CATTLE INDUSTRY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16186, 24 July 1923, Page 3

CATTLE INDUSTRY.

STARTLING DISCLOSURES IN QUEENSLAND. NO' BUYER? AT 5 S A HEAD. . BRISBANE, July 12.—Mr Syd. Peacock, writing from Newcastle Waters, Northern Territory, throws a vivid searchlight on the position of the cattle industry in the far west of Queensland. “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 tho position of affairs in the cattie country,” lie, writes: “Bluntly, as a bushnrun, I give a few actual facta 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 per head. It is well known that you could buy anywhere in the' nowth cows with calves at foot for 10s per' head, calves given in. At tho present timo there are 20a) mixed cattlo offering for sale at 5s per , head, with no buyers. "1 know a man with a family' who lias been struggling for years, owning over 2000 cattle, and lie has riot had an income of £SO a year for three years past. Bankers have stopped his credit, and storekeepers have followed suit. His life is as hard as anybody could picture. ' V ; dciquorfiup Hi, tandcgr ; ootlii ru?h “A much similar case is that of a mother whoso husband owned ."a selection and' a few hundred cattle, and who abandoned the selection, letting ’ the cattlo take their chance. The police took caro of the children, and tho mother wont on a station as ‘cook, while tho husband was looking for a job us boundary rider. HORSES GIVEN AWAY. “In another caso 200, the pick of 1000 horses, including good chain horses, wero sent away for sale, and tho owner had -to send a cheque to pay lor some of his expenses after giving his horses away. _ ‘‘lt is known that even among tho largest stations not sufficient cattle have been sold for three years past to pay for Hour consumed on the'.property, and 1 have been on stations where the flour supply for 12 months past has been constantly short. I have been on another' place Where a widow sold her selection on which they used to km 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 tho 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 £6OO as soon as • tho cheque arrives from the moat works. “Mr. Theodore may bo in real' sympathy with, the proposal for the cooperation of the Cattle Growers’ Association, and _ with the difficulties we - have in this district, but how. can you cooperate -with others when you have 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 but one of economics. “To study it deeply,” continues the letter, “one has to remember that it costs three limes as much from the Kaleyards 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, and it is a cruel turn in the tide which ‘causes instances of facts to occur similar to those mentioned.”