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PROBLEMS OF EMPIRE. 4000 acres; that reserve power is provided in case of a breakdown; and that it is capable of easy expansion with the needs of the settlement. Mr. Anderson, whose report we have already referred to, considers that the better course is to improve the existing system, and to wait till the settlement grows in the direction of Red Cliffs before erecting a new plant at this place. The Commission adopt Mr. Anderson's view. They recommend that a loan, not exceeding 30,000l.—to be expended in lining the channels where required, and in the improvement of the pumping plant, under the supervision of a Government officer—be made to the Mildura Irrigation Trust; and that a further advance of 400l. a month from October 1896 to April 1897 be made, so as to subsidise the work of distributing water for the coming season. Though they recommend an immediate advance of 5000l., to form part of the loan, for carrying out Mr. Anderson's recommendations as to the plant, they apparently do not adopt these in their entirety. Mr. Anderson's proposals are estimated to cost 32,000l., and the lining of the channels 25,000l., or a total of 57,000l. A Bill to give effect to the recommendations of the Commission was about to be introduced into Parliament when I left the Colony at the end of November. By last mail I heard from my father that the Bill had become law. With this assistance from the Government I believe that Mildura will be shortly self-supporting, and will become again a profitable field for settlement. Except in the market gardens in the neighbourhood of Paris, I know of no place where so much money is to be made out of the land. It is an excellent place for any colonist to settle on who has a small amount of 220