Queensland

Parliamentary Debates [Hansard]

Legislative Assembly

MONDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 1913

Electronic reproduction of original hardcopy

Closer Settlement, etc., Bill. [3 NOVEMBER.] Questions. 2387

MONDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 1913.

The SPEAKER (Hon. W. D. Armstrong, Lockyer) took the chair at half-past 3 o'clock.

QUESTIONS.

QUEENSLAND PINE COMPANY.

Mr. BAREER (Bundaberg) asked the Sec­retary for Public Lands-

" 1. \Vhat was tho area of land covered by the original agreement between the Government and the Queensland Pine Company in the Yarraman district?

" 2. What was the estimated quantity of pine over which the company were granted cutting rights by the agreement?

"3. vVhat wa' the amount agreed upon (a) per 100 feet of timber; (b) tops per 100 feet?

" 4. Has a further application been received from the company with the view of making n further surYBy, increasing the area mentio:oed in the orig;nal agree­ment; if so, what is the eclimated area of land and quantity of timber involved, and the price per 100 feet, and per 100 for tops respectively?

"5. ·what is the average price paid per 100 feet for cutting rights in that district during the past three years by timber-gett0rs generally?"

The SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC LANDS (Hon. J. Tolmie, Toowoomba) replied-

" 1. About 10,000 acres. " 2. Forty million superficial feet as

notified in the advertisement of the in­tention to offer the timher for sale by public auction.

"3. (a) ls. 6d.; (b) 3d., subject to biennial revision; revisron due 1st Janu­ary, 1914.

"4. No. "5. 2s. 6d."

CHARTERS TOWERS LANDS.

Mr. WILLIAMS (Charters TouHrs) asked the Secretary for Public Lands-

" When does the Lands Department in­tend to open for selection th0 country recently excised from the fJharters Towers Goldfield?"

The SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC LANDS replied-

" The necessnry survey work is being pushed on, and the land will be opened early m the ll8W year."

SALE OF SPIRITL'OUS LIQUORS IN TOWNSVILU.

Mr. MAY (Flinders) asked the Home Sec­retary-

" 1. Is it a fact that a special liquor license has been granted to a certain per­son to sell spirituous liquors in the public stre8ts of Townsville m the vicinity of some of the princ;pal hotels or: the occa­sion of Hospital Friday?

" 2. If such is the case, is be in favour of such actions?"

2388 Supply. [ASSEJYIBL Y.] Supply

The HOME SECRETARY (Bon. J. G. Appel, Albert) replied-

:'~- No. No liquor was sold or per­mJsswn granted to sell in public streets . but a ,boot!I ~uthority wt.s grnnted fa~ thc; ~me of liquor m the fire brigade bm!dJ_ng'.. The police objected to the gran~mg of such authority on the ground that 1t was not fair to licensed victuallers.

"2. No."

McKEEN MoTOR-CARS.

Mr. FIHELLY (Paddington) asked the Secretary for Railwajs-

" In the event of any of the McKeen moto~:-cars being refused, what are the present measures the department would ta~e to recoup themselves for the duty pa1d ?"

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS (Bon. W. T. Paget, Mackay) replied-

" Seeing that four cars have now been acc~p.ted by the department, and the re­mammg one is running its trial the department is not taking <WV p~esent measur< 3 to recoup itself for duty paid."

BRISBANE TRAMWAYS BILL.

_Mr. RY~N (Barcoo) asked the Premier Without not1ce- >

" "Whether the local authorities con­cer_ned. h~ve assented to the agreement whwh IS m the s,.hedule to the Brisbane Tramways Bill?"

The PREMIER (Han. D- F. Denham, Oxley) replied-

" They have."

Mr. RYAN: Which local authorities have assented thereto?

The PRE)JIER : All concerned. Mr. RYAN: Nam" them. The PREmER : Wind~or1 Stephens, Coor­

paroo-to name the prmCJpal ones. J¥Ir. FIHELLY: Have Brisbane and South

Bnsbane con, en ted? The PRE1IIER : No, no ! Only the parties

concerned.

SUPPLY.

RESUMPTION OF CO)C\1ITTEE-THIRTEENTH .\.LI.OTTED DAY.

(Jir. J. Stodart, Logan, in the chair.) DEPART:I~ENT OF AGRICULTURE AND STOCK.

CHIEF OFFICE.

Question-Th:ct £18 322 be granted for " Chief Office "-aG·ain' stated.

Mr. SyVA YKE (Hirani) said fir,t of all h<:> would like to C0.1gratulate the departme:nl; upo!l the appointment of the Han. John. Wh1te to that portfolio. Tho,,e who had come in co_ntact w_ith_ the han. gentleman and knew_ his capab1htws, would realise that the app~n:'tment of the hon. gentleman to. that position was an acquisition to the de­partment. He (Mr. Swayne) was pleased to. see that the _Under Secretary to the Depart­ment of Agnculture and Stock WLts to receive as much as most of the other Under Secre­taries. He never could see why the Undet• Secretary of that department should receive

[.ill r. &vayne.

