WATER SUPPLY AND IRRIGATION. 171 
that they would do so were a population settled on the country, 
actively engaged in cultivating the soil, does not admit of a doubt, 
any more than does the fact that, taken in connection with a water 
Believing as I do, that in those districts, the construction of the 
main channels for distributing water must precede settlement, it 
it can 
they will prove remunerative until they are utilized for the more 
comprehensive objects for which they were constructed, The 
in those districts, A great saving of feed would result from this, 
by allowing of a more equable distribution of stock and by lessening 
the enormous losses to which pastoralists are liable during 
droughts. Nor must it be forgotten that these channels would in 
their districts afford the means of mitigating to a greater or lesser 
One of the first steps to be taken or that, judging by the bene- 
fits that are likely to be derived from a comparatively small 
®xpenditure, should be taken, is to assist Nature where she has 
the course of the waters during flood-times, and improve 
the régime of the overflow channels from our rivers, such ~ at 
Merowie, Middle Billabong, and Willandra from the Lachlan ; - 
oe creeks leading from the Macquarie to the Bogan ane 
