THE DARLING DOWNS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13765, 2 June 1908, Page 3

THE DARLING DOWNS.

Sir.—Mr. Gilbert Kirkbrido's, letter in th« HkbaW.i interested me, for J, too, have lived : in Queensland for three, years, ending 1863. 1 endorse all that Mr. Kirkbride has said. 1 have liwi niiuiy times through die Darling Downs, which I hold to lie the best land in the world, except, perhaps, the plain* of the Amazon. 1 have seen, inn washout of a creek, 12ft decn of stiff black loam. Given a rainfall like our* and "Jfrw Zealand would be nowhere. But '""there",* the rub." la the short time that 1 was (here 1 have_e.*uerie«c- . ed nine months without a drop of rain, and every ( ' a >' a burning semi-tropical _«un. I have seen the Dawson River, which joini ' another and enters the sea at J.ockisair.ptou, more than a mile wide, in flood, and I have ridden through it ofi'Hi without trotting the hoofs of mr horse. I have seen cattle rind sheep die by the thousands of starvation and thirst on the finest land on earth. Nor can irrigation help ranch, oxeejii, perhaps, mi the lower reaches of the Murray, tvhoro there i- aluay-i flowing water; for the smaller rivers, including some of the tributaries . of the Murray, are for most of the year, even in good season?, mere chains of water-holes. How is it possible to irrigate siieli vast area* of country, which New Zealandera should i ..■'f in order to understand, from rivers which are dry just when the water is ■ wanted V." Yon can't have rivers without: rain, ami you can't have rain in sufficient quantity without mountain*, especially on a large continent, and these Australia lias not gat, except a few insignificant one?. My sons) are on the land here by my advice, after travelling through every .State in the Commonweajlli. An old and thoroughly successful farmer of Wttnganui went to \Yest Australia > some three years ago with hi* robs, but bail.. hack again, no doubt alter dropping semi thousand-. Joun W. Kk\.ui.