lea", as it was quite as important a post as the Under Secretaryship to any of the· other cfepartmcnts. Considering the number of Ach the "Cndcr Secretary had .to admin­ister and tl1e enwrgencics that constantly arose in connection with them, it went with­out f·aying that the work in connection with the d8partm<mt was not on!:; as irnportant but was just as arduous as that of any other department. Regarding the present occupant of the position, he (Mr. Swa,ne) had been in constant contact with him from the early nineties. ..U that time he (Mr. Swayne) was. secretary to what was then the largest organi­sation of farmers in Queensland. Since then he had had ample opportunity of scrutinising the various officers of the department, and he had always believed-and nothing could. chang<" that opinion-that in the Under Sec­retary they had a careful and painstaking officer-(hear, hear !)-and one possessed of" a considerable amount of tact. Seeing that the Under Secretary had to administer the­differc•nt Quarantine Acts in connection with: stock, if there had not been a certain amount of ti1ct and abilitv shown in the administra­tion of those Acts, the department would have been in hot water over and over again­In comparison with other States, he thought our Agricultural Department was possibly more difficult to administer on account of the tick pest and other pests, and seeing the number of years the different Acts had been in operation, that in itself was a testimony to the ability of those administering the de­partment. It was quite conceivable that in the administration of the Act the officiale came up against certain interests, and possibly made enemies; but anyone who· looked at the administration of the depart­ment with an unbia.sed mind would recognise that the administration had been praise­worth:;-. Before he finished with this subject, he would like to say a word about one who· was not now with them-that was the late principal of Gatton College. He would like to point ont that the judgment of that officer in conn;,ction with live stock was amply vindicated at the last Exhibition held here in Brisbane. (Hear, hear !) He was sent home some time ago to purchase pure-bred stock, and anyone who had a knowledge of the price paid for pure-bred stock in the old country, and knew of the competition from the Argentine and other countries, must realise that the amount of money that he had at his disposal was very small for the purpose; and yet, in spite of that, he had brought out stock which had made their mark here. There was a mare shown at the recent Exhibition in Bri' bane, which could hold her own in any show in Australia. (Hear, hear!) Southern judges had admitted that -but when one looked at the price paid for her, and the price paid by some of the fcreign buyers for high-class stock in Eng­land and Ireland, he would recognise the v~bility, of the late principal as a judge and a bu; er. 1and it was the same in connection with the pony stallion and some of the cattle. It was only fair and just th ~.t someone should r:oint these things out. He did not wish to get on to the college vote: he might have something to say about that later on. Regarding the general condition of the agricultural industry, he noticed that it was the common practice­of some han. members in criticising the de­partm~nt, to refer to the disparity in acreage m Queensland as compared with other S{ates. For insbncc, they \vcre told that New South Wales had o\·er 3.600 000 odd a;cre , Victoria 3,640,241 acres-he n;ight say

Supply. [3 NovEMBER.] Supply. 2389

.th11t in Victoria there was a decrease. In South .Australia the figure was bound to be a large one, and \Vest.ern AustJCa!ia with 1,072,653 acres also. In Queensland there were 526,388 acres, which at the first sight seemed to be small in comparison, but it would be noticed in reading the. report that there were 100,000 acres lying fallow, which should be added to the total. But what he should like to point out was, that the most important agricultural industry in Queensland was sugar. Taking it ·On the basis of capital invested, and amount .cf work put into it, it would be found that <;very acre cf sugar-cane would equal 10 .acres of wheat. On that basis, multiplying the 141,000 acres under cane in Queensland by

. ten, it would be found that the acreage amounted to 1,800,000 acres, or nearly 2,000,000 acres. That was nothing to be ashamed of, .and exceeded the >tcreage of \V estern Australia. At the same time he was free .to admit that agriculture wng not progressing .as rapidly as cur natural facilities warranted. He noticed that some of their Southern friends who had come here were not going in for c:griculture in the same ratio as in the ,place where they came from. He thought thut was partly owing to the richness of the Queens] and pastures. There were far greater pos~ibilities in the wa.'· of grazing than they had been used to, and therefore they devoted their energies to that. Another factor which was bearing on our general producing in­dustries, both secondary and primary, was the high cost of production. It was all very well to sas that an industry wa, not worth fostering unkgs it paid a certain wage. In regard to many of our primary induEtries we had to compete in the markets or the world, and it was no use telling purchasers cversea that ''e had to pay higher wages than other countries or work shorter hours, bo­·cause they would only pay the market price. Having to compete with the low rateo paid elsewhere, we did not get the price that was necescary to meet the high cost of production that prevailed in Australia. He might point out, as showing how this ques­tion bore upon indu·,tries generally in Australia, that in 1912 our imports were over .£78,000,000, and our exports only .£79,000,000. \V e really sold cnly a little over a million more than we bought. When they took into consideration the amount of monev required tc pa> interest upon the money 'borrowed, both by Austr,lian Governments and pri­vately, it wo:>ld be realised that a very large sum-e~tiJ.,~ted at £14,000,000-had to go out of Austr,]ia to make good the difference. He might say that, under the head of population, compared ,.·ith previous years, we were gEt­ting wor ,e and wone eYer:c· yem:. The value of cur impc~rts per head had increased by £1 18s. 4d., ,,-hile expork only increased by 13s. 6d., showing that the condition of affairs as reg-arc~d tho employer was aJ -o prejudicially affecting the whole community. Last year, llpe.aking on this a··pect of the question, he pointed out that, if the ruP.l vmrkers' demands were a ;;E:ded to, it would ab··orb the earnings 'Of the dairy c:tttle ; ~nd all through the ~ame thing ""'·" bearing hard unon the producer. They also re'lli: "Jd how indirectly the cost of tran~port bore upon the direct cost of pro-. uuctwn. He h"d here an extract from the report of the last meeting of the Adelaide Bte:>mship nompany-one of the companies that did a groat deal of the carrying of pro­uuce on our coast. The chairman was re­ported to have said-

