WATER SUPPLY AND IRRIGATION. 153 
construction taken up, the seasons having been exceptionally 
unfavourable for these operations. This has in many cases con- 
siderably increased the cost of the work ; but it was considered 
advisable in the more urgent cases to carry out their construction 
at once, even at an increased outlay, rather than delay it to a more 
favourable season. 2 
The works by which the stock routes have been supplied, or 
mane supplied, with water, may be divided into the following 
Classes :— 
Operations that have been and are now being carried out by the 
Government, in endeavouring to construct works that, while 
®conomical in detail, will at the same time ensure a permanent 
Supply of water both for stock and human consumption. 
1. Wells. 
_ The conditions under which drift waters are obtained, and their 
c portant bearing on the settlement of the dry districts of this 
Colony, give this branch of the subject as great an interest as any 
with which we have to deal. This interest is, in a measure, due 
to the difficulties surrounding a satisfactory solution of the origin 
of, and the varying conditions under which these waters are a 
“overed ; but still more is it due to the fact that this sotanerding 
Supply, when the quality of the water is suitable for stock, is at 
once the m : . ‘ 3 i 
‘othe more shallow-seated and unfortunately non-artesian drifts ; 
