THE AUSTRALIAN TREK.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 174, 16 April 1908, Page 2

THE AUSTRALIAN TREK.

SPECULATION OR SETTLEMENT? , SOME VIEWS. Disinterested New Zcalanders aro not viewing with any alarm the rumoured revival of.'interest among New Zealand farmers in Australian/settlement. 1 . ■ > " I don't think," said one, " that many of our well-to-do farmers will leave a pleasant country like New Zealand to make a home amid' tho',hardships of Australia; 1 Some, 110' doubt, , niay buy 1 for 1 speculatiii'g, s for. Australian land can now bo-got choaplv; and they may/put a manager .onVto runa-sheop or. cattle , station. -; But -1 think ,vsry few will go thero to live."; , The. Darling Downs. A gentleman ; familiar - with - the .Darling Downs, said to a DoircxioN' representative that thoiDowjis, far- from-, being cocl. arid pleasant, were hotter. ,thap Sydney. The liMt,. .however,. was.of the dry kind; and' at . nights! oiio: could.jsafely,•.sleep, oil ■ t-ho„open, gronnd jvitbput fear of 'getting- damp.,,. Tho' ,Dar}i'ng-.E-iycr ( ->vas. navigable by, .small vessels right, up, into the Downs, and wcol was convoj'od, py'them at a very cheap rate down through. Ncw^South.; Wales, , Victoria,. South Australia. He had, seen- the river in some 'parts of tho Downs five, miles .wide. Somotimes,', towards. tho end of the. dry. season, which : lasted for from five to seven months) hp,had waded.across tho'river. - .One day. 'a!telegram would .. . arrive . warning tho to prepare, for ,ri 20-foot riso, owing ,to, heavy rains': up-country.V This .'might be' the, first -evidence Vof the, 1 break-up :of .'the drought. •; The riso c'aiiie down the river very slowly, •, for - tho,' - river-bed ■' had scarcely' any falli. aiid the arrival,'of:tho' rise was very'interesting', to watch.' Sometimes tho. river • overflowed. V