" That the volume cf traffic had in­creased. but, ewing to the enormouslv increased cost cf running 13teamers and

working cargo, thev had reaped no mat<>rial benefit. They might natu~ally ask, 'Why do you not adJust fre1g~ts correspondingly?' There. were man"': dis­turbing factors to be cons1dered be~cre an alteration could be made, and It to?k some time to bring them into force, while it must be remembered that a great d~al of work done by the ship wa.s earned out under contract. They m!ght rest assured, however, ~hat th~se ad]u~tments ·were being made 1rom t1me to tune, ~s quickly as circumstances would P.Crm1t and the present contracts e.xpned­although no sooner did .they thmk they knew exactlY what then fixed charges were going tc be ~han thP;Y were faced with ten other cla1ms, wh1~h had. to be contested, so that it was 1mposs1ble to know when finality was reached. .They were advised that they ''.'ere again to be cited by the mas~c:rs for !ncreases. -qn­fortunately, nctw1thstandmg the Ink­creased rate of p1.y, the amount of wor actuallv done was ]eFs. Some t~·a?es unions 'appE';ued to aim cnly at obtammg a laro-er share for labour at the expense of all other considerations, and if th!'t policy continued it could only end m ti·ade lo:.ses." ll th

Those neople were not going to a O'Y e losses to remain there : they wem h 81iPY going to l)lcoS thP'll on to the man on t .e an , who waul::! not onl:. hav? to face h1s own increased co.ct of product JOn ?ut. to faoe an indi1 •. ot increase of ccst of th1s lund. Many of tlY c, 8 dem<mds were um:eas'?nahle. F<;>r iLstm1ce, there was that stnke m Sydney d S0ptembe>·, where amonw·t ether deman f was one th:>t not more than three bags ~k chaff or anything else, ··hould go to a

1 tru d

load.' That" sort of thing was. absu.ru, an it must lead to 11n unnecessarrh- h1gh cost of handlin"' the produce of the farmer, who had no rec~urse on the pu~chasers. If hd whs selling butter cr wheat m London an e asked th~ buy-er to pay him an extra. penny a pound, or 6d. per bushel, b~c~use m .Au.s­tralia he had to submit to condJtwns that did not exist Elsewhere, he ,.;?ul~ be toldb that that had nothing to do w1th 1.t. '!'he uyer could buy Siberian ,,nd Scandmavmn butter cheaper and he would buy 1t. And ~J:en they he~rd that the increased cost of hvmhg 1vas a reasnn for increased demand~, e thought tha' that was a .wron!'. basis en which to work. Really, thmr ab1l!ty jo ~~y depended on what tho·_·c cup~ed m t 1e, 1g primary indc1strie' could earn m the markets of the world. And if ·b~v ran up the cost of working those ind11 ·Lrles to. a mark be­' ond tr.at \vhioh thc.se engr.r,ed !ll the~Cl ?oulf ~dford it r1•Tnt Jon h "ll, m fact mso­~~~ncy' ju'.t. a<. in the c~,~:- of a ~arm or ,tatio~ not E''3lling enough to 1;ro.y 1ts '-Va~. On p~ gc 9 of the department s report e read a'' follows:- b h f 1

" The Queensland farmer, e e . o -lowing tropical or subtropiCal a!\'rwul­"ne. seems to lnve . n great com>empt for t"'-e va,ried and mmor products, that in t'w"·' .. sdv<s are 'ulnable, and go far to swell the rev.:nue of the year. Th.e eorpabili' ics of Q"' ensland for the cu~tl­va!ion commer< ;,.]]y of the pla~ts. with the prodnu s of which the CommiSJ!Oners wer- c~n<'··rned, are undnubtod, and the den~ rtru~nt has for 1nan;- years. bE::>~n endeavouring· t'> induce growers 1n the tropics and subtropics to emba:k upon subsidiary products as an ad.Junct to their main business, but a cu)tJvato'? c£ sugar-cane seems to have h1s honzon

Mr. Swayne.]

2390 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

bounded by sugar-c.tne, and by that only, for there h"< been no marked cleg1 eo of cuccess folluwing the instruc­tion gi-, on. An AX ample might be given in the ca;e of coffee."

He had touched on this m"tter three year<. in succe3sion, and pointed out that there were very big po,ibilities in Qu~ensland regard­ing the. extension of their tropical product industnes. H _, pointed out that eYery year the Common wee lth import~d something like £3,000,000 worth of trovical products.

The bL·ll indicated that portion of the hon. 1110111l'~r' ~ time t~d exp1rcd.

1\Ir. SY'\- '>. Y:'\'2:: .He \Yould take anoth-,r five n,inu1,::s. L,-~r,ving out t~a, \<hi,_.h he quito rnali·.j,d it V\ould 1j_ot be fair to ask tho con··Un1er J pa:;- ,n incrE:·~_rr~d Lde upon, ther<' '' ore m.··.ny of the> things that y, ere im­port-.d from tropicc~l rountri .·: th tt could be prod-lcPd !cere. He h -,d urp-vl the Govern­me~t to start -a sort c_c C•Jfle.:e of tropical agnculture in the. ::\ >rth, wh-r0 they could train young people in th0ir produc-tion. HE •.· as glac' to ·•ee som del' en< c, to it in the rcpDrt, and h • hqpc ": that some­thing \\'Ould como of it. Th .: \V:F onlv 0n 'C>

other malin tJ which he wished to refe;-th,_,' sugar industry. ."cs a c1.ncgrower, he felt that it was a matter for congratulation that the' industry was fr0ed from Commonwealth control, and also that the State Government was going to build more mills in thB North. He noticed that tho hon. membBr for Keppel the other night took eome um.Lion to his soul on the score of the increa ,ed acreage of ~'P-gur-c'tne recr-'ntly, and quoted it as an 111\tanc,3 of the bencfito of Federal control. Unfortunately fQr the hon. mAmber he thought that if he went back a few year,,: the trw: figures "<mld proY0 very much other­wist:.

