AUSTRALIAN SQUATTERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19496, 27 November 1926, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN SQUATTERS

MENACES TO THEiR INDUSTRY QUEENSLAND TO THE RESCUE. ADVERSE SEASONS AND PRICES. [FROM A correspondent.] Apart from fluctuations of drought and prices the present state and future prospects of the pastoral industry, both in large stock and sheep, are much in the minds of mou engaged on the land. et on the one hand, we have a continuous pressure of the labour unions for higher wages and better terms; and on the other, continuous consultations of pastoralists as to how they shall deal with the new conditions. The tendency of legislation and taxation, both Federal and State, is to press more and more hardly upon the pastoral class, because they are assumed to be a class of groat wealth and well able to bear all the exactions of modern Governments, and they also inherit much of the old hostility between squatters and selectors in the days when small settlement had to force its way, a legacy which accounts for much of the Labour tendency of present-day small settlers. The reduction of areas by taxation and otherwise diminishes the numbers $$ stock carried, and even squatters say that their class is destined to extinction. In New South Wales the Labour Government of Mr. Lang is ready with a bill to make large land holdings unprofitable. It is prognosticated that the great stockbreeding establishments will disappear, that the big stations with their improvements and provision for the best and most sheep will be sold or cut tup, that sheep especially will be held in small flocks on small holdings and will deteriorate in quality of wool and numbers, and in short, "Ichabod" is to be written upon the greatest natural industry of Australia. Burdens on the Pastoral Industry. It may bo so, but there is not ranch sign of a failure of confidence in sheep and wool. It is the cornerstone of the base course of Australian financial stability, and the great source of employment in town and country. In Melbourne the other day Mr, J. W. Allen, representing the pastoral class throughout Australia, gave evidence in the Arbitration Court on tho claim of tho engineers for a 44-bours week. Mr. Alien said that the loss of sheep from drought in 1902 totalled 13,000,000. In 1911 it reached 6,200,000, and in 1919 7,900,000. In 1926 the loss in Queensland alo.no has amounted to 6,000,000. "Tables which 1 produce show that since the year 1906, there has been an increase in the number of flocks below 10,000 sheep, and a decrease in the number of flocks above 10,000 sheep. This w duo to the progress of closer settlement. Although the number of sheep in the Commonwealth reached almost record numbers in .1924, and wool values were for a time abnormally high, the estimated value of pastoral. production of the Commonwealth, as shown in the Australian Production Bulletin, indicates the value of pastoral production for the year 1924-25, based on 1911 prices, was £49,150,000, as against £53,468,000 in 1911. Tho value per head of population of pastoral production based on 1911 prices in 1924-25 was £9 7s 4d, as against £ll 13s 10a in 1911. In 1924-25 the number of male persons employed principally in pastoral pursuits, including Queensland, was 80,563, being a alight increase on tho immediately preceding year, bttt considerably less than the figures for >1919-20, which were 91,471. Beef prices are approximately the same as they were, and the purchasing powor of money has decreased by 60 per ciwt. The shearing rate has advanced by 70 per cent. Interest charges have gone up by 33 per cent. The cost of materials and stores has increased by approximately 50 per cent., and the taxation of State and Commonwealth has increased on pre-war rates. A Thorough Investigation, While workmen in "the Southern States of Australia are beat on showing that ths pastoral industry is so prosperous that it can stand anv conditions of walk, the Labour Government of Queensland, which in its 11 years of office has never been noted for" any special concern for the squatters except to tax and legislate them out of existence, has taken a new and remarkable departure. Mr. McCormack, the Premier, has set up a committee of scientists and experts thoroughly to investigate matters connected with tho sheep' industry, particularly in its relation to wool, with a view to the improvement of the quality of wool, and to increasing its production, " The production of wool is one of tho main industries," said the Premier on November 8 after the formation of the committee. " The commodity haa an assured market, and ■ Queensland can produce a first-class article. We, as a Government, realise that everything possible should be done to help the wool industry. It is this industry which is practically carrying the bulk of our activities at the present time. Of the income tax paid last year, 34 per ceni was derived from the wool industry." Graziers' Calamitous Losses. In Queensland, besides the sometimes • very stringent and 'fiostite policy of the Government toward past.oralists, the in--1 dustry, both on the beef and the wool ■ sides, has suffered much from the adverse ■ reasons of late years and a falling market. The losses this year from drought in the West, especially the Middle West, of * Queensland, are calamitous, both in nam* ■ hers of sheep lost and consequent clip > of wool. This situation has many prompt » repercussions upon employment and business, and probably we shall be fairly cor* , rect in attributing the _ concern of the, Government to the position of all .classes ' of country labour, such as drovers, sta--3 (ion hands, teamsters, railway men whose ' vork is reduced by the losses of stock, 5 rather than to the financial and personal struggle of pastoralists. Still, it is a ' marked difference, and if it signifies a 1 change of heart, a disposition to take ' into account the many risks and deprtva,r (ions of the far-out sauatter and his - family, and to help rather than to impede . Mm in his task of turning the remote s hack country, waterless, unfenced, un- - inhabited, and tenanted only by she wild e creatures of the earlv days, to profit, tiuu e of itself will be in the North a most wei--5 come and valuable change.

The Meaning of Drought. When the. Empire Press Conference -net a little more than a year ago in Melbourne, much stress was laid «> Australian sMakers on the exaggeration <> i our droughts and other misfortunes in ; the London press, and the minimising or exclusion of the things tending to our recess. But a drought anywhere in Nustralia on the large scale is such a misfortune, it involves such vast and cruel suffering to animals, and such changes of fortune to individual pastoraiists and their families, and often leads to old pioneers coming into the cities ruined and new men taking their place on their runs, that it is impossible for „•« to be silent about suen an, event. There is always in this big country a dry irea, but it "is only when the dry conditions have lasted a ve.ir or more that people begin to complain A man m drought time will often hand-feed lis sheep tiil the cost of fodder and freight exceeds the value of the sheep, and .even then may have to let them die. It «• i.on too late to do much, either by handfeeding or moving stock, except, stud sheep, or in special localities, ajici loss begins. Up to then the stoicism, and sell interest of the bush incline men to silence, but when, as now in the West of Queensland, the misfortune is almost a bkny at the State, there is nothing, to be JH gained by concealment* wE