MURRAY WATERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7078, 16 March 1910, Page 7

MURRAY WATERS

IRRIGATION THE FIRST CONSIDERATION. By Telegraph—Pre»s Association—Copyright. MELBOURNE, March 15. The report of • the Murray Waters Commission, urges that, except for stock and domestic supply for settlement within a reasonable distance of streams, irrigation should bo deemed of paramount use in connection with the Murray system. The report advocates the' canalisation of the Murray and. Murrumbidgee by means of looks and weirs, and suggests that in the event of New South Wales, Victoria., and South Australia failing to come to an agreement regarding regulation of the river and its tributaries, an agreement for the same purpose be entered into between any two of the States concerned. The report also suggests the appointment of an inter-State board to consider the whole question. To-day seven-eighths of the food' supply of the world is; produced upon irriga/ted lands, according to Professor Carpenter, of Colorado. 'lrrigation, says Mr C. W. Peterson, general manager of the Cana~ dian Pacific Irrigation Colonisation Company;, in "United Empire," should be recognised as an art of very wide application, and not merely as a means of desert reclamation.. It may be practised as a system of improved culture, to be applied, like other means of improvement, as occasion requires it. Water is the most important food of the plant; without it in adequate amount the plant cannot use other foods in sufficient quantity. Mr Peterson's company is carrying out irrigation work on a-large scale, and Australia hag recently secured the services of Br Elwood M-ead, one of the greatest authorities on the economic and administrative sides of irrigation in tae United (States.