There is said to be scarcely a part of South Africa where agriculturists cannot afford to pay £1 per acre per annum for perennially irrigated land, and the system of irrigation as put before the Government shows that this uniform rate would enable extensive projects to be undertaken everywhere with profit. Land tax is another question to be considered. Land in Orange River Colony may be considered as having a mean value of 15s. per acre. The suggested tax is 6d. per acre per annum. The effect of such tax would be to weed the country of useless landowners, and replace them by industrious and progressive farming men. On a basis of 6d. per acre per annum, the Orange River Colony could pay £300,000 per annum. In the Transvaal the dolomite region, the high veldt, and the south-eastern corner--taken as worth 10s. an acre, and taxed at 4d. per acre--would bring in annually some £350,000. As in the Orange Colony, irrigation works would add materially to the revenue. There would at first be protests from all quarters, but eventually this systematic taxation would prevent worthless landlords from accumulating property to the detriment of progressive practical men. In order to protect and improve the position of the farmers, Mr. Willcocks recommends the formation of a Bureau of Agriculture after the pattern of the Agricultural Bureau at Washington. Its representatives collect information from far and near, and of every possible kind, sending to headquarters all manner of agricultural produce. Experimental farms are started in the various states, curious seeds are sown, and if any variety proves adaptable to any particular region, the farmers are promptly provided with seed corn, and thus assisted to keep at the head of the world in agricultural production. Such a bureau in South Africa would cause its agents to import legumins from Egypt, and labour-saving machines from America, which last would halve the expenditure on watercourses and earthwork of all classes. Taken all round, South Africa with the addition of 3,000,000 acres of perennially irrigated land (gained at an expenditure of £30,000,000, and valued at £100,000,000), and also with 10,000,000 acres of land under crops depending on rainfall (which might be valued at another £100,000,000), would be a very different country from that which it is to-day. In view of this immensely rich outlook, no South African statesman should rest content with the transitory mineral wealth of the moment, or the golden glories of a possible fifty years. Irrigation, and irrigation alone, can secure permanent wealth to any part of the South African continent, and the Government that refuses to recognise the vital importance of a sufficiently comprehensive land and irrigation scheme, and that hesitates while the land is ripe for regeneration--that Government will deservedly go down to posterity as the Government of lost opportunities. [Illustration: PEELING BARK ON A WATTLE PLANTATION IN NATAL