February r, 1888.J THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
563 
of mou of wealth in the colony than tho establishment 
of small and permanent communities in the back 
country." Tho Messrs. Chaffey are about to establish 
just such a community as the bishop indicated, though 
not, it is scarcely necessary to say, out of motives 
of pure philanthropy. 
Everybody has heard of the Messrs. Chaffey by 
this time, and, instructed by local experiences, have 
pictured to themselves magnates or millionaires, ostent- 
atious and gorgeous in appearance and retinue, as 
broad in projects and promises. It is all a mistake. 
The two Canadians are distinguished only by the 
assurance of reserved power and tho dignity of quiet 
knowledge. They appear to be hard-working, simple- 
minded men, with a single eye to their own business. 
Having completed their arrangements, they are per- 
fectly willing to talk to a friend, or through a friend 
to the] public of what they intend to do, and how 
they propose to set about it, and even to go back so far 
as how they began to think about it. 
" I find that our International Exhibition was the 
first attractive power ? " " Yee," says the elder of the 
brothers, " we read about your exbititiou, and then we 
began to think about your country and our partner, 
Mr. Oureton, came over to have a look at it. He 
spent two years, chietly in the saddle, rode a good 
deal, and remembered most he saw, and told us so 
much that we came out. We looked about too ; did 
not go into anything blindfolded." 
" You had a fair knowledge of all the colonies then ?" 
"Yes; we had looked into most of them, and we 
liked Victoria best, and Mildura the best in Victoria." 
" If one should ask why ?" 
"The style of the people suited us, and the Mildura 
land seemed about the best we had seen— the best 
for us. Most people, I daresay, take all mallee country 
to be alike. AVe think— of course we may be wrong — 
that Mildura is just a little the best of it, and the 
w ater supply is grand. They would be proud to see such 
a river as the Murray in California." 
"The people vexed you some, thoughi'" 
" Some of the people, yes. It was not all square 
work, but that is all over now. Tho whole affair is 
figured out and signed, and we are ready for work." 
"You start at oncer" 
"Wo do." 
'• Without any visits to America or Europe." 
" Without any visits to any place outside Australia. 
Wo shall start for tho couutry in a week or two. 
We shall expect to have 200 men at work within a 
few weeks. We Lu.ve already arranged for bricks to 
be burued in kilns of 500,000 each. We are get- 
ting estimates for pipes and conduits. We shall 
very shortly import two traction engines of 16 horse 
power each. They will follow the mulleuifing of the 
mallee ; stump grubbers something like your steam 
ploughs will work on cables between the engines, 
tearing up everything ; the stumps we shall gather 
together for fuel, and tho laud will be clean, tilled, 
and deep broken before anything is put into it. 
A wheat or corn crop may go in first. Tho land is 
always better for planting fruit trees after one crop." 
What kinds of fruits and other orops will you 
chiefly depend on '!" 
Wo shall mix them carefully. Crapes for raisins 
and currants will bo a first mainstay. You import a 
good many raisius and currants, and pay a good deal 
Ol money for them ; we want some of that money. 
Then, in tinned fruit, £55,000 these colonies paid for 
tinned fruit only last year ; £55,000 will pay for a lot of 
labour and machinery. And the three-quarters of a 
million sterling which all the colonies pay for all kinds 
of fruit may all be e arned hero by men who know their 
business, and the value of laud aud water and a 
perfect climate." 
'•The climuto down the Murray is good ?" 
'• l or fruit-growing it could not bo better. I think 
it is bettor than tho climato of Southern California. 
There «ro not the same abrupt changes in every 111 
hours. The fruit should mature better." 
"Then you bo(fin to a curtain extent with ordinary 
cereals wheat, oats, mai/.o ; you go on to fruits — 
(,-r.ip .s, peaches, apricots, and tinning fruits ohiatly. 
!>•> you proposo to cultivate any other product* -" 
"Yes, many others; sorghums of various sorts, 
Egyptian corn, tobacco to some extent, cotton By way 
of experiment, fibre plants, too, of all sorts. We have 
pro mihed to set off and maintain a 10-acre block for 
Mr- Guilfoyle for experiment in that way." 
" And do you expect to do any trade in fodder, 
with squatters in the north?" 
"We shall expect to do a good deal. We ahall 
be prepared to supply food for stock cheaper than it 
has ever been grown in Australia before, and it should 
pay them to buy it." 
"As to the class of labour and the manner of 
settlement you propose to establish, what can you do 
with a new arrival, say a man with a wife aud a 
couple of childreH, and about a £10-note in his pocket, 
and what will he do for himself by-and-by?" 
This question led to a lengthy explanation. Mr. 
Chafl'cy said they would always, in selecting labour, 
give preference to a man who would be likely to 
become a settler. He might take a 10-acre block at 
once aud spread his payments over 10 years. He 
could begin to work on it in his spare time. If, after 
a year, he felt able to stand on his own legs, they 
would lease or sell him more ground, supply him 
with water for a first corn or hay or wheat crop, take 
the rent out in produce, provide storage and transit 
for the balance, and make an advance till it suited 
him to Sell. He would not make anything from his 
fruit for three years ; after that, profit would come 
in fast. 
"How fast, and what might lie ultimately expect?" 
"In the tenth year on our last estate our tenants 
sold raisin-making grapes on the vines for 215 dollars 
an acre." 
" That is, to say, 2,150 dollars, or £430 a year from 
10 acres of irrigated vines?" 
"Yes. But there is another class we shall try to 
accommodate. Thore are lots of people doing pretty 
well in town who would like to have an interest in 
the couutry. We will sell them land on terms, will 
engage to clear, plant, and irrigato it for them, and 
hand it over at any time with 95 per cent, of the 
trees growing. We shall expect to do business with 
a lot of people on these lines." 
"Aud as to the bulk of your couutry, the great 
balance of your 250,000 acres?" 
" We will sell it or lease it to any men, or com- 
panies of men, who will engage to fulfil the condi- 
tions we have made with the Government, aud we 
will supply them with water as they require it." 
" And, now, Mr. Chaffey, to get a clear idea, or 
rather to give the general public a clear idea of what 
they may expect from this venture of yours, will you 
try to rualise what sort of conditions should be in 
existence on your Mildura station five years hence ?" 
"Mr. ChafFey's habit is rather to plan for than to 
picture the future, but judging of the future by the 
past, he would expect to see at Mildura in five years' 
time, a compact settlement of at least 500 souls, well 
provided with all the necessaries and most of the 
luxuries of civilisation, — church, school, and agricult- 
ural college should be in working order. Ten thou, 
saud acres should be in fruit trees and general crops 
by that time, and how many more communities round 
our own will depend, of courao, on the measure nf 
our success, and the capacity developed amongst 
Australians for imitation." 
"You feel sure of success?" 
" We are putting our money aud time and experi- 
ence iuto tho thiug ; wo are going to settle down 
there right away, aud, besides that, we have tested, 
weighed, figured everything right out. We have had 
analyses made of the soil, compareel theni with the 
results of analyses made of soil from successfully 
irrigated colonies iu America. We know thoio is 
more than enough water, and fuel near by, that will 
lift it for us at a rate that is scarcely to bo taken 
iuto account, a climuto that cannot be beaten, aud 
as to the market?" 
" Ave, the market ?" 
"That is thu last thing to trouble any man, who 
has gone deep into tho matter' I have told you 
(your own Customs return* told me), that you import 
now £750,oi\) worth of various f rult-. in 
