On Irrigation in Tasmania. 179 
quantity of water, dimensions of channels, &c., which it 
is the purport of the present memorandum partially to 
supply. Several excellent works have already been both 
planned and executed by land-owners, without assistance 
or any previous experience. It would, of course, be 
unwise in any person,- nosv that a beginning has been 
made, to execute any such work without first visiting 
and carefully examining those already completed : the 
inspection of these will give a confidence which no 
writing can. From what I have seen of the intelligence 
and enterprise of the colony, I have no doubt that means 
will soon be found of accomplishing these important 
objects throughout the island. The grand points to be 
kept in view are the storing up of the winter rains for use 
in the summer ; and the extraordinary facilities there are 
for effecting this, owing to the peculiar features of the 
country. In noticing the floods and torrents arising from 
the winter rains, it is grievous to consider that for want 
of this very water, at that time flowing into the sea in the 
quantity of millions of cubic yards per hour, and doing 
nothing hut mischief in its course, the land-owners will 
probably before three months are past see their grain 
crops greatly diminished, if not destroyed, by the grub, 
the frost, or the drought, and their pastures without a 
green blade. The reason that this has been the case 
hitherto is obvious; scarcely anybody in the colony 
having seen any thing of irrigation, their attention has 
not been called to the subject. Nobody hesitates to take 
the trouble to collect his hay in the summer to prevent 
his horse starving in the winter ; and it will, after a few 
years, appear equally absurd to complain that lie has no 
water in summer, when he was flooded with it in winter, 
just also as it now appears astonishing that there should 
have been a time when wool was destroyed as a nuisance 
instead of being sent to market. Indeed the water is a 
n 2 
