ABOUT QUEENSLAND.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1703, 17 December 1919, Page 6

ABOUT QUEENSLAND.

OUGHT AND LABOUR TROUBLES,

THE PRICKLY PEAR CURSE,

Mr Robert Sanders, builder, of Wellington) has just returned from a, holiday, visit to Queensland,’ and he brings back anything but an encouraging report ot the State which is just.how so much in the public eve. In Brisbane ho found trade in n state‘of utter Stagnation, and no one would invest' in any building operations unless absolutely compelled to do so. At a medium class hotel Mr and Mrs Sanders bad to pay lbs a day, Mid judging from the prices of goods in the ‘ shops living was very much dearer than in New /caland. Ait- (Sunders said that possibly a good deal of the depression was - being caused by the Urolight/, which was the most terrible ui liyihg memory in Quciisland. Even on the famous Darling Downs, which were supposed to bo unfailingly productive, the crops were so stunted by the drought that the reaper and binder would not touch them. Stoc'k was perishing by the hundred thousand all over Queensland and at the back of New South Wales. Ho heard of one very pitiful case, where a man died on his farm. Hie man’s brother Went up from Victoria to sec what ho could do for the widow, hut found that the stock was too weak to ho moved—-it simply had to he left to die. Mr I Sanders added: “I think 1 am right in saying that one of the Sydney papers estimated that the drought in the State would mean the death of 10,000,000 sheep, mil a financial loss of £53,000,000.” “Then you hear talk of the wonderfully good seasons they have up Australia, said Mr . Sanders. “J suppose it is true of certain parts,, but it is certainly not reflected 1 in the country. There are the marvellous

Darling Downs, but the houses are mere shacks--there are no residences such as you (im! in the Wuirarapa, Manawatu, Hawke’s Bay, and Auckland districts, and one must conclude that if the prosperity was there it, would be reflected in some way.” the drought was, having a very_ serious effect on Sydncv. and it was an effect that would be felt more severely a little Inter on. The wool could not be brought to town, r.s the railways were fully employed pulling haltstarved cattle down to the coast bolt, and taking water back to the drought-stricken lands to save life. All along the line in Queensland sheepskins could bo seen hanging on the fences—the pelts of sheep which had had to be killed, or they would have died of starvation and thirst. One effect of the drought _ was the fact that it meant the death of 'millions of rabbits. In Queensland one settler related tin story of an astonishing migration of rabbits past in’s place, all trekking northward. Nothing barred their progress. They trod flat by sheer force of numbers a strong rabbit-proof fence. “To make matters worse, the prickly pear is steadily gaining a grip on the hind. No drought is too severe for the prickly’pear. A conservative estimate of its growth is that it covers a million acres every year, and turns the land info a young and impenetrable forest, for the prickly pear grows to a height of ton to font teen feet, and the prickles are horrible things Neither sheep, nor cattle can eat it in its native state;-

hut when boiled the thorns soften, and the leaves become good food, rcndilv eaten by cattle. It costs £lB an acre to clear prickly pear, which is done by cutting it down and grubbing it. Then tiic land has to bo kept closely cultivated or the pear will soon take charge again. It. is said that if a.piece of prickly pear is kept in the house or suspended clear of the earth under.the house, and then falls to the ground, it will at once take root, sc tenacious of life' is it." Mr Banders had occasion to stay for a while in Gladstone, 500 miles north of Brisbane, and gives anything but a cheerful account of the social condition of the people,' and generally, he says, there was discontent throughout (ho State. Mr Ryan got out

just in time. The railway service was packed with men who did next to nothing,, and it was the worst service in the world. At one time, ho was told, each railway man used to produce £l4O of work per annum; now, it was said, each one prduced only £4O worth a year; consequently there was a big deficit in the railways account