232 H. G. McKINNEY. 



are frequently used to raise water for irrigation and for filling 

 tanks. These pumps vary greatly in lifting capacity, and the 

 conditions as to the amount of lift, the cost of erection, and other 

 matters affecting the total cost of delivering the water also vary 

 through a wide range. Under these circumstances it is not 

 possible to arrive at anything more than a rough approximation of 

 the average cost at which the water is obtained. The difficulty 

 in arriving at a conclusion on this question is much increased by 

 the very intermittent manner in which pumping plants on pastoral 

 and agricultural estates are worked. Assuming that a pumping 

 plant is used both for irrigation and filling stock tanks and is 

 therefore in frequent though intermittent use, it is believed to be 

 quite safe to estimate that, allowing for working expenses, interest 

 and depreciation, every cusec — that is, every 375 gallons per 

 minute — does not cost less than £100 per annum. Now the pro- 

 posed canal will carry 1,300 cusecs; and even if so much as 300 

 cusecs be allowed for percolation and absorption, the annual value 

 of the net supply reckoned on the basis of the cost of water 

 delivered by pumping is £100,000, or four per cent, on two and a 

 half millions sterling. The significance of this calculation becomes 

 more clear when it is considered that it is very improbable that 

 the whole project will cost one third of this amount. As the 

 supply will be continuous, will involve no capital outlay to the 

 user, and will be delivered in the back country remote from rivers 

 and permanent creeks, it will be of much greater value than a 

 supply on the frontage delivered by pumping, and it will certainly 

 cost much less. The provision of abundant supplies of water to 

 such townships as Tirana, Berrigan, Finley, Conargo, and 

 Wangonella, and the utilization of the power which will be made 

 available, important though they are, are merely details in the 

 general project. 



Suitable land for irrigation. — The question is sometimes asked 

 whether the great plains in the Central and Western Divisions 

 are suitable for irrigation. In many cases the land-holders have 

 answered the question for themselves, and occasionally the result 



