rights to river waters free of charge. In New South Wales, 
immense areas of land were sold to pastoralists above their true 
market value, the purchasers being practically compelled to buy 
to prevent their runs from being ruined by selection. Where the 
land was not sold to the pastoralists, the conditions of tenure were 
not such as to eucourage the runholders to develop the capabilities 
of the soil. While charging a higher price for the land or letting 
it on terms which did not encourage its development, the Govern- 
ment of this Colony conceded no rights whatever in regard to 
river waters. The results of these widely different policies in this 
Colony and in the Western States of America are such as might 
have been anticipated from the commencement thus made. The 
landowners in the Western States soon understood what a valu- 
able property they had in the waters of their rivers, and they lost 
no time in turning this property to account. Having obtained 
their land at a very moderate cost, they were the better able to 
proceed with works for increasing its productiveness. Not having 
a Government which they could look to for assistance with any 
hope of obtaining it, they quickly learned how to help themselves. 
Thus in Wyoming, which became a State only in 1891, and which 
has a population of only 65,000, the sum of ten million dollars, or 
say two millions sterling, has been expended on the construction 
of channels for diverting water from the rivers. In 1889, before 
this Territory was constituted a State the area of irrigation was 
nearly 230,000 acres of crops, without reckoning irrigated pasture 
land. The total area of crops irrigated in the year mentioned in 
what is termed the Arid Region in the Western States of America 
amounted to over three and a half million acres. In this Colony 
the landowners, by constructing tanks, dams, and wells have made 
provision—in some cases sufficient, in others not so—for watering 
their live stock ; but as they cannot obtain any legal authority 
for increasing the stock-carrying capacity of their holdings, by 
irrigation, comparatively few are willing to incur the necessary 
386 H. G. McKINNEY. 
4 
risk and expense. 
What the landholders of New South Wales and the Colony at 
large, lose by this backward state of irrigation may to some extent 
