>licc[> to the ULTO for the few iiioiitlis it would be ii(!c-css;uy for 

 thcui tu 1m' tik(;ii there. Then they coukl be taken buck again 



rain generally being expected about February or 3lai'cli. IJy this 

 means pastoral industry would be rendered more of a cvrtaiuty 

 and less of a lottery ; and many more sheep to the aci e could be 



niountainous country togetlier — working the two in coiiiunctiou. 

 Then of course the system of feeding the sheep on amruMal fodder 

 could be most usefully adopted. This has been a mo^t serious 

 item during the prevalence of droughts in the D.irhng Ri\or. In 

 one place no less than £1,200 was spent during the }e,ii in pro- 

 viding food for the horses on the station alone— no .ittempt was 

 made to feed the sheep. The cost of bringing cli.itf w.is dimply 

 enormous. On one occasion I had to pay for a 4011) b,ig of chatf 

 to feed my horses 25s. At another place lower down tlie horses 

 were being kept alive on flour. The ri\er cea-ed to Ik tome 

 I'.'ivigable, and though flour was selling at £60 a ton it W ih mi.ia 

 tliere was a cargo of flour which could not be got thi m tin i imm 

 having failed. No teams could travel that distance and tlu- ow u.t 

 of the flour sold his whole cargo to the owners ot tho -t it ion it 



make these remarks to call the attention of those inter < -n d to tiie 

 necessity of having more than one system in \vorkin<r i 1h p i-toi d 

 industry. N"o doubt the irrigation system is the most iii.p.n t mt, 

 and if the railway communication of this district wete m.ide to tit 

 m with that particular industry it would be rendeied mm li more 

 certain and profitable, and especially stock Avoukl l)e ke^it ali\o 

 "With a much greater degree of certainty. 



Professor E. H. Rennie.— I listened with a great amount of 

 pleasure to the reading of this paper. I would lik«^ to i efer to 

 one aspect of the question to which allusion was made, that is to 

 the possibility of interference with the navigation of tlie lower 

 Murray if these enormous irrigation works are carried out. 

 People in South Australia are I know somewhat agitated upon 

 this point, and I believe this colony sent a commission into Victoria 

 some time ago and some figures were published as to the amount 

 of water that would be carried away by Victoria for irrigation 

 purposes. I would like to have the opinion of Mr. M'Kinney— 

 whether he thinks there is any fear of interference with navigation. 



Mr. Trevor Jones moved a vote of thanks to Mr. M' Kinney. 

 We said he hoped the public press would call the attention of the 