Mr. LARCOMBE: Nothing of the kind.

Mr. SWAYNE: He would ha.-B found that although thev had increased during the last year, they still were not up to tho acreage of the yea.r before last. That was an c;bsolute fact. As he already said, he di,] not think that they could get a better in­stance of the withering influence of the Federal control than that furnisHed by the sugar industry. He would also like to refer to somf' utterances in another place in regard to the protection of the sugar industry in the North when they might have other industries there. It was needless for him to say that there "as room for sugar and dairying and other industries in the North. He thought it was said that the protection of the sugar industry was co,ting Australia 6s. per head_ 'l'hat, he thought, was a wrong way of looking at it. Why not say tnat the general protec­tive policy of .'l.ustralia meant somethinll; like­£4 per head of Austmlia's population,- and arQ'ne because of that that the whole protective policy of Australia should go by the board ? He did not think thd anyone was game to do that. And, if so, why pick out one big prim2ry industry that received protection and hold it up as a shocking example? If a. white Australia was required, there were; many other induP~ries that would require to be protected, and it was infinitelv cheaper to pay a few shilling" a head fm; sugar or coffee than to have to guard a land frontier inst0ad of at present having the se~ between tlwm a:od any possible enemy-_ And unless the;,. were prepared to afford tha-t; protection to those industries, that was what

[Mr. Swayne.

was goinr,- to come. They could not occupy the 1'\ orth unless they protected these ;n, duet1:ies, which they knew Nature had m­tended "hould be carried on there, but for \7hich they knew a certain amount of protec­tion was necessary if a white Australia was to be po,, .ible. · '

Mr. LENNON (Herbert) thought that the hon. member ''ho had ju•t sat down was· rather confuced. He wanted to know why so much c1mnlaint v:as made about the protective duts' on Fugar when ot~er articles wore more highly pro·cedFd. He was en­tirch agair· .•t the bon. member when he sard that' Lu w "' ,dad that the sugar industry wccs takon away :'rom Federal control. He· thought that thP hon. member would not be many vears older before he regretted that it had b,',m taken out of tlw control of the Fed ·ral Government.

;'vlr. SWAYNE: I will chance it.

II:Ir. LENKON: They knew very well that F.nme member·' oi the party at present in. offir~-:,;wh as J\Ir. Cook, JYlr. Johnson, 1\Ir. Conroy, j\[r. P<>rry, and many others-:-were· in favour of wipi1.g out the protectwn so f::~r as sv::;ar wa.s c.r;neerned. He ventured, to c.:1v that Mr. Conroy had gone farther than ~11" other man in th:ct House in his con­dcmna~ion of what ho c;>Jlcd th · bolstering up of tho su;;ar indu<,ti-y.

::',lr. MORGAN: J.lr. Mahon. OPPOSITION ::\1LMBERS : Mr. Conroy.

Mr. LENNON : They lm"lw very well that the majority of th< party in power wero free-traders. But it was not only the party in power that they had to consider. They had to consider the general taxpc,yers in all the other States and how they regarded the sugar industry, and he thought that they were simply inviting opposition _in con~inu­ally twitting these people for saymg .a smglo word about their sugar industry. Certain arr.on&;<cments were made between the State Government and the Federal Government, but the contract made had not been carried out. The Minister for Agriculture, who­had been promoted to his present position from that of ch-airman of the farmers' party, which he assisted in forming and which he (Mr. Lennon) thought will prove a Franken­stein to him, assisted to pass the Sugar \Yorkers Act. That Act was passed to pre-

serve the sugar industry as a [4 p.m.] white industry. Three months

were allowed to lapse before the regulations under the Act were issued. Fre­quent inquiries were made by himself and other members to find out why the regula­tions were not issued, and inquiries came from people in the North who wished to ascertain on what basis the Act was being· administered; but they followed the "keep­it-dark" nolicv. After all that long d£lay, reg-ulations were issued. When the Bill was, before the Assembiy an amendment was made in it that might have made the mrasure effective, but that amendment was knocked out in another place, .,nd now nothing would be done unleo~ a concreto charg-e was made bv some individual directed to the Attorney­General. The Minister for Agriculture seemed to be ir,-nonmt of what was going on in tho North, so he would quote from a letter which he had received, a,,Jrin:; him to in­form the Ministt•r tho,t-

" At Macknade there ,ere working twenty-six Japanese and forty-seven·

Supply; [3 NovEMBER.] Supply. 2391

Javanese, kanakas, etc. Some of these latter are employed shifting port<tble tramlines, loading firewood in the wood­yard, and unloading it at the furnaces clearing the. ashes from the fires and other o<id jobs about the yard and tra'll­lines.''

