ROMANTIC INDUSTRY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 9 April 1934, Page 10

ROMANTIC INDUSTRY

COTTON CULTURE IN AUSTRALIA

A statement made in Queensland by the Minister of Customs (Lieut.-Colonel White) that cotton-growing has made remarkable progress recently, recalls the fact that this industry has had a. romantic and chequered history in Australia (says the “Argus”). Attempts to introduce the cotton plant of commerce date from the first white, settlement. I’hilTip' brought cotton seeds with him from Rio, and King grew plants from it at Norfolk Island, but, being ignorant of the methods of treatment, could make us use ol' it when grown. Little more was heard of cotton-grow-ing until Governor Darling (who had apparently been experimenting for himself) on 24th March. 1825. forwarded to London a sample of Sydney-grown cotton, which he declared was “not to be exceeded” in point of either colour or staple. As a result of this statement a man with West Indian experience came to Australia and began operations in 1828, but the experiment ended with his untimely death. In the meantime a small experimental plot had been sown by Robert Dawson, manager of the Australian Agricultural Company, but he was soon suspended from duty, and bis plot disappeared with him. of the pastoral industry became paramount then, and for the next 10 or 12 years the only cotton-growing done in Australia v*as in botanical hothouses. In the 'forties, however, John V. Thompson, inspector-general of Government hospitals in New South Wales, raised good cotton at Moreton Bay, and, although he tailed to make the industry profitable, his partial success caused John Dumnoie Lang to seize upon cotton as a medium of colonisation. Lang published a little book, “Cooksland: The Future Cotton-field of Great Britain,” and he persuaded about 600 “virtuous Presbyterians” to form “the nucleus of a cotton-growing population in Australia,” which eventually, he hoped, would “give the deathblow to slavery in America.” But an unfeeling colonial Government refused to grant land to the immigrants, and only a few were able to take up cotton culture. In following years the industry continued to fluctuate. Then, in 1861, the American civil war broke out. Manchester mills were starved of their supplies, and an agitation arose for the introduction of coloured labour into Queensland to grow cotton. Robert Towns in 1863 imported 67 kanaka labourers to his plantation, and further importations were made in following years. In the period 1862-71 26,000,0001 b of cotton was exported from Australia, and the cultivated area increased from 320 acres in 1862 to 14,500 acres in 1871. After the war Queensland cultivators began to feel again the competition of the United States, and production dwindled until in 1888 only 37 acres were planted. Old cotton mills, relics of the ’sixties and ’seventies, are landmarks in rural Queensland to-day. In recent years the industry revived, with assistance from both British and Australian authorities. Apparently its future is assured, for the Minister for Customs now says that the Commonwealth Ministry intends to provide for the industry so that growers can be successful.