J. W. BOULTBEE. ; CLXXVII. 
upon the arid lands. Neither have we to such an extent 
the economic advantages afforded by the extensive and 
shallow artesian supplies obtainable in some of the States, 
and which have been factors in more than one large scheme 
of development. We have however, on the other hand, 
millions of acres of fertile land, only requiring the help of 
irrigation, within the area of an artesian basin, which 
perhaps, bas no equalin the world in extent and volume of 
supply. In our own State the basin embraces an area of 
some 62,000 square miles, in which we have so far—to use 
an expression which seems to me to convey the smallness 
of what we have done in comparison with the area on 
which we have done it—put some 200 pin pricks, in the 
shape of borings. 
The absence of the facilities afforded by numerous stream 
and snow clad ranges to feed them in this State should be 
no cause for discouragement and apathy while we have the 
artesian system to fall back upon. Nothing can be achieved 
or gained by sitting down and allowing the land and our 
underground supplies to lie idle while our stock are dying 
in millions, because the people say “it wont pay to irrigate 
for stock feeding,” ‘the supply wont last,’’ etc.. The hardy 
pioneers of American irrigation thirty years ago, under 
infinitely greater disabilities than we labour under, crowded 
out from the centres of population in their struggle for 
existence, did not sit down, but worked and risked their 
labour and their all in an undertaking which in those days 
was viewed in a carping spirit much the same way as it is 
here. Necessity compelled them. Although America has 
at present greater advantages in market and population 
than we have, that is no reason why we should not attempt 
some development of those facilities that are afforded us. 
We can start under auspices as good as existed there, even 
in some respects better. We have but little or nothing to 
12—July 20, 1903. 
