274 FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES
canning, and bacon curing, all run on the most up-to-date lines. There are also several demonstration, experimental, and seed-testing farms; and experts of the agricultural department give advice and assistance free of cost. The railways, which are owned are controlled entirely by the State, carry settlers' produce at low rates, and the irrigation area has easy and direct access to all the important markets of Australia, and to ports for foreign shipment.
The Murrumbidgee irrigation sheme is so planned as to obviate the hardships and depravations so commonly experienced by pioneers and settlers who venture far away and subdue the "bush" or jungle. Owing to the smallness of the majority of holdings, and the contiguity of model towns and villages, the social conditions
