AUSTRALIAN IRRIGATION COLONIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9141, 24 August 1888, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN IRRIGATION COLONIES.

We have to acknowledge the receipt of some printed matter respecting the irrigation colonies now being established in Victoria and South Australia, at Mildura and Renmark respectively. About half a million acres are to be operated on by Messrs. Chaffey Brothers, and after the land is cleared, broken up, and made available for cultivation, they will be sold to those willing to locate themselves there, and cultivate the cleared and irrigated land. The water for irrigation purposes is obtained from the River Murray, and the Messrs. Chaffey Brothers regard the extension of irrigation colonies in the Murray River Valley as only limited by the supply of water, which is ample at present for all requirements that may be made upon it. Upon certain conditions these enterprising men will cultivate, plant, erect a house, and in fact do all that may be required on any particular section, so that the owner need not occupy it until it is in a condition to yield him a proht. This arrangement will enable many townspeople, who desire to occupy a home in the country, to pursue their town life until their first farm is in a condition to afford them a comfortable and profitable home. Mr. J. R. Randerson, Mount Albert, has recently visited Australia, and made enquiry into these irrigation colonies now being established, and has furnished us with the following information, which will be read with interest. He says :— " Sir, —During my recent visit to Australia I have obtained information respecting a system of settlement which, I think, will commend itself to the readers of - your valuable journal. I refer to the Australian Irrigation Colonies, on the Murray River, in Victoria and South Australia, comprising 500,000 acres, for vineyards, fruit •farms, etc. You have often advocated the establishment in our own fair colony of orchards of the orange, lemon, fig, prune, olive, raisin and currant, grape vine, etc., and the climate of the country north of Auckland has often been instanced as most suitable for such permanent and highly lucrative plantations. Owing to constantly recurring droughts, the sister colonies of Australia cannot in most places enter into such fruit-farming with the expectation of anything like regular crops except by means of a costly system of irrigation, andyet such a system is now being introduced (under the authority of special Acts of the colonial Parliaments of the abovenamed colonies, and regulated by the respective Governments), by the Messrs Chaffey Brothers, who gained their experience in the flourishing irrigation colony of Ontario, California, which was founded by these gentlemen. Out of the half-a-mil-lion acres selected by this enterprising firm, who are locating themselves personally on the land, 50,000 acres in Victoria, named the Mildura colony, 'and £0,000 acres in South Australia named the ' Renmark colony, are now being operated upon. Besides the site of a township with its town and suburban allotments the areas are laid off in horticultural and pastoral selections, which are not only being rapidly taken up by Australians and immigrants from the mother country, but even by some of the numerous New Zealanders who are rushing away from this fair land. The lands are not being sold for speculative purposes to be held lying dormant till increasing values give a handsome profit to the purchaser ; they are sold only on an improving clause, whether for cash or on the very easy terms on which they may be obtained by bona-fide settlers, and certain specified improvements must be effected within a given period, thus ensuring a steady progression. Purchasers who pay not less than one-fourth in cash will have the whole of their land fully cleared and ploughed up ready for planting, and the Messrs. Chaffey Bros, also undertake at a reasonable figure to plant with orange vine or other crop, and tend, weed, prune, and care for the same, including the careful and regular irrigation of each tree by means of the very complete system by which the waters of the Murray are lifted by powerful engines to the level of the land, over which it is conveyed artificially to the highest point of every 10-acre section, and in cases where planting is undertaken to each tree so planted. The system adopted, of which I shall be happy to furnish the fullest information to anyone who applies, is such that persons desirous of settling under such favourable circumstances may do so, no matter whether they be possessed of large or small means; and those who do nob care to personally occupy at present may have their land fully planted and tended till such time as they may be able. Already a vast amount of work has been done at Mildura, and large and small blocks are being purchased daily, a steady stream of settlement being the result. I have pleasure in handing you herewith some printed information on the subject, and shall be glad to show you plans indicating the extent of present sales. What I should like to see would be the establishment of such settlements in North New Zealand, and doubtless such would f flourish with little, if any, irrigation, and people would be drawn together and form a community, whose interests would be identical, where social Institutions might prosper, to the advantage as well of the settlers themselves as of the country at large. In conclusion, allow me to say that those who have determined to leave ft ew Zealand for Australia mierhb do worse than entertain the idea of throwing in their lots with the special irrigation colonies of .Mil- • dura and Jtienmark. ,r