Untitled

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 8089, 9 February 1887, Page 4

The Ashburton County Council are again showing other local bodies the way. They were the first to get to work with water-races ; they are the first to definitely resolve to try the experiment of cultivating the soil of our plains with the assistance of irrigation. Naturally, their trial will be watched with critical interest. In hotter climates than ours, irrigation has proved an immense success —in Southern California for example. In Victoria the experts are converted to it by its success at Bacchus Marsh and elsewhere. It remains to be seen whether the New Zealand sun is genial enough to work the marvels we hear of in more fervid climes. Those who have studied the matter have no doubt of a favourable issue. In our cooler climate, too, with its tormenting, but useful, winds, the fevers and agues which attend irrigation in malarious countries should be happily absent. We may look forward to the conversion of these plains, by planting and irrigation, into the garden of New Zealand, without any fears of evils attending the change. We are sorry to see, by the way, that opposition seems to exist at Eangiora to Mr Dobson's cheap scheme for giving the Ashley a water supply. A work which would! increase the size and importance ftfj Eangiora by increasing the wealth aimj fertility of North Canterbury ouglfß to have the borough’s heartiest sum port. g