Untitled

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10769, 18 May 1911, Page 2

are, of course, rich mining areas, and these for many years were the hreadwinnor of the Stato. Her potentialities in this respect are still enormous, and unmeasured, but it is the development of her lands which is going to give Westralia the commercial impetus for which she is looking. "Whatever the past Governments of the State may have been, they have now an Executive in charge of her political affairs which is determined to reclaim the wilderness by peopling it with workers. Closer settlement is the keynote, of their policy, and following in the footsteps of. our own they have initiated a system of making liberal advances to settlers who are suffering from strained finances. Population is what "Western Australia needs, and to get it she is prepared to "play the game." Good land, and plenty, of it, is what she is offering to attract the bone and sinew she wants, and she is offering it on terms which, if the land is worth having, are surprisingly liberal. Grazing farms up to 5000 acres may be had at prices ranging from 3s 9d per acre, and upwards, plus the cost of survey, wmle 2000 acres of cultivatable land", suitable for cereals, fruit, or mixed farming, can be had for 10s per acre, and upwards, including the cost of survey, while the cost of survey, while the payments of the principal have been extended over a period of 20 years. Smaller areas,, such as farms of 150 acres, are given on even more favorable terms, in which the Agricultural Bank —the equivalent of our Advances to Settlers Office —plays an important part. In view of tlio 'hostile criticism which has been levelled' against the Liberal Government in our own Dominion for appointing inspectors and instructors to assist settlers in the cultivation of the minor industries./it is interesting to note, that the Westralian Government is adopting precisely the same course, and the first thing they did was to take Professor Lowrie from New Zealand to become the director of their Agricultural Department. "What surprises the new chum most .about the agricultural and pastoral development of Western Australia is the claim which is set tip for it that it has an abundant rainfall and assured seasons. Probably our impressions of the State have been.gathered mainly from the. mining districts in the northj because we have heard more about them than we- have about, the agricultural portions, but the fact remains that this claim is seriously set forth, and what is more, results are quoted to justify it. For instance, at the end of February last year the total area under crop was 682,000 acres, and it was anticipated that the season would produce (5.000,000 bushels of wheat, 1,250,000 bushels of oats, 186,777 tons of hay. and 126,016 bushels of barley; while for the year previously the State bad had a higher average vield than either New South Wales, "Victoria, or South Australia. On the pastoral side of the ledger we find that there are over 4.000,000 sheep in the State, which la-t season produced 11,644,9381bs of wool, valued at £440,497 Of horses there were 116.785. and of cattle 741,788 at the end of 1908. Railways are being pushed on in various parts of the State, and cool storage is also being provided for the farmers' produce at Fremantle. All this helps to make out a very attractive case for Western Australia, and if it be true that it has "the finest water belt in Australia," and that its population is increasing at the rate of 600 persons per week, the State must forge ahead by the proverbial "leaps and hounds," and her commercial and political status must bo enhanced in the same ratio.

Although I like Perth loss than any of- the other Australian towns which 1 had the good fortune to see, I am not disposed to speak disparagingly of it. for I recognise that a city which can attract over .50,000 inhabitants has not come into existence for nothing, and must have a substantial backing of good country. All the same, until I have seen more of the interior, and have been favored with the opportunity to fudge for myself of its climate and general capabilities, it would take more than the gift of a good fat farm to induce me to go and live these. I hope to be more than a mere grease spot for some little time yet.