PROGRESS AND PUSITION OF IRRIGATION IN N.S.W. 395 
of settlers. While the seasons have, on the whole, been unusually 
favouralle, the low prices for wool and for live stock and produce 
generally, and the loss and expense caused by rabbits, have, in 
many cases, more than counterbalanced the benefits which might 
have been expected from increased rainfall. Bearing these facts 
in mind, and also taking into account the present state of the 
money market, there is no doubt that regarded from the purely 
financial point of view, the Central and Western Divisions are 
not so well prepared for a drought as they were ten years ago. 
There is another point in regard to which the Western Division 
particularly has deteriorated; namely the quantity of edible scrub. 
When grass was not to be had, the rabbits quickly discovered all 
the most useful and nutritious kinds of edible bushes aud scrub, 
and they sustained themselves on the bark of these and as much 
of the leaves as they could reach. In this way the edible scrub 
was killed over very extensive areas, and in a number of instances 
the resumed areas of pastoral holdings were abandoned by the 
lessees, largely on this account. As a striking instance of depre- 
ciation of the value of pastoral holdings owing to the presence of 
rabbits, and to the destruction caused by them, it may be mentioned 
that in March 1892, a station in the south-western part of the 
Colony, comprising about 1,200 square miles of country and in- 
cluding 5,000 acres of freehold land with a good woolshed, home- 
station and garden, and 10,000 sheep, fifty horses, and fifty head 
of cattle was sold for £3,250. 
Thus, as compared with the position ten years ago, we havea | 
largely increased number of live stock, diminished carrying 
capacity of large areas of country, and a much more stringent 
money market. But on the other hand, railway communications 
have increased largely during that period, and the facilities for 
transferring live stock from one part of the Colony to another 
have increased in a corresponding degree. This is a very impor- 
tant matter, as it rarely happens that there is not some part of 
the country which escapes a drought, and to which stock in large 
numbers can be transferred. Another important redeeming 
