A VISITOR FROM WEST AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12267, 11 May 1903, Page 6

A VISITOR FROM WEST AUSTRALIA.

IMPRESSIONS OF NEW ZEALAND •

INTERESTING COMPARISONS.

[BY TELEGRAPH.-—OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Saturday.

Mb. C. J. Mohan, M.L.A., of West Australia, who held the portfolio of Minister for Lands in the Throssell Government, is now in the colon}-. He has travelled extensively in the South Island, in Otago and Canterbury, on the West Coast, and in Marlborough and Nelson, and told a representative of the New Zealand Times that ho is greatly impressed with what he has seen of this colony, its beautiful scenery, its great resources, and the uniform hospitality of its people. While in the South ho spent 10 days at Queenstowu, and is charmed with the place. He inspected in his travels through Otago and on the West Coast the mining industry, and also took a keen interest in agricultural operations. As one who devotes considerable attention to railway and engineering matters, Mr. Moran was greatly interested in a visit which he paid to the Midland railway works. In his tour of inspection of this line he saw the whole of the works thoroughly. Asked his impressions of what he had seen there, he replied that as a visitor to the country he did not care about expressing an opinion, but looking at the matter in a purely disinterested way, and from the standpoint of a public man. he thought, in view of the magnitude of the work as a whole, that he would not allow the extra cast of the longer and lower level tunnel to be considered, seeing that that tunnel would secure a number of advantages, including great facilities for haulage, a consideration which is never-ending in regard to the cost of wear and tear on rolling* stock. In regard to the West Coast of tho South Island he predicts that the day will come when that part of the colony, having been denuded of its timber, will* have become a very fine grass country. In an interesting comparison of the land systems of New Zealand and West Australia, Mr. Moran pointed out that in his State a man is allowed to take up 160 acres free of cost and to select, if he wishes, another thousand acres for 10s per acre, with 20 years to pay it ill. He gets the freehold, and he may have the land anywhere he wishes, on the coast or in the interior, and if he wants garden land he can have it. "But over there, of course," he explained, "we have plenty of land. In New Zealand your land is richer; there is less of it and there is a greater demand for it, while the conditions are such that everybody who takes up land in New Zealand makes a good living out of it. Tho wheat land we offer them in West Australia yields 10 bushels to the acre, but in New Zealand the average is two and ahalf times greater than that. The problem for us is to devise a system of irrigation, after the fashion in which Canterbury has given such a splendid example with her waterraces. I inspected that system while I was in Canterbury,, and was very much struck with it. The question also is to secure for West Australia a natural grass, which will withstand the heat of summer with a minimum of moisture. If we are successful in introducing such a grass into the country our condition? for dairying will rapidly improve." Mr. Moran intends to visit the West Coast and Taranaki districts of the North Island in order to study the conditions under which the dairying industry is carried on in New Zealand. He is to leave Wellington on Monday, and on returning from Taranaki will see the Wanganui River and then go by way of Rotorua to Auckland.