CENTRAL OTAGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2823, 22 April 1908, Page 9

CENTRAL OTAGO.

WHAT MR LAURENSON THINKS OF IT. Mr G. Laurenson, M.P for Lyttolton, who accompanied tho Prime Minister and Minister of Lands on their tour of Central Otago, thus expressed himself to a Times reporter : —After travelling through the central district of Otago I have only had my former impressions as to the potentialities of this district deepened. Given a comprehensive irrigation scheme such as the Government now propose I believe the output of the district might be easily doubled. I come to this conclusion after having seen what effect irrigation has on the ground on which it has been tried. The Maniototo Plains alone ought to pay for a very large expenditure on irrigation works. Ine climate of Central Otago is one which will some day make a resort for anyone who might be threatened with pulmonary trouble. The nights especially m winter are bitterly cold, but the days are gloriously clear and fine. The rainfall is the lightest m the Dominion— in fact, it is said the rainfall at Clyde is the same as that of Egypt. My run from Balclutha to Tuapefca Mouth was my first visit to that part of Otago. It appeared to me to be a very nno country, the bulk of it pastoral, but some being a<meul tural. The stock all over it was looking splendid. Prosperity seemed evenly distributed, and the district appeared to be one which wjl very soon carry a much larger population than it does at present.