L. A. B. WADE. LXXI. 
Hxpenditure on the small conservation works would be 
confined to such as could not be assigned to any particular 
district, such as works for the benefit of the travelling 
public or travelling stock. 
Trust works form a most important feature of the act. 
The intention is to deal with every description of water 
supply, conservation, irrigation, or drainage work which 
would have a beneficial influence on some concentrated 
area. Under this heading would be included village water 
supplies, irrigation areas, whether supplied from rivers or 
main canals, weirs on streams or rivers, schemes of swamp 
drainage, or water supplies by artesian bores. After the 
construction of any such works, the people of the surround- 
ing “Trust District’? have the privilege of electing a 
Majority of the Trustees to manage and maintain the works, 
the remainder are nominated by the Minister. Several 
sections of the act are devoted to the duties and powers of 
these Trustees, the principal being levying and collecting 
the rates to pay for the maintenance of the works, together 
with interest on the cost of construction. They are also 
required to form a sinking fund to pay off the capital cost 
within a stipulated number of years. Under the act, funds 
are available for carrying out works under any of the pre- 
ceding acts. 
Such are the legislative lines on which water conservation 
will be carried out during the next few years. I will now 
briefly touch on some of the aspects of the subject which 
have received little attention, but which are of the greatest 
importance. 
The first question is, what portion of this State is capable 
of improvement by means of works of conservation? By 
reference to the map, it will be seen that the line of 20 
inch rainfall is practically parallel to the coast-line of New 
South Wales and about 200 miles inland. That is to say, 
