CENTRAL OTAGO'S IRRIGATION SCHEME.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5429, 13 April 1907, Page 3

CENTRAL OTAGO'S IRRIGATION SCHEME.

ITS POSSIBILITIES. [Millers Flat Correspondent.]

The Maniototoites have been agitating for irrigation for a long time, and now that the Government has promulgated a scheme which fairly astounds them they are almost struck dumb, and are now afraid to ask the Government for anything else for fear of actually getting more than they want. When questioned about this scheme they shake their heads dubiously and say : "Is the country worth it ? Can we afford to pay for so stupendous an undertaking ? Is the Government in earnest in propounding a scheme that will cost £200,000 in constructing a reservoir that would float ;ind harbor comfortably the whole navy of the British Empire and a water-race large enough to carry a small steamer?" If they asked me anything about it I would emphatically say " Yes !" And if the Government is not in earnest compel it to be so. Irrigation will not only be the making, but the salvation of the Maniototo Plains, as they have the resources in abundance to develop. Agitate for opening up the land for closer settlement (the closer the better) ; get more population and lighten the taxation. Irrigation alone, with an enterprising people, will increase the present production tenfold, and other industries will follow in its wake. Hundreds of acres of auriferous ground, now useless, will then become payable. The practicably untapped mineral resources of the Rock and .j'luar and Lammerlaw Ranges will offer inducement to mining investors, and these unfrequented regions will then become a hive of busy industry and ultimately the revenue from the railway alone will more than recoup the Government for the outlay. Although science cannot yet control the elements, it can do a great deal to improve the climate and drainage ; cultivation, plantation, and lime will warm the soil and retard late and early frosts, and an extension or branch railway to the Upper Taieri Plains will bring their products to the market.