There were a total of seventy-three coloured men working at one mill. \Vas that in keep­ing with the promise of the Government ? It was specifically ,,tatcd that the industry would Le :rf:taintaincd as a white industry.

The PREMIER: Toll the whole truth. You forget to mention that they arc all getting the regulation wage. It would be as well to tell the whole truth.

Mr. LENNON: He was telling the whole truth.

The PREMIER : Part of it.

Mr. LENNON: The whole of it. The PREMIER: Now I have dn.wn it from

you. Mr. LENNOK: He needed no drawing.

His correspondent went on to bay that col­oured labour was also employed at the Yic­toria Mill, but not to the same extent ; and he understood that coloured labour was also employed at Goondi and Mourilyan, and th<tt the same kind of thing obtained in the Cairns district. And this was the Govern­ment who promioed that coloured labour should be kept out of the sugar industry, and that it should be kept a white man's in­dustry ! They could not get a single word from the Minister as to when the regulations would be issued, or what they contained.

The bell indicated that portion of the han. member's time had expired.

Mr. LENNON : The Minister had been complimented very. highly b,v the han. mem­ber who had just sat down, and "his blush­ing honours were thick upon him," but the han. gentleman had really to justify his appointment if he was to give satisfaction to the country. The Agricultural Depart­ment was not giving satisfaction at the present time, though he believed the hon. gentleman had infused more life into it than it had exhibited hitherto. He hoped the han. gentleman would make it more popular than it was at present. In common decency Queensland should justify her position in ,-egard to thP sugar industry, and see that coloured labour was cleared out from it. The sugar industry was controlled by a large monopoly. If it was not, why di,d the Go­vernment alwaYs knuckle down to it? That monopoly snap-ped their fingers at delegates who were sent down to arrange with them wh<tt should be the price of sugar-cane. If the Government were to deserve the respect of the people, they must carry out their promises in "' more honourable way than they had done in the past. The Premier tried to make out that he (Mr. Lennon) had not told the truth. If he had left any truth untold, he should be glad if the hon. gentle­man would supply the deficiency. But he said that, .as far as he was ·at present ad­vised and as far as his information went, the Gowrnment were acting in a discredit­able manner. (Hear, hear !) They deliber­•ately pa•.·,ed an Act which was to be .a guarantee that the sugar industry would be kept white, there was an honourable under­standing "' ith the Federal Government in the matter, and yet this Government did

nothino- to fulfil their promise. They allowed the C~lonial Sugar Refining Compa_ny, or any other power:ul company, to do JUSt as they pkao-3d with regard to th<' labour they employed. V,'hat did the peo1Jle of Queen street care whether there were Japan0'e or other ~qloured aliens employed at the Macl~­nade :Mill, the Victoria :Mill, at Goondi, Mourilyan, or Mu]g,·ave? The people of the North w re very much oncerned about the matter, and, ins+ead of those . coloured persons being employed at the mills, they would li:,e to sec married men worki;-rg <1t them, and takin>, part in the social life of the place, and rende,·ing it l<Wre happy and more ~ongeLia.l. That was one of the reaso~s ,,-,hv n1·mnb: ts on that "'tde '\ere strong In thir advocac of the Whit0 Australia ideal.

The SECREL\RY FOR ~\.GciCl:LT1JRE: That will carne.

Mr. LENKON : Of course, it would come; but thev want. d it to cor.,e ten \•Joars ~ooner th~n tl;o hon. gentlema.h ,, mki like it to come. It should be here now. When they passed the Act to which he had r_eferred thcv gave an intiuation to Australia .that coloure:l labour was at ,an end as far as the sugar industry was conccl'ned. Yet the;·e were just as manv coloured men empl~yed m the industry now as there were previous to the passing of the Ad. If the SBcreta~·y_ for Agriculture was r:ot prepared to admimster the Act in the spirit in which the House intended it should be administered, he shoul_d resign and let some other per,on take his pl4Cco who y·nuld be prepared to work hand in hand with tho people of the othe': States, and make Australia, a white Australia. But han. members opposite did not want to do that; they preferred coloured labour. .

The PREMIER : You know you are speakmg untruthfully ther<: ; you know they cannot have cheap labour.

Mr. LEN~0::'\1: He had quoted from an authentic source--

The PREMIER : Well, it is untrue, because we have to pay the specified rate of wages.

Mr. LENNON : Did the han. gentleman v, ant to insinuate that his correspondent had deliberately misled him?

The PREMIER : I think so. Mr. LENNON : He did not agree w;ith the

hon. gentleman. Of course, the hon. _gentle­man could not sav that he was tellmg an untruth. ,

The PREMIER : I clid not say that. Mr. RYAN: He did say it. Mr. LENNON: He did not mean it. The bell indicated that the han. member's

time had expired.

Mr. WILLIAMS (Charters Towers) was glad that the 'Under Secretary's salary had be•m raised to the same amount as other 'G nder Secretarif' were recoiving; but, as the matter had been fully debated, he would say no more about it, The department deserved credit for its exc,,]l<Cnt report,. and he honed that the renort would be Circu­lated 'llot onlv in QucBnsland but abroad. The han. mm11ber f;r Ithaca and th~ han. member for Enr!;l"gera had spoken Wit~ re­spect to the butchero,' chops, and he pomted out that in Southern Queenslo,nd the regu­lations were not wmking wp]]. In the J':'orth the same remark auplied, but perhal1S m an even greater degre-e, as it w ;tS hotter there than in Brisbane. It would be better, both

Mr. Williams.]

