t-HE TROt»VGAL AQRfOULTURIST. [March i, 1892. 
constituents. In the colonies these would be forced 
upon their attention at every step, and they would 
require to pay dearly for any encroachmeDt, or imaginary 
encroachment upon them. 
Except in Ceylon the great Irrigation works of India 
are constructed with borrowed money, raised in Lon- 
don, and charged to the works at from 3J to 4 per 
cent. The price need not be wondered at, seeitjg that 
the guarantee of the British Government is behind 
the debentures.* Though this of itself would suffice, 
there are the further faots that the money is spent in 
a populous empire, with an enormous revenue, and 
that the works as a whole are very remunerative 
In Madras, the North-west, the Pr.njab and Sind they 
yield handsome profits ; in Bombay they are likely 
to pay for themselves, and in Bengal they are, after 
all, the cheapest and best means of fighting famine, 
and saving the public treasury from ruinous drafts in 
bad seasons. On the merits of the investment, there- 
fore, the stock would be entitled to rank high, apart 
from its guarantee. Before the colonies can hope to 
see their irrigation proposals regarded in the same 
light they must be able to satisfy the capitalists of, 
the mother country that the outlay is reproductive, 
for quite content with the credit of the Governmentn 
the Briton has never really considered either Indiae 
or Victorian expenditure under this head. Except thg 
directors of the Scotch companies, which hav 
done well in Oolorado and other of the Ameri' 
can State, the moueyed men of Great Britain knew 
nothing of irrigation ventures. The Madras and 
Orissa companies, if not forgotten, would certainly 
have not encouraged a favorable view, even in India. 
Those who lend upon colonial securities are en- 
tirely unacquainted with them, and are likely to re- 
gard State loans which are employed to benefit private 
lands with a considerable amount of suspicion. The 
debt of Ceylon is so light as to attract no attention, 
and the greater part of her irrigation capital has been 
drawn from revenue. Mildura should have an excel- 
lent influence when sufficient time has elapsed for its 
financial results to be gauged, bat even iSs enterpris- 
ing managers are understood to have had an unrea- 
sonable difficulty in getting their prospects apprecia- 
ted by financiers here and at home. Colonial irriga- 
tion has to justify itself, and those connected with it, 
herefore, must be upon their mettle in order to render 
ts balance-sheet above reproach. This does not 
imply that special consideration should not begiyen to 
the enterprise in its earlier years, and while its novelty 
tells against it, even with the farmers, but it does 
reoaind us that the new departure is to be judged by 
its profit and loss account, and that this will influence 
not only tha tax-payers who are not irrigators, but 
those who make advances to us for the prosecution of 
eproduotive public works. In this respect India has 
the advantage. The Madras schemes are debited wth 
3^ per cent and the others, except Bombaj', which 
takes 4 per cent, as the cost of its money, reckon at 
about 3| per cent., or at least one-half per cent less 
than ours are debited with under the law. Judging 
by recent events, no very early reduction of the rate 
below 4 per cent is to be hoped for in Australia. 
Something requires to be said of the Water Supply 
Department, a bureaucratic service which, though not 
free from faults, bas an honorable record, aud will 
certainly compare favorably with any other depart- 
ment in India. It adds greatly to the ease of adminis. 
tration, though it multiplies its perils, that the clients 
affected belong to a subject race, and that the verna- 
cular journals do not appear to have yet ceveloped 
that critical faculty which makes the press in Anglo- 
Saxon communities occasionally a means of mischief, 
but on the whole a most efficient and iuvsluable spur 
to administrative lethargy and favoritism. The public 
• If Mr. Deakin means the Governmocit of Britain, as 
contradiBtiugiiihhfid from the Government of the Indian 
J'Jrupire, wo Hbould like to Icuow if he is correct. Only 
in rare and txtrcmo cases, such as that of .Tamaii^a 
when ill a state of ruin, are loans to colonies or 
fiosHcsBions imperially «uar&ntocd. None of our Oeylou 
uaDB have ibia guarantee.— Kd. '/'. A . 
spirit, incorruptible integrity and tenderness to the 
natives exhibited by most officers is highly creditable 
to them and to their country. So far as can be 
judged by a passing stranger they do their work 
admirably, and considering all the circumstances of 
the case inexpensively also. 
But perhaps the best criticism of the Indian system 
of sole State responsibility is to be found in the 
constant efforts to mitigate it. "Wherever possible a 
village is dealt with as a whole and required to settle 
the distribution of water and all disputes arising from 
it. From Ceylon to the Punjab we find this practice 
pursued wherever feasible. The headmen, as they are 
termed, in all settlements, are invariably encouraged 
to become answerable for the main administration, 
and, as has been seen committees, or panch mahals, 
Hre especially created for the purpose on inundation 
canals. In every way legislation strives to throw 
upon the residents of each locality tbe task of settling 
their own affairs, and of securing protection to the 
.canals as common property. Even in the independent 
territories similar methods of local government, on a 
small scale, have sprung up, testifying in the strongest 
and clearest manner to the necessity which everywhere 
exists for it in connection with irrigation. It is not 
too much to say that so far as circumstances permit 
the Indian system is being approximated to our own, 
though still conveyine a very limited authority indeed 
to the rvot ; that the associations of irrigators in 
France, Italy and America represent the development 
in a higher form of the same principle of local 
responsibility ; and that the Victorian trust system as 
it now stands is their ideal, aud the ideal of irrig aors 
all the world over. Advances of cheap money for the 
construction of works, chosen and managed by those 
dependent upon their supply, represents as nerl yas 
possible the perfect system for white farmers, ilhose 
who oppose it seek to dimnish the responsibilit es of 
the people concerned, and to cast them upon the 
general body of taxpayers, just as members of shire s 
created and authorised to raise rates to make roads and 
bridges ask that they may be built tor them by the 
Public Works Department. There are instances in 
which an appeal to the public purse is valid in each 
case, but they are few and special. There is no just 
and no sane principle for the distribution of public 
funds, except that they should be expended to benefit 
ratepayers in proportion to their contribution, or to 
tbe urgency of their special need. Local expenditure 
should mean local taxation, to raise the necessary 
sum, or pay interest upon it ; any departure from this 
means the reduction of politics to a selfish game of 
grab. If the Australian is to cast all his responsibili- 
ties upon his Government he must endow it with 
power equal to its task, including power over himself 
and his property, which would render him in some 
respects a mere ryot. If he accept the privileges of 
freedom and free institutions, he must bear his bur- 
dens for himself in common with his fellows, and in 
conjunction with them. The alternaiive is to yield 
both burdens and freedom to the State, 
In arid Asia irrigation has been an essential, 
and whether in Persia, Afghanistan, or the re- 
gion to the north of them, and whether in ancient 
or modern times, has supplied in a large measure 
the means of maintenance to its peoples. The 
oasis of Turfan, according to a Russian report 
published in Nature of this year, contains colossal 
works of the same character as those of Ontario and 
other places in California, bringing the water to 
the surface by means of tunnels or of wells sometimes 
.SOOft. deep. Sir Colin Moncrieff recently visited a 
part of the Russian territory where there are still to 
be seen remains of vast schemes constructed in a 
remote ago but it is understoo 1 that his report is un- 
favorable to any extensive attempt to reconstruct 
them. The canals and tanks of India were not under- 
taken for profit, nor yet merely to increase an estab- 
lished prosperity but under the terrible pressure of 
necessity. Of course the production of the country 
cannot be indefinitely increased by such means, but it 
can be rendered fairly even, guarded against adverse 
seasons, and a reserve provided by me£(ns of bq artifi- 
