9i8 
The tropical agriculturist. 
[April r, 1892. 
daplioate these on a still larger scale, and how 
he contemplated irrigating 250,000 aorea ot the 
Mildura run I The station manager was as one 
tbander-straok. 'Greenhorn indeed,’ he thought, 
why I am the greenhorn." 
This visit of Mr. Chaffey was the result of the 
visit of the President of the Victorian Royal Com- 
mission to California when Messrs Chailey Brothers 
were invited to Victoria. The first thing done 
was the passing of an act whereby 250,000 aorea 
of land were set apart for the enterprise. "The 
license to occupy the area named for a term of 
years was first granted, with right of acquiring 
a free grant of the land set apart by ooropliance 
with certain conditions as to oipendiiure upon the 
land. The minimum expenditure stipulated for by 
the Government was £05,000 — within the first five 
years. As evidence of the energy and good faith 
ot the Messrs Chaffey. it may bo stated that the 
total expenditure to the 80th June last, certified 
by the Government auditors, amounted to no less 
than £183,8.85 ; the company has therefore expended 
in three years more than five times the amount 
required to be laid out during five years." 
The Journey to the Murray. 
By the courtesy of Mr. Levein, the chairman of 
Directors, and the Secretary, I obtained a free pass 
by the river steamer, co I bad only to pay the 
railway fare. I could have procured a pass by 
rail if it had not been holiday time. 1 started 
from the Melbourne Cricket Club ground where 
the great International Match was going on and 
caught the 5-10 p.m. train for Swan Hill on the 
2nd January 1892. As we left Melbourne the 
country opened out into wide fields, or as they ore 
called here " paddocks,” on which sheep and cattle 
are grazed. The country before dark became of 
a mors wooded character, and hills covered with 
small timber arose on both sides. We had to 
change at Bendigo— or as it was called for a time 
Sandhurst — a great mining centre, but the dark- 
ness prevented me from seeing anything outside 
the train as we passed along. The latter part of 
the journey towards Swan Hill was like a hideous 
nightmare. The train was undoubtedly late but 
that did not justify the driver in making up for 
lost time and in jolting and shaking us — not only out 
of sleep but almost out of out minds. A shattered, 
weary being, I stapped out ot the train at Swan 
Hillatabout’J in the morningalong with a number 
of young fellows evidently for Mildura like myself. 
" Cab, sir?” *' Whore ’s the steamer." ‘‘ Down at 
the Wharf, Very dark sir." “ What do you 
charge?’ ‘‘Two bob." ‘‘ I have only one shilling 
change," ‘‘ All right, we 'll manage it.” I found the 
‘‘ steamer ’’ lay about two or three hundred yards 
away; and I heard aubsequeutlythat this youth who 
drives the ‘‘ Royal Hotel ” eab fleocos strangers by 
charging them 2 shillings tor 300 yards I We drew 
up to a large building with a bright electric light 
at one end, and this I disoovered to bo the 
steamer " Pearl.” It looked more like a ‘‘ building,” 
than a boat. It had two decks above the main 
one, it drew only a foot and a half of water, and 
it carried its water-wheel behind it. It was the 
first boat of the American type I had seen. I 
went upstairs, into the saloons, and there I found 
supper in the shape of a substantial meal waiting 
for ns. This we presently partook of, and then 
came the delicious calm and peace and softness 
of bed after the rude hard jolting and swaying, 
after the roar and the rush, after the clatter and 
crash. 
Down the Moru.«. 
Next morning the first sensation was a gentle 
throbbing of the boat, the next the sight through a 
COl'QCt of the i outward door of wooded banks 
gliding past, and the next numerous calls of birds. 
1 dressed and went on the top deck and enjoyed 
to the full the view. The lonuous Murray, winding 
through and through the gums, with here a lagoon 
or billalong with its glassy surface dotted with 
innumerable water-fowl, there a grassy plain and 
large fields of rushes and reeds. Duoks and 
teal whirled round us, " shags,” divers, and cor- 
morants Isxily flapped along the river in front of 
the steamer, and graceful black swans would sit 
proudly on the water in some bond ot the river 
as we passed. What a place for a double-barrel 
and a retriever. The tank.) in Mysore, or the 
‘‘ wewBft” in Ceylon could not approach this. 
Simply thousands of dnok and teal, and good fishing 
on the river. We saw a rude tent and an unoouth 
being engaged in fishing. Strange eiietenee. Now 
and again a 'station” would be Been on the 
high banks, and now and again woodcutters’ huts 
were visited as the steamer lay alongside the banks 
wh le the crew leisurely handed in firewood. And 
so from morning to avening. A calm restful gliding 
along, with a solemn proeession of sombre gums 
moving past in monotonous numbers. Ones we 
saw a Uock of emns daintily picking their way 
through the wooded iUt, and another time wo dis- 
turbed a number of kangaroos who leaped away in a 
crippled sort of fashion, but ‘‘ nary a cripple” in 
the pace they went. They tackled a hill at the 
olilfs in a way that showed they were built for 
speed, but they are very much out of drawing for all 
that. Then the omnipresent, much persecuted, the 
universally execrated, the ouis d and hated rabbit — 
poor “Bunny”— your chief fault is your multiplying 
powers. Drinking at the river, or scudding along 
with their white tails bobbing up and down through 
the trees and tussocks — the rabbits in some places 
were very numerou". Many black rabbits were to 
be seen, but the prevailiog colour was the ordinary 
gray. Good sport could be had by bringing a 
rook-rifle and lots of oir'.ri igoa and potting the 
rabbits from the boat. Sometimes passengers 
would only wound and maim beautiful water-fowl 
and leave them fluttering in anguish and tbeir 
fine plumage draggled in ) lood and water. As 
there is no ohanoe of getting the game surely such 
“sport” should be strongly condemned. But it is 
different with rabbits. They are classed with rats 
here, and a rook-rilla would be useful. 
One evening we stopped for a long time at a 
large station— I think it was the “ Malice Cliffs ” 
Station — to take in a oai go o’ wool. The wool-bales 
were lying on the bank 1 stepped ashore on New South 
Walesland for the first lime. With another passer ger 
I insproted the wool-shed and shnep-pens, and the 
wool-press &a .-, — then we saw the men’s sleeping 
places and dining room — very rough 1 thought; 
— then the other houses and carriage shtd and 
beyond, the house, itself with its windmill and 
laxuriant orchard. Straight off stretched a brown 
dusty p'ain along which a cart, occupied by two 
men ond drawn by a horse with a spare horse 
following after, was slowly moving homeward — 
its progress marked by a long aloud of dust. 
Near the house wo encountered a fi arful smell, 
and found it oame from a drad rabbit that bad paid 
with its life the penally of its rashness in venturing 
within eight of the kangaroo dogs to nibble some 
of the greenness in tbs garden oasis. These dogs 
were very friendly. At last wo started away down 
the river and iu tho night wo arrived at Mildura. 
Mildura. 
I was not greatly tukun with my first viiw of 
Mildura. 1 saw a dry dusty river-hank littered with 
ca'^es, barrels, planks, and sacks in an untidy 
fashion, like the fragments of a wieoked civilization 
on the hard dusty shore of tho desert. Bight 
