IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA AND ITS PEOPLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2541, 26 November 1902, Page 30

IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA AND ITS PEOPLE.

I I.— THE LAND. It is at all times a difficult, and sometimes a dangerous, task for a casual visitor to record and publish his opinions concerning tlie country -visited by him. First impressions may be best, but are apt to prove fallacious; and it appears little short of presumptuous for one who has spoilt only a few w-eeks or months in a new land and amongst strange people to give his \ iews to tlie world as possessing -any iutruit-io valtta oi their owai. At the same time, during and fcince my recent visit to Australia I have jurivcd at certain conclusions — more or less definite — concerning the Commonwealth and its inhabitants, and these conclusions I am now enabled to -publish, thanks io the kindness of the editor of the Otago Daily Timos. I need scarcely add that the editor in que-stion is in no way responsible for any of the opinions expressed .111 tlie series of short articles I have ■written. For such opinions I alone take Ihe responsibility, ' based as they ar© upon my own observation and first-hand inquiries on the -spot. I

I may be pardoned for stating at tlie outset that these articles are the fruit of my fir<-t visit to the Australian Ooutinent. Although resident iv New Zealand 'for about 20 years. I never visited Australia until a few months ago, when I landed in Sydney from Wellington, wheece I had travelled by the Union Steam Ship Company's magnificent steamer WarrimoG — a boat winch I can confidently recommend as being fast, roomy, and comfortable in *very respect. Since landing iv Sydney I have travelled overland to Melbourne and thence lay rail to Adelaide and back, visiting Balloxat, Geelong, Mount Gambier, and other towais en route, and staying inland at various country places «nore> or lees remote from civilisation. I have also had the privilege of rnefting here and tne-re on my tra-vels Victorian farmers, nmholders from the back blocks of New South Wales and Queensla/nd, mining men from the Golden West, and settlers from the Northern Territory of (&o-calle<l) South Australia. It will thus be apparent that I have had more opportunity than the average tourist of learning sametiling of Australia and its people. I ha*e set down nothing in maline or from pn?-ju-dir-e, aJid I trust that in the result my views may he found possessed of a modicum of fresluie c < and int&reot to som-i at least of my fellow New Zealauders-.

I propose in Mic first phice to deal with the land its-eli — the va^t contiiißnt of Austratin. To the casual \isitor. whether from Old Kngland or from New Zealand, it early becoiu9« obvious that -Ai>irali:i 1-. a land of great distance:- — a huge covnuy wilh a fimp^e of popnlatiou n-citiTcd along its eo:f<»t« The first impression is. one of eize: aud the mo*"c mie travels, whether inland or roH'.twiie. the more deeply is this idea inipre-sed <in the l.imd of the observer. The olr\ ions inference, of course, is that the eoiuitry ice'f i-- not developed — that its great natural rrsoiuces are to a large extent \'.UiOilched by t'.r hand of man. Australians point with piule to their groat cities, tl-at are e\ e-r increasing in "ize and wealth, but they show a strange reluctance to go "out W<-si '"—to gc on the land. wh ; eh is the ukuuate source of all the wealth of city anJ c-oiuitiv alike.

The reabou of this reluctance h not far to a "rk. It ir. in oue word, tlie lack of water. This is th° primary euro:- of Australia, that Nature La=, not proi-ided it with rain, wath streams, and stores of water sufficient to ensure a constant supply in average season* to squatter, to farmer, and to miner alike. The land itself is fertile and easily worked; all kinds of <.-rop= may be raised with ease where the water supply k pood: bat the absc-me of pc-reiin'al water and the ocraMona! presence of droughts have combined to inuke farming in Australia a dang<Toti«. spccu'at;on, and to mill many of hei Tiin-t deserving pioneere. Tiie problem of the future in tlie Australian Oonuuonwe.ilth is the couservalion «nd unpro\P!m nt of the exi-ting wutcr supply, and the distribution of th.it «ujjp!y far and wide n\cr the continent wherever it is iro-t nei-flpd Mtu'i has been done here at <! (In n- hy indu idtial effort in the way of aile-ia'i well*, and otheiwise, but that i.-; nnt ( noiijli Some < ompreheitsive echom<j Fhottld b? adopted on the bret profes»ional advice, and Mg.jrou-.ly earned out by the Goverumt-uts of tin.- various States interested, acting in concert or under Federal guidance. The same problem has been mcccosfully solved in come of the drier States of North America, and there teems no reason why professional fckill should not briug about the desired result in the Commonwealth. Nature has provided the Australians with a magmfkent series of rivers, intersecting the chief squatting and farming districts ; and it seems almost criminal to allow millions of gallons of water to run daily to w:>6te during lainv tca^oiiß, when all that ii wanted in tlir ncccssflry m-oney arid engilieerinp; slrill to store the surplus water and distribute it during the dry seasons which seem iriewlably to foiio-v.

It may be urped that the irrigation c-chrme which I have hinted at is too large a matter for ; •)) one of the States to undertake singlehanded. This is piobably true. It is true a'fco that the great river system of the Australian Coutiueat runs ihrvuali Queens- '

land. New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. All the more reason is there, then, for making thp scheme a truly federal and comprehensive one. In the Li nited States the Federal Government has boldry stepped in and passed an Irrigation Bill, which is even now bemg carried into effect. When this great schem-e has 'been perfected 100 million acres of land — at present barren — can, and will, be made subject to the plough Already large trpots of the "arid West," in Wyoming, Colorado. New Mexico. *md Arizona, ha>ve bsen fertilised by water through private enterprise, quite apart ifrom the great federal scheme: and now an acre of lend in the very heart of the "Arizona Desert" commands a higher price than an acre in the humid Mississipi Vallejr. There ib no valid reason -why similar results should not be attained in " arid Australia," if the matter 16 energetically pushfd ahead and the boat cngmesnng skill obtained. TJxibil somp such scheme is adopted and carried out a large proportion of th' 3 land of the Auetrahnn Continent nm=t remain in effect a barren nnd unproductive desert. W. C. MacGeegoe.