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MILDURA. conveying the water pumped into them. In certain portions it is estimated that as much as 50 per cent, was lost.

On a general review of the management of the Chaffeys, as far as concerns the selection of the pumping plant and the construction of the channels, it seems to me that it is not open to the severe criticism which has been frequently passed upon it, notably in the report of the Royal Commission. They have made mistakes, it is true, and they themselves are ready to admit it. Whether the pumping plant, the machinery and boilers, were of the best kind for the work which they had to do may be open to question, but there is no doubt that they were the best of their kind, and capable, if kept in good order, of supplying sufficient water for the land they were intended to irrigate. That the plant and the power might have been differently distributed with advantage is very possible. The great fault in the Billabong system is that there is no reserve in the event of a breakdown, and that the working of the whole system depends on the weakest link in the chain. That the channels were in many cases hastily and therefore imperfectly constructed is probably true; but I do not believe that any one could have foreseen the excessive leakage and damage from seepage, which did not occur until some years after the channels had been made. The evidence is not conclusive as to the cause of this leakage. It may, however, be due to the boring of crayfish.

Two other mistakes have been made, for which the Messrs. Chaffey, and particularly Mr. W. B. Chaffey, may be held partly responsible. In many cases the wrong sort of trees were planted to suit the particular 213