BEAUTY v. WEALTH.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 27, 1 February 1907, Page 7

BEAUTY v. WEALTH.

„NEW ZEALAND AND QUEENSLAND COMPARED. INTERESTING PACTS AND .FIGURES. THE KANAKA PROBLEM. Mr. Angus Gibson, M.L.C., Queensland, who is- now on a pleasure tour of New Zealand, accompanied by his daughters, is a colonist who firmly believes in his adopted country. "I have been through New Zealand before," he remaTked to an Evening Post reporter. "It was in 1897, and both then and now I fipd it a. country of great attractions. Rotorua and its hot springe, the Wanganui BiveT and its rapida, the many scenes of interest on the overland route, are attractions for the tourist, and in their way all that one could desire, but I must go somewhere else to make money. I can't get away from the impression* that as a. money-making concern New Zealand is not to be compared with Queensland. Our Darling Downs and onr coastal lands are bettor than anything- I hay* yet seen in New Zealand." (As jqualification to this last statement it should be said that llr. Angus has not yet been in the South Island.) "And -we have eoenery too/ he continued; ''places worth going to see.* Our GovernTaent is doing a good deal to popularise those resorfs with tourist*, and increased popularity for them is only a matter of -a utfcle while. We can provide a clunate to order at a few Tioure' notice. On •the' coast you have the tropics, and by -travelling on * semi-vertical railway for ■five hours you can get a temperature as cool as New Zealand' 6. No doubt about it Queensland is a highly favoured country; ia its southern portions you can. get everything that is grown in NewZealand, and in the northern territory everything that is grown in India. Coal, silver, tin, lead, wolfram — all manner of minerals nameable aTe there, and considering that I have been a colonist for forty, four years- 1 think lam capable to Bay 'what the land is like. We can get from, the 6uiface .of the land, nearly everything that the world produces, and there is. hardly a mineral nameable that we can't dig up. The Government -is now. pushing along a railway from Richmond to the Gulf of Carpentaria, through a vast territory prolific of mineral wealth, and it is confidently estimated that as a result of this, enterprise Queensland will be supporting a huge population within ten years from now !" A question as to the condition of Queensland sugar plantations drew from our visitor an expression of opinion— an. expression the more of weight because Mr. Gibson is principal in a large and long-established torn of sugar planters. He recalled -that when the^Commonwealth Goverrunent«decided to abolish importation of black, labour to Queensland from the South Sea Islands, a grant oi £6 per ton cm all sugar produced was made to the manufacturers to enable them to carry on successfully with white labour. Out of this there is an excise duty of £3 per ton to be paid, but part of that money is redistributed in varying proportions according to the districto (three) into which Queensland and the northern part of New South Wales have been divided, while a part is retained by the Commonwealth Government. In this way the districts have gone on for five yeaTS, and cane has been grown both by black and white labour. But on 31st December last all South Sea Island labour agreements expired, and it is now illegal to employ South Sea Island labourers on plantations. So at present the planters are faced with tho questipn how to carry on the industry. Ten thousand islanders have' been deported or taken off the land, 'and there is urgent need for white immigration to th« colony to enable their .places to be filled. Where that labour is to come from, is on© of the questions that ie disturbing the minds of the plant, ers. It has been said that people from, Southern Europe would [^eminently suitable for work on the sugar plantations, and enquiries are now being made in Northern Italy, the South of France, and contiguous places to .ascertain tbe 'likelihood of any huge number of immigrants making the venture. It is also proposed to bring out Scandinavians. But it is just possible, by reason of the Commonwealth laws against the importation of foreigners, that difficulties may arise. A scheme was submitted to the Deakin Ministry some time ago by th© people of Northern Queensland, but by reason of the general election campaign which recently terminated no consideration has so far been given to tbe proposals. All over Queensland there has been a determination to work out the problem. Plantations have been, divided into small lots of 30, 70, or 160 acres, according to siw of prospective occupants, and let on terms to persons willing to undertake the work of cane-growing. It is hoped to save the situation in the southern portion of the State by these means. Mr. Gibson's interests are largely in the Bundaberg district, and there his firm (a limited liability company) has been working out a scheme for the last twelve years. For all that time the firm has leased out its lands, and has had forty tenants supplying cane to the factory from holdings 22 miles distant. To facilitate tbe work tho firm has put down rails, and on theso the cane is run in by locomotives. On another estate (the Watawa) the cane is hauled for 28 miles. At Bingera the firm in the past employed over 300 South Sea Islanders and 70 white men in the fields, besides 250 white men in the factory. It was in anticipation of tile prohibition of black labour that the' firm divided its lands in this vicinity into small holdings during th© last eighteen months, and let them out to white men, as a result of which the prohibition of bh\ek labour will not materially affect operations, though the area which the firm will itself cultivate in future will be only 700 acres, as against 3500 acres under the mixed labour system. Aft illustrative of the extent of a sugar plantation's business, Mr. Gibson mentioned that on his firm's estate at Bingera there were 40 miles of tramlines, four locomotives, and machinery worth about £120,000. On the same estate is a pumping plant which throws water (from the Burnett River) 250 feet high, and at the rate of ten million gallons in twenty-four hours. Tho season now over has been a fairly prosperous one for Queensland (Mr. Gibson considers), the output of cane totalling 85,000 tons. As to the future of the industry, ho is hopeful, as regards the southern districts, but doubtful in respect of the tropical notth from Mossman to Mackay. There must, ho says, bo very grave difficulty in growing cam there by white labour, and he fears .for its future. The white ' population that' is there is nomadic, and there is the risk that the planter will be left without sufflciout labour at a critical period. Under the best conditions in the south— and m far as cultivation of the land is concerned' the best conditions obtain — there is sound Teason for hope. The chief queatioa is whether the promised loboun from Europe will be introduced. ,"",„-