2392 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

for the sake of the meat and for the em­ploy.ees, if there was a great deal more fresh air m the shops, as they were altogether too much closed in. No doubt Parliament w,as partly responsible for the regulations but ·he trusted, now that a trial had been ~ade that the Minister would take notice of what experts like the han. members referred to had said. Something had been said with respect to the need for reorganisation in the department, and there was no doubt that there was a good deal of dissatisfaction ~mongst the public and in the department Itself, and he would suggest that the Minister should send someone South with a view to learning what was being done in other States and bringing the department up to date. One of the most important parts of the report, which had not been referred to during the debate was the report of Mr. Pound, the Government Bacteriologist. Mr. Pound was doing very good. work for the State at Yeerongpilly. In his report he said-

" NotwithEtanding the very useful pur­pose that protective inoculation has served, the time has arrived when some decisive action should be taken in com­mencing a crusade against the cattle t'ick wnh the ultimate object of com­pletely eradicating it from the State."

Mr. Pound had the honour of being selected by the Government of N<:w South \Vales as ':me o~ the Royal Commission appointed to mvestigate the whole question of the tick in America, and that commission made a very valuable report. Mr. Pound went on to sav in his report- "

"Considering the highly successful work that has been accomnlished durino· the past seven years in America, and fo~ a short neriod in South Africa I see no valid reason why Queensland ~hould not adopt the recommendations laid down in the Royal Commission's report.

" The eradication of the cattle tick is an easy problem within itself. The tick is so helples•• and so dependent upon cattle for its life and pronag,ation that all that is necessary is to lreep the ticks off cattle for a certain period (approxi­mately nine months) 'and all the ticks on tho ground will die of starvation.

." The problem is not with the tick but With the stockowner. In all the States of America where the work of tick @adi­cation is in progre&< the problem is with the people."

He then went on to show how the problem was grappled w~th in ~-imerica. Although there was a certam amount of dissatisfaction at first, eventually tJ::ey began to see the yalu.:; of what was bemg don,,, and worked m With the department, and now the tick was to a large extent a thing of the past there in districts where tLe matter had been taken up. Mr. Pound sug'(estcd that experi­ments should be made in Queensland in St. Helena and Goodna and other Govern­ment institutions where there were stock and it would be a very g-cod example t~ stocko.wners. The incursion of the tick had cost Queensland million_s of money, and ·enormous losses were gomg on every year. He trusted that befor<:> the debate ciosed they would have from the Minister an ex­pression of opinion on this imnortant sub­Ject. Referring to Mr. Pound nersonally he was an officer whose merits were not ge;.,er­ally known. The other day regret was e~presSBd at the State having lost the ser­VIces of Mr. Benson ; and he was afraid that they would also be losing the valuable

[Mr. William.~.

services of 1lr. Pound if they did not take care. His present salary was £500 per annum, and it was proposed to increaso it to £530; but a man like Mr Pound should be asked to fill a much hirrh~r Position. He believed that if he were given ·a commission to era~i­cate the tick in Queensland he was qmte capable of doing it. He trusted that the Government would consider the nosition, and not allow such a valuable officer to be lost to the State because they were not paying him properly.

Mr. FORSYTH (Murrwnba) found from the excellent report of the department that the agricultural industry was increasing in importance, but he would like to see it assuming very much larger dimensions. In the district which he had the honour to represent there was <1 very large export of banan<>s and pin~apples. Every time he had asked the department for assistance it had always clone 'o most readily. There were some stony ridges about Beerwah and Bur­peng<>ry where it might ~e thought that ·the land was not good, but It had ):>een proved to be first-class land for growmg bananas and pineapples. A short time ago he ·asked the Secretary for Ag:riculture to allow Mr. Ross to go up amongst the farmers in that part of hi, elector.:tte, because they were anxious to get all the information they could from him. The Minister at once agreed, and Mr. Ross went up within a few days, and he (Mr. Forsyth) was informed by his friends up there that Mr. Ross's visit wa" likely to do -an immense amount of good. They had any quantity of land, <>nd good land, too, between Nambour and \Voombye. They only wanted to get their lands properly known, and he was sure that people would settle on the land there. If they w<>nted to go in for fruitgrowing, they had only to apply to the Agricultural Dep<>rtment, and he was sure that the Minister would be only too delighted to send up one of his experts to give the fruitgrowers t!'e benefit of his experience and all the assiStance he could. There was some land in his district which was not wortli lOs. an acre, but there was richer land which was suiwhle for growing fruit. Even with the poorer land, if they fertilised it, th£T would be able to ma~e money out of it. \Vhat they wanted m Queensland was men who would go upon the land and grow crops, and when they did go on the land the department should let them know what sort of land they had. They should get analyses of the different •soils for the ben3fit of those on the lfind. If they gave those men on the land the ben<cfit of the knowledge of the experts, then they would get to know wh'lt sort of soil they ha-d and what it was good for. Great progress was beinrr m<>de in the banana trade in his district, ~ncl also in pineapple cultivation. In fact, the pineapple trade ·along the North Coast Railwav was the biggest in Queensland. Everyone wh; saw the disphH of pinc:t:oples at th0 Exhibition that came from the North Coast district must ha VP been plc as0d with it. It was indeNI a fine display. (Hear, hear!) It must have bPen an eye-opener to many people who had never been to that district .and did not know what it could pro­duce. Tlu:y h11d some exceptionally rich land in that district, particul<1rly on the Blackall Range and in the vicinitv of \Voombye, and it was all suitable for 'fruitgrowing. The Government established an experimental plot >at Buderim Mountain. which was also in his electorate. A great deal of the land there

