CONDITIONS IN QUEENSLAND

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21123, 26 March 1934, Page 12

CONDITIONS IN QUEENSLAND

-♦ - - IMPROVEMENT SHOWN I NEMI'I OYME.NT DEt REASIM; One".."ii. iai.d had cwpci mneerl a very good year with plenty of rain, but uiif.g'lumik'ly there was a poor demand for the goods produced, Mr A. N. Stephens, a rcr ident of Brisbane, said when interviewed yesterday. The siiecpfaniiers had met a market, but prices for other produce v. ere still low, and taxation v.v.s Fairly heavy. Condition-: generally were improving, however, ;r;d the number of the unemployed were being gradually reduced. There were two taxes-, for relief and unemployment, and I hey amounted to !)d m the 1 1 . The money collected was administered by the Government, which, had started numerous public works for the unemployed. The sugar industry, winch was one of the most important in Queensland, had been of great help to the state, but (here was a movement throughout lite Commonwealth to have the price of sugar reduced hj" Id a pound. "Of course, we do ml want thai.'' Mr Stephens srud, "ho ause it would keep a large ■gnome oi money out of Queens.- < 'and.'' Sugar was about hi a pound in Brisbane, lie added. At one time it. had gone as low as id, and the Government had fixed the price to protect, the planters. The country inland to the South Attslralian border was largely used for sheep-fanning, Mr Stephens said, but towards the Gull' of Carpentaria there veve many huge cattle ranches. His son had been sheep-farming near the border, but a two-year drought had forced him out, and lie had gone to the Gull country. In his last letter ho had i referred to the annual muster of ' 32.0U0 head, and that indicated the size of the cattle ranches there.