THE DARLING DOWNS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 110, 11 May 1908, Page 2

THE DARLING DOWNS.

RtiCENT NEW ZEALAND VISITORS.

SOME FACTS

The well-known Manawatu farmers, I Messrs S.. R. Lancaster and Hector i Booth, who have for many years been I leading officials of the Manawatu A. j and P. Association, have returned j from a visit to Australia. \ | While in Australia they took the opportunity of visiting the famous Darling Downs, where, it is saidj so, many New Zealanders are settling,1 and the claims of which as a producing and a desirable country are alternately acclaimed and decried. The trippers paid only a flying visit, but were able to form an opinion of the magnificence of tlie Downs. The Downs themselves, they state, are being sold at from £2 to £13 per acrej according to locality. The high-, est sum paid has been £27 per acre, but off this land the purchaser made £100 per acre in the /first year. No English grasses need to be sown. The Downs are covered with natural .herbage. If a paddock was ploughed and left alone, a thick growth of natural • grass springs up and covers it—a grass resembling couch and buffalo grass. It yields a good return and has given1 splendid results in fattening. On this land huge crops of maize are also grown, Paddocks and paddocks of it are seen as the train, which runs ri#it through the Downs, speeds on. Near the Hunter River the land brings up to £50. This is where lucerne is grown. From four to six crops a year are taken off." The return is about two tons per acre per crop. Sold at Sydney, this lucerne realises £6 per ton. The excellent results from- lucerne growing- can thus be calculated. At Brisbane the same crop brings from £3 to £4.- The various products that are taken to Brisbane are mostly run into the railway yards and auctioned from the trucks. - Messrs Lancaster and Booth consider young New Zealanders would have a good chance in Queensland. New Zealandersj as a matter of fact, are in demand over there: Those who "have already settled on the land are <toing better than the Australians, afod showing more up-to-date methods. The visitors, however, advise that new arrivals, before taking up land, should first seek ' employment and become familiar with the conditions; for farming in Queensland is different hi jnany respects from that over here. With land at so low a figure, however, the chances seemed greater to.young fellows than in New Zealand. ' At the, same time, stated the visitors, they had read, while travelling, that the , population ,of Queensland, Respite the efforts of the Govern--ment to induce, settlement,, was less this year than last* This seemed to indicate some reason for dissatisfaction with the country. The Government were straining _ every nerve to encourage immigration and settlement. Whether the dissatisfaction was with the climate or n6t they could not say. The weather they ex-i perienced was excellent, and left no room for complaint. For five r. years past Queensland : had had splendid seasons. The shadow of former .-droughts"hung over the land> but to " counteract the probability of droughts in the future irrigation was proceedin^ on a large scale.—The Dominion.