PROGRESS AND POSITION OF IRRIGATION IN N.S.W. 387 
be inferred from the returns of the United States Census Office. 
In a report of that office, dated 20th August, 1892, the following 
passage occurs :—‘“‘The average value of the land irrigated in 1889 
with the improvements thereon, is found to be $8328 per acre, 
and the average value of products for the year stated $14°89 per 
acre. By correspondence with over 20,000 irrigators, fairly dis- 
tributed throughout the arid and subhumid regions, it has been 
ascertained that the average first cost of irrigation is $8:15 per 
acre and the average value placed upon the water rights, where 
separable from the land, $26-00 per acre, or over three times their 
original cost. The average annual expenditure for water, as 
distinguished from the purchase of water rights, is $1-07 per acre, 
and the average cost of the original preparation of the ground for 
cultivation, including the purchase of the land at the Government 
rate of $125 per acre, is $12°12 per acre. By applying, with 
necessary modifications, to the enumerator’s returns, the averages 
obtained for each separate State and Territory, it has been found 
that in round numbers the total investment in productive irriga- 
tion systems utilized in 1889, in whole or in part, was up to June 
Ist, 1890, $29,611,000. Their value at that date was $94,412,000 
showing an apparent profit of $64,801,000, or 218-84 per cent. 
In the same manner the aggregate first cost of the irrigated areas 
with their water rights, not including the farms of the subhumid 
states, has been ascertained to be $77,490,000, and the value of 
the same on June Ist, 1890, $296,850,000, showing an increase 
in the value of land and water rights of $219,360,000, or 283-08 
per cent. In other words, the land irrigated in 1889 was worth 
nearly four times what it cost, no allowance evidently being made 
for failures. The total expenditure for water, including the 
maintenance and repairs of ditches, in the arid states in 1889 was 
$3,794,000 and the total value of products $53,057,000.” 
It is quite beyond question that the development of this Colony 
and especially of the fertile plains west of the Dividing Range, is 
and has been seriously retarded through want of suitable legisla- 
tion on the subject of water rights and the utilisation of our 
