CATTLE WORTHLESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18457, 21 July 1923, Page 7

CATTLE WORTHLESS.

PLIGHT OF QUEENSLAND.

HORSES GIVEN AWAY.

PRIVATIONS OF • FARMERS.

Light is thrown on the position of the cattle industry in the far west of Queensland by Mr. S. Peacock, who writes to a Brisbane paper from Newcastle Waters, Northern Territory.

" Wandering through the country in the far west of our State, I am forced to wonder how it is that capitalists, merchants, and city men in general are so blind to their, own interests that they don't care to understand the seriousness of the position of affairs in the cattle country," he writes. "Bluntly, as a bushman, I give a few actual facts that are occurring during this year. In the central district 900 head of cattle, 300 of which were three years and over, and fat, were purchased at 9s a head. It is well known that you could buy anywhere in the north cows with calves at foot for 10s per head, calves given in. At the present time there are 2000 mixed cattle offering for sale at 5s per head, with no buyers.

" I know a man with a family who lias been struggling for years, owning over 2000 cattle, and he has not had an income of £50 per year for three years past. Bankers stopped his credit and storekeepers have followed suit. His life is as hard as anybody could picture. ■ '.' A much similar case is that of a mother whose husband owned a selection and a few hundred cattle, and who abandoned the selection, letting the cattle take their chance. The police took care of the children, and the mother went on a station as cook, while the husband was looking for a job as boundary rider.

"In another case 200, the pick of 1000 horses, including good chain horses, were sent away for sale, and the owner had to send a cheque to pay for some of his expenses after giving his horses away. "It is known that even among the largest stations not sufficient cattle have been sold for three years past to pay for flour consumed on the property, and I have been on stations where the flour supply for twelve months past has been constantly short. I have been on another place where , a widow sold her selection on which they used to run cattle, and six months afterwards a demand was sent to her for retrospective rent totalling more than the value received for the whole property. Again a station which had not had many sales for years, two years ago was re-assessed, and this year they have the prospect of selling 600 prime bullocks, which will net them less than £2 per head, but they have .Government officials knocking at the door demanding £600 as soon as the cheque arrives from the meat works. " Mr. Theodore may be in real sympathy with the proposal for the co-oper-ation of the Cattle Growers' Association) and with the difficulties we have in this district, but how can you co-operate with others when you h?,ve no liquid assets ? Even co-operation calls for money, and these men have no money. Such men are too tired to bother about politics, and it makes no difference what party the Government is composed of. Yet this is a question not of politics, but one of economics.

"To study it deeply," continues the letter, "one has to remember that it costs three times as much from the saleyards to the consumer as what the grower gets, for he has to hold and feed beasts for four years. Queensland's main assets in the past have been sheep first, and then cattle."