IDLE WEALTH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17016, 14 April 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

IDLE WEALTH.

FAR NORTH OF AUSTRALIA. Beyond the sugar-growing area of North Queensland, and farther north, the land is undeveloped and unproductive, owing to lack of capital and labour, declares Nancy Francis in the Sydney “Daily Telegraph.” The. scant population, composed of a few stationholders, farmers, and miners, instead of increasing, is steadily going down. This, in the case of the'miners, is due to tlie slump in the metal market, and the facts that existing mines have become! poor after years of working, and very few new ones are discovered or opened. Indeed, through the low price of ore and the inflated cost of living, the genuine working prospector has almost ceased to exist. There can be no doubt, however, that in these vast, untrodden wilds there is precious metal in abundance. In many places lodes of tin and wolfram are known to exist, but men can* 41 ot afford to spend r time on a search which may last for months or years. One of the best-known prospectors of the north, John Dickie, the discoverer of some of the most famous goldfields of North Queensland, told me once that he knew oi gold in several localities. but- the country would not keep horses, was waterless, and so difficult to negotiate that with the means at his disposal it was taboo. Gold and Lin have been found--and lost again. Ac man found gold on f-h Daintree, and on his way into Cook-

town to report to the warden was killed and although many have searched. no one has found it again None but a bushman knows how easy it is to lose a ridge in a wilderness of ridges, a particular point in miles of similar c-ountvy, or any place in dense scrub. Experienced men. walking a track in tlie jungle scrub may, after stopping, or turning, become uncertain of their direction, and return on the path traversed. What wonder, then, that when a man—away from all roads, tracks and landmarks -where the very mountains take unfamiliar forms, finds a splendid prospect of metal, too often ii is impossible to again locate bis discovery. The North is full of these lost finds. Along the coastal district there are great deposits of iron oxides of varying shades of red and brown, yielding such valuable pigments as Indian red, Venetian red. red oxide, and purple, brown, yellow and red ochres. These are tlie colours the blacks have used from time immemorial to adorn their bodies, and as barter with inland tribes; and they exist >o conveniently and in such bulk that the cost of mining would be very small. Australia, imports about £500,000 worth of these pigments annually. Some effort has been made to commercialise the vast deposits at Cape Flattery. but lack of capital in the district, and interest further field, has so far discouraged the attempt. The wonderful timbers of tlie far north should provide an industry to keep hundreds of men in employment, but the law must be altered and intelligently applied before men can. with profit, engage in it. In the meantime the. cedars. maples, silky oaks, the hard woods, and all the beautiful timber which grows so luxuriantly here, falls and rots. There is the lawyer vine, with its millions of yards of cane, which could bo used in the manufacture of furniture and baskets, and the grass-tree, from whose resinous root many important chemicals can be procured. These things, and many more, are ready to he used are waiting for someone with imagination and capital to turn them to account. . 1 have written before of the fertuitv of the soil, the delightful climate the perfect health conditions of this neglected treasure-land, lying open and undefended, against the enemy who will one day come, unless the policy - the selfish and suicidal policy —which has kept it empty and undeveloped, is drastically changed.