253 



Miscellaneoiis. 



which deserves a few words of remark. Many of the existing works may per se be 

 regarded as complete, i.e., the tanks are fully restored and all the channels are 

 cut, but they still lack that sufficiency of supply essential to their full utility. 

 They were in many cases originally portions of some large connected scheme ; 

 now, as restored, they depend upon a limited and, in years of drought, an 

 altogether insufficient catchment area. . .The restoration of these main sources of 

 supply is, therefore, oidy a final step towards the completion of many existing 

 schemes, and constitutes an improvement which will, in most cases, benefit an 

 existing population and be less speculative than the restoration of large costly 

 works in remote, sparsely populated, and unhealthy districts. 



PROPOSALS FOR THE FUTURE : CAREFUL PROJECTION OF NEW SCHEMES. 



As to proposals for the future, it will suffice if we summarise the con 

 elusions. In the first place, matters of irrigation policy and finances should be 

 considered, not by any ad hoc Board, but by the recognised advisers of Govern- 

 ment in relation to the claims of other Departments and to the financial position 

 of the Colony as a whole. The Irrigation Department should collect all necessary 

 information to enable the feasibility of any project to be fully considered ; the 

 project should be approved by the Governor with the assistance of his consti- 

 tutional advisers; the Legislative Conned should be asked to vote the necessary 

 funds ; and the Irrigation Department should then carry out the work. It is 

 understood that certain changes to effect this object are already under consideration. 

 The imperfections of the past have been in no small measure due to the fact that the 

 control and development of works has been left largely in the hands of the Govern- 

 ment Agents, who are already over-burdened with a multiplicity of duties, who 

 are not qualified to deal with the many technical points involved, and who cannot 

 therefore be held responsible for defective results. In matters of policy and local 

 usage the authority and influence of the Government Agent could not, of course, 

 be dispensed with ; but on technical questions — and most of them are technical— 

 the Director of Irrigation and his officers should be alone responsible. With regard 

 to future schemes, the fullest irrigation surveys in their extended sense should 

 be made before any work is undertaken. The time necessary to admit of this 

 being done is now possible, as no new works appear to be urgently required. 

 Every care should be taken to discount the often unduly, though not 

 unnaturally, " sanguine assurances " of local headmen and officials. Development, 

 wliile not neglecting the necessities of more remote localities, should as far as 

 possible take place outwards from a populous centre ; wherever possible a com- 

 plete system of channels should be traced in advance, and the share due from 

 the cultivators towards their construction decided; the exact obligations of 

 Government and cultivators in respect of maintenance should be defined ; and, above 

 all, every thoroughness should be exercised in the framing of estimates. 



IMPROVEMENT OF EXISTING WORKS. 



With regard to existing works, many of them can never, it is feared, become 

 a financial success without a revision of rates— in some cases a delicate matter 

 requiring the aid of legislation. When, however, a closer attention is paid to all 

 the details of development, when all necessary channels have been cut and 

 reasonable facilities for approach provided, when the control of Avater has been 

 carefully regulated under skilled supervision and waste prevented, when a survey 

 has been made of all irrigable lands, and a further survey — if not cadastral, at 

 least block— has been made of all cultivated areas, when on the basis of these 

 surveys proper specifications have been prepared — and when prepared are auto- 

 matically revised— when on the basis of these specifications the dates due are 



