94 



water, so that we could see where we were going, and as I say we 

 travelled almost through a layer of water three to four inches 

 deep. But what strikes me as a difficulty with regard to tiiis part 



'This vast body of water Hows at irregular times, and tliere would 

 require to be some storage to apply the water at the time it was 

 required. Whetlier tliere are places which would be capaljle of 

 being used as a reservoir in this part of the country I am not 

 aware. Probably ]\[r. M'Kinney knows more about that than I. 

 Another part of his paper is of great interest to me and I can bear 

 out every word of Mr. Boultbee's description of this country. It 

 is a most vivid and accurate description of the nature of the 

 country, and of what happens in time of drought. But as only a 

 comparatively small por'tion of this vast pastoral country can be 

 directly benefitted by irrigation, only a small portion being capable 

 of being irrigated, various supplementary methods of preserving 

 the lives of the stock should be adopted. Of course one obvious 

 method is that mentioned by Mr. M'Kinney, that the more 

 valuable of the sheep should be brought to the various areas along 

 the River Darling and other places where a supply of fodder could 

 be procured. Mr. Boultbee mentioned that in some pbucs the 

 sheep were taken from the parts suffering from drought to the 

 mountains. Tliis is very frequently done, but is not curifd <uu 

 in a systematic way at all. As a general rule the shcrji aie kt'l't 

 in the hope that rain is coming and grass will be growing until 

 they are unfit to travel. They become so weak and tin' load? 

 become so utterly bare tliat there is nothing for tlicui t.. v:\t '-n 

 route. It has long occurred to me that the system caitied out in 

 the plains of Spain sliould be adopted here of moving the sheep, 

 not merely in the time of drought, but annually making it a regular 

 part of the business to remove them, say, immediately after the 



ligh lands of the colony, where as a rule there i 



plenty of grass. In winter time in tlie New England District the 

 sheep suffer from fluke, in some places they cannot remain all the 

 year round, but during the summer time there is generally a" 

 abundance of grass and water. But then the difficulty arises ol 

 travelling sheep such a vast distance, and here is the idea I have 

 tried to impress upon many, and had the honour recently to bring 

 under the notice of the Minister of Works. My idea is that tiie 

 railway system of this portion of the colony should be adapted 

 specially with the view of serving the pastoral industry by afford- 

 ing fat-ility to carry the stock by train. I think by taking the 

 railway from Nevertire, crossing the Macquarie at Warren to 

 Coonandjle, from thence to the Namoi and joining at PilHgfi an 

 extension of the North-Western Railway, the Western should 1^ 

 <;oiinected with the Northern Railway system. The western plains 



