IN SEARCH OF POPULATION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12585, 16 August 1910, Page 3

IN SEARCH OF POPULATION.

Victoria is very anxious to obtain* suitable emigrants possessed of sufficients capital to take up small holdings on the largo area of land coming under hei-i-e\v irrigation scheme. With this in view, two Commissioners have been sentto test the European supply of industrious farmers. Their first attempt appears to have met with a decided rebuffs The Italian Government met the delegates with diplomatic courtesy, conducted thorn on a tour through the* Lombardy plains, asked for full details^ of the scheme, and promised it ■prompcand full consideration; meanwhile they requested that the Commission would: liot approach the farmers on the subject. It is obvious that the attitude of Italy is entirely rigainst Victoria's proposals, for Victoria wants farmers witl*, . capital, -and these are the men thatItaly is particularly anxious to keep. Jsut though the delegates failed to* reach the farmers, they saw something: o< the irrigation areas of Lombardy which, .says a Melbourne paper, "show /ictona's agricultural possibilities in a. now light.-' There are some 9000squaremiles of rich plains in Lombardy, and they carry about one person to the acre —Rodney, in Victoria, with good irrigation, supports about ten people to the square mile. There are more people ort these plains than in the whole of Australia. An idea'of the fertility of thosoil of these plains can be obtained from the experience of Mr. Mead, one oF the Commissioners, who went over a-. farm of 120 acres, and crave a .special correspondent of the "Sydney DailyTelegraph" the following:—'"The farm had in its stable 200 cows returning £18 n head, each year from cheese. In ' addition it took last year £2200 from hay, and grew, also, 50 acres of maize anct wheat. You can't believe it? It doesseem tall. But there were the 200 sleek Swiss fows in their stalls, and therewtro the books si lowing; tho receipts. And there, too, were the thirty families, which that 120 acres employed!'- Such wonderful productiveness though mainly due to irrigation, and the system is a very complete one, is primarily due totho Jingo deposits of alluvial soil spread' all _ over the country by the waterswinch flowed from the Alps Even *nr the times of the Romans the district was a never-failing source from which toreplenish the national storehouses. Since* then, millions have been'spent on'irrigation, some by the Government, someby private companies, and some by th<*farmers themselves. With so many families dependent on the soil the lamt must know no bad seasons, otherwise- * there would be a famine. The farmerhas little or no opportunities of saving. It is the landowners who are rich antf tho farmer pays £5 to £6 an acre reire, for Ins small farm. The perseverance anc industry which he gives to his work wwild maka him a rich man in Aus^' tvaha.- ' ■■'