The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1933. THE VALUE OF IRRIGATION.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19624, 19 October 1933, Page 8

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1933. THE VALUE OF IRRIGATION.

It would be something of an insult to the intelligence of the town and country people of South Canterbury to suggest that it is necessary to prove the value of irrigation in areas where the rainfall fails or dry spells otherwise make agriculture unremunerative. Nevertheless the discussion at the meeting of the South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce last night ought to arouse interest in this important question. For many centuries, man has sought to harness the rivers to schemes designed to water the thirsty land. Irrigation has been described as an art that has been practised from the very early times. Year after year fresh discoveries are made that carry back human knowledge of the early history of Egypt, and it is certain that until the cultivator availed himself of the natural rise of the Nile to saturate the soil, Egypt must have been a desert. Historians tell us that it is not improbable that Assyria and Babylon, with their splendid rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris, took the idea of irrigation from the Nile, and that Carthage and Phoenicia, as well as e.arly Greece and Italy, may have followed the same example. In the jungles of Ceylon, too, are to be found remains of gigantic irrigation dams, and on the neighbouring mainland of southern India, throughout the provinces of Madras and Mysore, the country is covered with irrigation reservoirs. In these provinces, millions of acres are watered, and harvests are assured the people. It is common knowledge that the very life of Egypt depends on its irrigation and, ancient as this irrigation is, it was never practised on a really scientific system until after the British occupation. As everyone knows, the Valley of the Nile outside the tropics is practically devoid of rainfall. Yet it was the produce of this valley that formed the chief granary of the Roman Empire: “Probably,” says one Investigator, “nowhere is there an agricultural population so prosperous, and so free from the risks attending seasons of drought and flood.”

This point was finely made by the speaker at the Chamber of Commerce last night, when he insisted that irrigation takes the gamble out of farming. Thirty years ago, after years of disastrous drought and famine, the Government of India appointed a commission to examine throughout all India what could be done by irrigation to alleviate the horrors of famine. After the most searching investigation the commission published a very exhaustive report recommending that while it was agreed that irrigation alone could never prevent famine, an outlay of £15,000,000 be embarked upon spread over a period of twentyfive years. And so we come to the modern world; indeed, the canal system of northern India is the most perfect the world has yet seen, and contains works of hydraulic engineering which can be equalled in few countries. Even in upper Burma large productive irrigation works were planned away back at the opening of the century —the area watered from the three main projects was 202,000 acres, situated in the only part of Burma considered liable to famine. Coming to Europe we find it claimed that the most highly developed irrigation in the world was probably that practised on the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy where every variety of condition is to be found. The system was evolved by tile great Count Cavour whose plans have been adopted in many countries. The historians say, however:

Nowhere in England can it be said that irrigation is necessary to ordinary agriculture, but it is occasionally employed with a large measure of success in stimulating the growth of grass and meadow herbage in what is known as water-meadows. These are in some instances of a very early origin. On the Avon in Wiltshire, and the Churn in Gloucestershire they may be traced back to Roman times. This irrigation is not practised in the drought of summer, but in the coldest and wettest months of the year, the water employed being warmer than the natural moisture of the soil, and proving a valuable protection against frost.

From the opening of the 20th century, the United States, under the new conservation policy initiated during Mr Theodore Roosevelt’s Presidency, considerable impetus and encouragement yielded the extension of irrigation works, and the subject was made definitely one of national importance. The eleventh census of the United States showed that 3.564,410 acres were irrigated, but within ten years the area had been doubled, and indeed something like 12,000,000 acres were under carefully plotted irrigation schemes before the present century was many years old. The value of irrigation which was most capably set out by the speaker last night is plainly revealed by the historians who would be amazed at the unresponsive attitude of many men on the land who do not seem able to sense the vast potentialities of irrigation for territories like Canterbury that suffer periodical low

yiSIT OF TENNIS STARS. Apart altogether from popular interest created by the visit of the English tennis stars, because of the brilliance of their performances in Davis Cup and national tournaments in many countries, the visit of our kinsmen from England serves to draw a little closer the filial associations between the Homeland and this outpost of the Commonwealth of British Nations. From time to time visits are exchanged between leaders in the varied activties in countries under the Union Jack, but perhaps the most valuable of all are sporting calls by the stars in the nation’s games and pastimes. Through the medium of the daily press, the people have read with lively interest the thrilling performance of the English lawn tennis stars in their quest of the Davis Cup the symbol of tennis supremacy of the world —and their success lias been highly praised. But since it has become the rather unfortunate habit of some of the more jaundiced critics to talk rather glibly of the alleged decadence of the race and write rather disparagingly of the quality of the youth of the nation, it is of vital importance that the young people, who will soon be bearing the full burdens of the nation’s responsibilities, should exchange visits and look one another in the face. Doubtless the tour of the English tennis stars will be most educative to the members of the team, and they will, we hope, carry away with them pleasant recollections of their visit to this far-flung outpost of British influence, and our enthusiasm for the game in which they are interested. But, best of all, will be the strengthening of the understanding that already exists between the young people of the Homeland and the rising generation in New Zealand and Australia. Nothing but good can result from the opportunity afforded our visitors to come into close association with the people of this country, and learn something of life overseas. They will realise the strength of those invisible ties which bind the component parts of the British Commonwealth in bonds of racial pride, lofty idealism and filial understanding and co-operation. To have looked into the faces of tens of thousands of New Zealanders who will meet the visiting tennis stars during their tour of this country, will remain with our kinsmen from the great metropolis, an ineffaceable memory and an abiding inspiration, that will more closely cement the relationships that exist between the older and younger nations now enjoying equality of status within the progressive and enlightened Commonwealth of British Nations. Doubtless the tennis enthusiasts from end to end of New Zealand will enjoy the exhibitions of skill and prowess which the visitors possess in a high degree, but the visit of the English tennis stars will yield the most important results, in proportion to the measure of enduring understanding that is promoted by their close contact witli the thousands of people they meet during the progress of their tour of the Dominion. THE BULLER BY-ELECTION. Unless the Coalition decides to contest the Buller by-election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, very little interest in the contest will be created outside the electorate. The participation in the campaign of one or two unattached aspirants for Parliamentary honours from outside the electorate, will not be regarded as constituting a serious challenge to the Labour Party's firm hold of the West Coast seats. The. selection of Mr P. C. Webb, as the official Labour candidate, however, is interesting in view of his former association with political affairs on the West Coast, and his subsequent retirement which gave Mr Holland his opportunity to enter the Parliament of New Zealand some fourteen years ago. Doubtless Mr Webb's long association with the New Zealand Parliamentary Labour Party made him acceptable to the Labour Representation Committee [ of the Buller electorate. More- j over, Mr Webb’s interest in j mining lias kept him ill close j touch with the principal industry of the West Coast and the indus trial activities of the district. It is interesting to recall, however, that Mr Webb's entry into the Parliament of New Zealand in 1913, was made possible by the Liberals who addressed that once I notorious telegram to Mr Webb | to “go in and win,” when as Labour nominee, he faced the second ballot in the by-election I necessitated by the death of Sir j Arthur Guinness. It is not anticipated. however, that Mr Webb will find any difficulty in persuading the electors of Buller to j accept him once more as their representative in the Parliament of New Zealand.