Supply. [3 NOVEMBER.) 2393

·was considered to be practically exha.usted, because it had been under sugar for many ;years in the old days. However, the Go­-vernment started an experimental plot there, .and it was absolutely marvellous to sef' the <liffcrence the use of fertilisers made in the land. It cost a little more per acre to use fertiliser, but the increased return they <:>btained was well worth whatever money they spent in fertilising. They had a school­master there who was one of the finest school­masters in Queensland in th-at respect, be­~u,e he took a wonderful int-erest in getting the children to go in for agriculture. The school ground was one of the most miserable spots when he went there, but by the use of fertilisers he was a.ble to grow splendid -crops of pineapples, bananas, and other fruits. This showed what could be done in Queensland with inferior land if they treated it in the right way. He hoped the Govern­ment would give all the assistance possible to farmers, who wanted it in that direction, so that they would be able to utilise a lot

·<>f their land which was now idle. There was a huge demand for their pineapples down South, and for bananas, too, and the Queens­land < annerie' also took a great quantity of pines. This increased the value of that com­modity by thousands of pounds every year, "and he hoped that that trade would be ex­tended. A great deal had been said by hon. members about the whf'at crop of

'Queensland last year and the year before. ·They knew that the reason for the poor crop in 1911 was because they -did not get rain at the right time. In 1911 ·there were 42,000 acres of land under wheat cultiv,~tion, but from that crop they only got 285,000 bushels

-of whe,at. That looked a miserable return for the whole of Queemland, but it was caused by the fact that in the earlier part of the year there was no rain, and the wheat

-crop was practically lost altogr•ther. Inst~ad of having a good harvest, it meant that there were 250,000 acres of wheat land under 'fallow, and it had to be ust'd for other pur­poses. Later on, when rain came, they got a hte wheat crop, and that was .all that

·thev were able to get. HB consider-ed that if they had a regular rainfall, QueBnsland would he able to grow wheat as well .as any -other Shte, as the Queensland average pro­<luction was so good. On page 39 of the report, reference was made to the serious ravages caus•3d by the blowfly pest. He hoped the Minister would seriously considBr this que tion, ao it was going to be a menace to the people of Queen-land. A large num­ber of sheep had already died from the ~ffect of the pest. The report si -~ted that the great remedy wus to crutch the sh,ep and use a certain liquid matter for tho purpose

-of killing the blo"fly. He had heard of cases where the sheep wore crutched and then they were shorn, yet within ten days the blowflies were just as bad a¥- BVer. He hoped the Minister would make inquiries to devise sonce means of killing thB pest, else it would be a serious thing fm' Queensl·and. The pastoralists had two seriou5 pests to fight at the mes<>nt time-the blowfly and -the dingo. The Minister would require to give serious attention to both matters. To show how bad the dingop; were, the report stated that in one year in Queensland there were 23,743 dingoes killed in the Wrstorn

-<Jountry. Just imagine that huge number of dogs being killed in onB yBar, and it showed thB huge number of stock they must have

:killed before they were destroyed themselves.

ThBy knew that in places a ,:ngle dingo would kill as many as forty and fifty sheep in one night. HB knew all about th~m, as he had some BXperience of them hunself. The local bodies w,re paying 5s. per hBad for dingoes, but the grazing_ farme-r-~ _and pastoralists were also helping m the klllmg, and he knew that in some of the vyestern districts the pastoralists were paymg as much as £1 per head for dingoes. That showBd the seriousness of the pe_st, an<;l they were spending a lot of money m trpng to get rid of them. One way of keepmg <:ut the dingoes was to go in for marsup!al netting. Pastoralists had to have n:arsupial netting f<?r the dingoes and marsupials, and rabbit netting for the rabbits, and that came very expensive to the holdBr of the _land, so that they were not having the easy t.Ime that many people thought they w!"re havmg. He hope-d the Minister would g1ve them all the information he could on these matters_. ~e noticed that a. lot of farmers werr gomg m for dairying. Th0y said it paid better th~n agriculture, and if they p;eferred to go m for dairying instead of agriculture they had a perfect right to do so. There was a grea.t difference between the farmers who had o-ood milk and butter stock and those who kept miserable cows. They found that the difference between a low stand~rd and a. high standard of stock meant a drfference to Queensland of about £2~500,000 annually. The Government had appomted several herd testers, and he was not sure whether t!'ose men were fully occupied at the present time.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICC:LTURE: No.

