The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1919. A NATIONAL PROJECT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 25, 16 December 1919, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1919. A NATIONAL PROJECT.

On November 28tb, the GovernorGeneral of Australia inaugurated a project which might well be palled a national one. Tbe.Cunxberoona or Mitta Mitta Dam is enitled to be described as a w-i-

tional undertaking by reason both of the ends which it is intend, uV to serve, and the scale on which it has been planned. When coin pleted it will take a high place anions' the great irrigation works by which he peoples of the Unjtd States, Egypt and India have boon enabled to enjoy the full benefit of territory potentially fertile, but comparatively useless Before the coming of the statesman and the engineer. The dam is the principal element in a comprehensive scheme designed to facilitate the navigation of the Murray and its tributaries, at the same time to place the>'r waters at the service of agriculturists and pastoralists in the; Murray basin. The purpose of«all storage schemes is to provide f<:i periods of scarcity by checking waste in times of abundance ; and the Mitta Mitta dam, in conjunction with other parts of the same scheme, will regulate navigation and provide for irrigation bv conserving the flood discharge to provide for the low discharge of the same year. Navigation, which has hitherto been intermittent, will henceforward be constant, unless for a prolonged period the records of lowest flow obtained in previous years are considerably exceeded ; but it is as the basis of a new irrigation policy that the undertaking possesses its outstanding'importance. At Mildura, higher up the river, a sheep walk of 12,000 acres, carrying one sheep to twenty acres, has been transformed, by irrigation, into'a flourishing 'settlement of more than 6000' inhabitants pro" diicing an' annual ■ income from fruit of about £400,000.. It is not predicted that: the success of Mildura is sure to be repented throughout the basin which will be' irrigated when the new dam is completed; but both engineers, and administrators have now acquired experience which the founders of Mildura lacked. The coming settlement should be exempt from the vicissitudes of Milchira, and the new scheme should add enormously to the wealth of both Victoria and New South .Wales, both in pastoral products and in i*ruit> The choice of, a site for. ,the dam'and the adjustment of a , scheme of distribution equitable ~xnd fjsatisfactory ; to ail 1 ..three 'ri-. parian States was the achievement .o'f'tlie engineer; and without,pa f; tient, skilful, and tactful work on . their part no scheme would haye been agreed upon and novprogress could have been made. But the engineers could not have succeeded without the i support of the State and Federal Ministers. The River Murray Waters Agreement is the one result of any value ever produced-by a ■Premier's Conference. The Agreement was accepted by the Premiers on the advice of their engineers, and: its acceptance was made possible because the engineers had arrived at a just scheme of distribution, and because the Federal Government hari offered to contribute substantially towards the cost; ! ;The" time originally allowed for ip s completion of - the whole scheme was twelve' years" from 1914. Since then there, havebeenriinlorieen • delays -a!inf } Me ' codi of labor ahd^materisil*' v b?<* gteativ incrert'sedi' but ft is \vM to the credit of the present administration that the work has been put so far in hand that it cannot be abandoned.