PROGRESS AND POSITION OF IRRIGATION IN N.S.W. 385 
colonies. A second visit to the south-western plains showed that 
these same pastoralists had come to the conclusion that the 
absurdity was all on their side. In fact some of those who in 
1876 had ridiculed the idea that irrigation might prove profitable 
in the western districts of this Colony had themselves adopted 
that means of reducing the losses occasioned by lack of rainfall. 
This change of ideas had occurred without any appreciable altera- 
tion in the conditions of labour. 
Doubtless, questions connected with the tenure of the land had 
an important effect in curbing enterprise and preventing the 
adoption of any course which would tend to show the value and 
productiveness of the land. There was certainly abundant 
evidence in 1876 that the pastoralists in the Murrumbidgee and 
Murray Districts were not wanting in enterprise in regard to 
providing water for their stock. The Burrabogie run near Hay, 
now the property of Mr. Wentworth, but then the property of 
Messrs. McGaw & Co., was perhaps as good an instance as could 
then be found in the Colony of the extent to which the stock- 
carrying capacity of the land could be increased by the adoption 
of suitable means for conserving and utilising the available supply 
of water. Dams, tanks, and wells were extensively used, and with 
them a remarkable variety of water-lifting appliances from the 
centrifugal pump to an ingenious adaptation of the balance lever 
worked by horse power. In short, throughout the districts adjoin- 
ing the Murrumbidgee and the Murray, a very creditable amount 
of enterprise and ingenuity was shown in providing water for 
stock requirements; but the idea that irrigation was financially 
feasible, even with the drought then prevailing, was universally 
scouted. 
A settler from one of the Western States of America would 
scarcely credit the statement that men of intelligence and enter- 
prise under such conditions, would hold such opinions. The 
explanation is, however, not difficult to find. The policy adopted 
in the Western States of America was to sell the land at a price 
little more than nominal, and to grant to the purchasers extensive 
Y—Dec. 6, 1893. 
