will be inferior in quality. The practicability of preventing, in 

 an irapoi-tant degree, the recurrence of such losses is not a matter 

 of theory or of opinion, but an ascertained fact. 



Discussion. 

 Judge Docker. — I think Mr. M'Kinney is to be congratulated 

 upon the able paper he has read on this important subject ; and 

 the pastoralists of the colony ought certainly to appreciate the 

 way in which the subject has been treated, being as it is, one of 

 such vast importance, not only to them but also to the whole 

 colony. Any one who is acquainted with the portions of the 

 colony referred to, must appreciate the exhaustive way in which 

 Mr. M'Kinney has argued the question out. I am tolerably 

 acquainted with a portion of the country he has referred to, and 

 consequently his remarks have been of the greatest interest to me, 

 and have borne out many ideas which have also occurred to me 

 and which I have endeavoured, perhaps imperfectly, to express. 

 This part of the colony (referring to the Darling on the map) is 

 one that has always had great interest for me ; indeed I regard it 

 as the Nile of Australia of the future. I believe from the fertility 

 of the land it will be capable of growing almost any sort of produce. 

 I am very glad to hear Mr. M'Kinney's calculations as to the 

 amount of fodder which that narrow strip would grow for the 

 purpose of keeping alive the stock over all the vast district adjacent. 

 In addition to the river itself, there are many lakes running 

 back from the river which would form reservoirs for Hood 

 waters which could be used when the river falls. The river 

 Itself in its natural state does not contain a very great quantity 

 of water as a general rule. I remeniber hearing of a case in which 

 a gentleman at a station was irrigating some land — pumping up 

 water from the river by means of a power pump — and after a few 

 days' pumping he found he had lowered the river locally by about 

 two feet, the country being so level and the flow so low— he had 

 actually made a hole in the river as it were. With regard to the 

 portion of the colony between the Macquarie and the Bogan there 

 can be no doubt, so far as distribution is concerned, this is a most 

 favourable part of the colony for irrigating the country, as it is so 

 level and there are so many creeks. I remember some years ago 

 travelling up the Duck Creek from Bourke to Dubbo, and being 

 caught by the flood waters coming down, there not having been a 

 proper rain for months. When we were a little way beyond Can- 

 nonbar we meta flood coming down the whole surfaceof the country, 

 and after waiting a few days we started and travelled I think about 

 torty miles up the Macquarie through water three to four inches 

 deep. The difliculty was to find any portion of the surface at all 

 above the level of the water. The grass showed just above the 



