"THE PERIL OF MELBOURNE."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7251, 9 August 1907, Page 4

"THE PERIL OF MELBOURNE."

"The Peril of Melbourne," issued by the Victorian branch ot the immigration .beague, has provoked protests in Parliament, but the League has affirmed that all the statements in the pamphlet are based on statistical facts. Here I are some extracts from the brochure: j ■ 'As we have lower sheep, cattle, horse;, and pigs in "Victoria now than we haci i in 18U0, the year before our population began to clear out of the State in sucn large numbers, and as these useful animals show a decline from 1890 up to the present, a corresponding "decline on the agricultural may be anticipated. Land in fallow, too, has increased, and—omen still moro significant— the acreage under artificial grass has bounded up so quickly that this acreage in the last return is 10 tirfies greater than it was five years ago. Under these circumstances, no on will be surprised that there was in Victoria, before 1887, a greater acreage devoted to 10 out of 18 of our plants or crops than there is now, 20 years after. Glancing back through the years there is a decline in the production of barley, peas and beans, potatoes, mangel wurzel, beet, carrots, parsnips, turnips, chicory, and such important plants for great national industries as hops,, tobacco, and grapes for winemaking. There is a decline in the wine made, in a land where viticulture promised to outrival Europe. There are finger-posts pointing to the peril of Melbourne. The trade, the industries, the manufactures of Melbourne are threatened. No war, no pestilence, no ordinary official negligence could so effectually bar a rich land's natural progress."