"'If we Australians took as much trouble to prepare for our summer
as the Canadians take to forestall their winter, Australia would be
THE MOST PROSPEROUS COUNTRY ON EARTH.'
The speaker was the Rev. A. R. Edgar, head of the Central Mission,
Melbourne.
"'After circling the globe, then, you are still satisfied that
Australia is not a bad country to live in?'
"'The best,' said Mr Edgar, emphatically. 'I have no hesitation in
saying that Canada and America are not to be compared with Australia.
Unfortunately, England doesn't know it. Australia herself doesn't
half realise it, and as for America and Canada, they haven't the
remotest ghost of a notion of it. In England they learn with
regrettable slowness, and their knowledge is scanty indeed; but
across the Atlantic the ignorance is deplorable. "Australia?" says
the Canadian. "Oh yes! Let's see, that's the place where it's always
droughty--yes, yes, to be sure, the place where y' can't get a drink
of water." He laughs at the idea of Australia producing as much wool
and wheat as Canada, and bluntly tells you there's no country on the
face of the planet can grow wheat and wool like his. But the fact is,
there isn't a bit of territory fit to compare with the Western
District of Victoria, for example, and conditions are infinitely
harder for the agriculturist than in Australia. Canada's western
district is icebound in winter, and her eastern lands are strewn over
with great boulders, between which the plough works laboriously in
and out'."--From the "New Idea."
I often feel for the dweller in Canada; for notwithstanding his
beautiful spring and autumn he has six months of ice and snow and
freezing winds, and I feel selfishly grateful that my lot is cast in
more genial Australia.
Let us well ponder Mr. Edgar's concise and forcible statement: "If we
Australians took as much trouble to prepare for our summer as the
Canadians take to forestall their winter, Australia would be the most
prosperous country on earth."
This is quite true. The Canadian must thoughtfully and rationally
prepare for his winter, or he would freeze and starve. We have no
frigid climate to prepare against, but we have possible drought, and
our first and greatest consideration should be the conservation of
water for irrigation.
This water conservation is exceedingly important thing. Men do not
think, and the waste is enormous. When the rain falls it runs into
the gully, from the gully to the creek, from the creek to the river,
from the river into the sea; and then in the dry season water is
deplorably scarce.
I once asked a young squatter from the New South Wales side of the
Murray "Have you got a garden?" He answered: "No: it is too dry up
our way!" I said, "How do you get water for domestic purposes?" He
answered, "We catch it off the roof; we catch it in 11 tanks and are
never out of a supply." I asked, "How large an area have all your
roofs put together?" He answered, "I think about 20 feet by 100
feet." This would be about a twentieth of an acre. Now just reflect!
One acre of rainfall would supply, if caught, 20 establishments like
that squatter's home, for the rain would fall fairly alike over that
part of the country. A rainfall of 30 inches over an acre of ground
measures about 680,000 gallons and weighs about 3000 tons, the bulk
of which is allowed to run away every year!
A gentleman said to me the other day, "Since the water was brought to
Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie, under Sir John Forrest's great scheme, they
have very beautiful gardens right along the line of supply. Wherever
the water touches the land the vegetation is splendid, and, what is
more, the evaporation is bringing heavier rainfall." Of course,
wherever cultivation and irrigation are carried on, more evaporation
takes place, and, in most cases, causes additional rainfall.
When I affirmed that Australia was capable of supporting 400 millions
of people I did not mean Australia as we now have it, but as it might
be, and probably will be, when water is carefully conserved and its
soil scientifically irrigated and cultivated.