VICTORIA. Melbourne, October 9.

Otago Witness, Issue 2902, 27 October 1909, Page 8

VICTORIA. Melbourne, October 9.

The weather during the past month has been decidedly mixed, which is only to bo expected at this time of the year. Thers hiaa been a moderate amount of rain, a moderate amount of wai-m weather, and a gocd dpal just eo-so. The *orst features hava beer the hi^- winds and sudden cold snaps ; indeed, it has been so cold that only little more than a wee-k ago falls ;>f snow iV9t» reported in many of the hill districts. This ha naturally put things bade somewhat, although, thanks to the abundance A foeci evp.rywhcr€, stock are doing remarkablj well. In a great many places the wheat crop shows signs of having suffered from the excessively w-et winter The straw is very soft and flaggy, and would hive been much better if it coukl have been fxldown more. Also there is a larger proportion of w-3edy crops owin^, to the sowing of more 6tubblo land thar* iisua.]. Anoihor trouble for tha farmer is the caterpillar pest, which ha 3 pirt in an appearance ;n; n a few districts, particularly in the north. Tho prospects in the da vy Irado ars bright, and exports of butter are increasing Ir volume by 1-eap.s and bounds. The ship-m-'nr'S to tho United Kingdom from ths Ist July to st!i October were 1050 tons, comparod with 37 tons for the ;orrot.]K;n<lin}r pTicd of last .season vnd 1111 tons for 1907-8. This is very *>atisfjctoi y, voting that tlw season is rather labiM- than uoi'ul. iuid it points to big output during the uexc few months. Tha w-ee-kiy series of wool sales v.-«r • open<Mi in Melbourne on sth October. Prices generally tt ,\ re quot^rl as lx>ing rom 25 to 30 por cent, higher than at thy* op?nsa'as of 1902, but of cour&c 1 there wai> notliing like that advance on the rates ruling, say, in Decomber or January last. Practica.ll}' no Viotoriar wool hafe come into the stores yet, it i= difficult to say how the new clip will corn pa 10 with last baton's As far as can be ascertainsd, it is oxp-acted to be better grown, cleanar, and sounder, air-so heavier in condition, but perhaps not 6O fine. T.ie fourth annual report of the State River and Water Supply Comini»f>ion is in sonii^ resects unpleasant reading. It is to all intents and purposes a coiife.-ssion of the failure, financially, of lrrlg-^i ion in Victoria. There i«j th-o dioubt that un!<?S3 the Siato is prepared to loss entirely nearly £7,000,000, which hx? been sunk in waterworks, some radical change in policy must be mado. As is only to be expected, the proposal tc make the use of water, or, rather, the chajrg>es foi water, whet'ier used or not, compulsory ie strongly objected to in the irrigatior. districts, but something must be dons The report touches the spot in the following paragraph: — "The failure of irrigation in districts having; an ,

adequate water supply was due to lack of p-ople. There was not a single successful irrigatior district in any country that had an average population of less than 50 to the square mile, and tha best districts have from 100 to 800 people to the square mile The State-irrigated districts of northern Victoria would, excluding townships, not average 10 peopla to the square mile. In order to change this there must bo an increase in population, and tha readiest way to secure this was tc subdivide existing holdings. The average size of the irrigated farm in Victoria was about six tunes the average size of the irrigated farm in California. Ths commission recommends 1 that wherever suitable land car ba acquired at reasonable price by the State, that closer sottleni3nt be mario. Provision must be made, howe\er, for tha closer settlement of 200,000 aoro-s unoer existing works if their full 'rrigation possibilities were to ba de1 veloped."