that is, it might be made 

 to deposit its sediment over unfertile tracts of sand. 



On the Wairarapa side, extensive stony plains, which, without irrigation, 

 can never produce much beyond a scanty herbage, might, by the fertilizing 

 power of water, be made some of the most valuable lands of the colony. 



To produce the results proposed will require both capital and skill ; but, 

 if the fibre of the Phormium tenax is to become a great staple export of this 

 country, both of these must be found. If they are not procurable in the 

 colony they must be imported. At the same time, laying off the land for flax 

 irrigation would, probably, not be expensive. 



Irrigation, once introduced, would be found to assist materially in the growth 

 of numerous productions, and would, by no means, be confined to the growth of 

 flax alone. Probably few persons in this province are aware that irrigation is 

 at present carried on with marked success in the interior of the Province of 

 Otago. Water-races, which have been brought into auriferous localities for 

 the extraction of gold, are partially used for the promotion of the production 

 of herbs and corn, and the enormous turnips, and other vegetables, which I 

 have seen produced by this means, are enough to astonish a beholder. 



I have pointed out the districts in this part of the island to which I 

 consider irrigation might be most advantageously applied. They are low-lying 

 compared with the levels of the streams. In other jmrts of the country, with 

 the exception of the immediate banks of the rivers, the land rises too rapidly 

 towards the interior to admit of the requisite facilities for the watering of its 

 surface, unless at an exj)ense which is not, in this genei'ation, likely to be incurred. 



Let us, however, remember the Spanish proverb : 



" En Andalusia la came es yerba, 

 La yerba es agua, 

 Los Jwmbres S07i mujeres, 

 Y las mujeres nada. " 



In Andalusia flesh is hei'b, 



Herb is water, 



Men are women, 



And wo<nen are nothing. 



