SYMPOSIUM: THE AGRICULTURAL USE OF THE SNOWY WATERS: I: ECONOMICS AND THE USE OF THE SNOWY WATERS

To determine the best use of the Snowy waters in an economic context is to pose the question of what is the most efficient use of the nation's scarce resources. Time is an important consideration in the development of water resources and cannot be ignored in a discussion of this nature. Due to lack of perfect knowledge about future prices and changes in technology, it is difficult to make economic decisions about an irrigation project as large as the one envisaged at present. A period of even twenty years is probably inadequate in view of the longer time required for such a scheme to reach maturity. However, the best guidance possible must be given to the use of the Snowy waters in terms of all the relevant information about the future economic conditions that is available now.