One of the results of these four years of drought was that Mr Reid, the late Premier, who had for several years past claimed a surplus, admitted, in November last, a deficiency in the revenue of £248,000. In the face of the heavy losses by drought, the colony can claim to have done very little in water conservation or irrigation as compared with Victoria, where, however, the money devoted to irrigation projects has, in many cases, been shamefully squandered.
In the western, and more arid, portion of New South Wales the stock carrying capacity of the country has, in many districts, been increased by the fine flow of water from artesian bores, which, as in Queensland, have changed the whole face of nature, and literally caused the wilderness to blossom as the rose; but, owing to the fact that in summer time even the largest rivers of the interior are nothing more than a chain of water holes, it is probably impossible to carry out large irrigation schemes in New South Wales, as the cost of storage would be too great; and, moreover, the loss by evaporation from Australian tanks sometimes amounts to more than six feet a year.
Following upon a period of falsely inflated land-values in Australia, we notice everywhere a tendency to promote legitimate land settlement. In New South Wales this is being effected by throwing open for settlement land formerly held under lease by squatters. In the southern districts there has been a great rush for this land, and in a few years settlement will, in consequence, have become much denser throughout the province of the Riverina. This movement, which is strictly parallel to and co-incident with the settlement of the Darling Downs in Queensland, and the operation of the Land for Settlement Act in New Zealand, may be compared also with the settlement of the mallee in Victoria. It has
