SOME REMARKS ABOUT QUEENSLAND.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 96, 21 April 1909, Page 7

SOME REMARKS ABOUT QUEENSLAND.

BY AN EX-PALMERSTONIAN.

"SIN, SWEAT, AND SORROW."

A young man who left Palmerston to seek a fortune in Queensland a month or two ago (says the Standard) is already sighing wistfully for his native land. He is not at all enamoured of the land of bananas and kanakas, and his advice to Palmerstonians who have their faces set towards Australia doesn't read like a cheap advertisement for the northern State. Here it is: —

"Anybody in New Zealand whom you may meet who is talking of going to Australia you would do them a good turn by telling them to accept charitable aid in preference to com-

ing here . . . You will see by the heading of this letter (Rockhampton) that I've got well into Northern Queensland, and the more I see of it the less I like it ... Rockhampton is known throughout Queensland as the city of three S's: Sin, Sweat, and Sorrow." The population of the northern portion of the State is somewhat candidly dissected : 'This part of Queensland is full of Japs, Chows, Kanakas, and half-breds of various kinds, with a fair sprinkling of quarter-breds, try-backs, etc. They talk about their White Australia! Why even the Whites themselves out here turn black with the heat or else become spotted all over like a leopard, with mosquito bites, etc. As I sit writing this the red ants are crawling all over the paper." The letter concludes with the following eloquent description of transport facilities in Queensland:"We had a lovely trip up the Australian coast from Sydney to Keppell Bay, where we transshipped into a river boat. AYe had to lie on deck all night with a dirty blanket round us and a hard straw pillow. There was a dense fog on the river, and the result was that in the morning we all had dingo fever, and some of the chaps are still very bad!"