::'11r. FORSYTH: He was very sorry if that was so. Out of rhe total numbe': of cows tested in Queensland, more. than one­half were in his own distnct, and rt was YHY important that the dairymen should only have the best cows. It took j n ,t as mnch to keep a miserable cow that gave scarcely any milk as it did to keep a good cow, and ~hat

should be instillBd in t~e mmds [4.30 p.m.] of the people all the ~n?'e. He

would advi'se the Mrm•ter ~o send out the herd tester, to give lectures m the various diFtricts that had not tal~en up the business. and imbue th<l f.,_rmers wrth the idea that the better the class of cows they keep thP better will be the re~ult«. It was pretty well understood that tne b, 't class of cows for Queensland was the IILcwarrn breed, and every fnrmcr should get ~he bPst class of caLtle po"'iblc·. Of conr'-e, the . far­mers could not changa their cattle all at once; Lut so long as tho Gov~ rnment co~ld in til in the minds of the far"wrs that che claos of cattle they wanted wac t11e best, 11s soon as the' were abl·· iu afford. to go lll for tho best. they would do so. Queenc_.,and, so far as dairying 'vas conc.oc .. ted, had t!w groatvt chanc1 of ~ny State m _Australia. Th''Y had any quantrty of land c1.ntablc for dairying. As a matter of fact, they were onlv on the fringe of d•cvelopment as far as tJ. e,t puticular industry Y'c ~ concerned, and the ti.n1e "\vas not very fa,· du,".:-a~t 'v ~en, instr ad of -exporting the small quantJ,y 'Ul<'Y did at pr<"i·rnt, Queensland would top evr:ry State in A11-:ralia as rog;,rdc: the productwn of buttf'''· The tor a! yaluo of tho butter pro­duced ''tst vcar was £1,6C~,CC'l, and he v ould like to sec it incn.1sed to £10,000,000, because the more wealth produced from t!;te soil tho bettor it would be for everybody m Queensland. (Hc·ar, hcu !) They h~d a great country, and could grow pr,10trc >_lly cYcrything, particuhrly in rc· .. ard to fruit,,

lrfr. Forsyth.]

2394 Supply, [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

and all th<, people v anted y, as assistance hom the Government in the ay of infor­mation ac to what particular crop they should grov on a p~rticular piece of land. T,,, · had heard a g'rcat dctl about dry fn·•.ring, and a breat deal ab,ut what had been don0 in Lhe South in connection with the dry belto, •. !1 he could was that if dn· f:crminT y,,.s mch a ·LllcL.o it should be triL·d in Qu---'ennsland.

Thn bell indic,:ted that portion of the han. mE:-rb:l's tinw had expired.

Jl,Ir. FORSYTH: He would t& k<l another ficce minutes. \There th·. rainfall ;cas not too ~ ood, ~hr Govmm ,.>nt Fhould show by du'::1o:1 ~i;rtu _on chat, b·,T so\ving a certain class of grain and \ orkin tile )il in •a {~( rtnin I\ .:ty, the farn~ers cr-u1d f:'L~ a crop. He 1:o;JOd tl1at before k:q·, inshad of having abou·" " n illion acres of land under cultiva­ticn in Queen -:land, the; would have con­side: ub!: E1ore, a,, to a great extent, Queens­land dr ponded on the a6riculturul and pas~ torz- 1 indn~:ri( ·~, and t.no~e indu', tries shnuld be t..:.OV( topLJ to tho fullBst extent.

Mr. CAI:c.JI~ (Bozcr .'l): Lik> other hon. members, h·, v·ould cert<tinlv like to "'e n.ore money spent in -~onnection with this iuportant department than w .ts provided on the Estimabc for tho preseTtt year, and he would like to see th~ denartment better organi.-;,d. One hon. membo·r remarked that he "·as sorry that :VIr. Benson and other ec:perts had been allowed to leave the State because they ;ver8 not paid sufficient, and he (::,Ir. Caine) rc;,crotted ve, mu.Jh that J\lr. Berv,on was lost to Queensland, h'causu in the Bowen district he nroved to be a very C'lpab!e man. He (Mr~ Caine) did not mean to say that the g.:mtlem 1n who no>v filled th:J,t position WitS not fit for the posi­tion, but ::\1r. Benson v. as particularly suited for the v Jrk. He also re<>:retted that there was no provision on tho Esti-na~,., this year for a tobacco oxnert. TheY had seen that in the Texas district tobacco· had b<>cm grown suc­cessfully, and with profit, and they had also seen that in the Bowen district a fine grade of cigar loaf could be grown with utisfac­tion to the buyers and profit to those en­gaged in the industry. The services of Mr. Nevill were of great value to the growers in thosA two districts in particular. It had been proved that tobacco-growing could be undertaken with success in Queensland, and assistance should be giyen to those growers in the form of teaching them the best methods to adopt in the cultivation of tobacco. If thev could establish an addi­tional industry for the primary producers in Queensland, 'and advertise the fact that the Government had an expert who would give instruction to those who had very little Ol.­no knowledge of the industry, it would serve as a further inducement to men to come to. Queensland and engage in agriculture, and that was what they wanted. It was probably­within the knowledge of han. members that for some years the Government subsidised the Adelaide Steamship Company in th~ matter of providing refrigerating chambers on their. boacc, callinf' at Bowcm, Cairns, and Townsnlle, so that tho farmers would have, an opportunity of g6tting their fruit ta. mark<t in as gc·od a condition as possible, pari icularl:· in the hot months of the year. That arran'?"ement was made in the past; m; in'l' to the fe. ct that the Adelaide Com­pany had four steamers running, and each of thosD boats was nrovided with a cool chau1bcr, end it l1l'ovod of great service.

[M1·. Forsyth

For some time, however, the Adelaid~ Com­pany had had only three boats fitted m that way, and so the G'?vernment were unable to enter into a defimte contract; but he was glari to .~ay tl:.at arrangements were made with the company that the;; would cool down tL"l boats, .. we! that they would call at Bowen on the way South, which gave th<; farme~& of Dowen an onportunity of gettrng then· produce to market in the middle of the wec:,-that was to say, they had a "ervrce twic~e a week. He might mention that, during rhe quarter ended 30th S<;Pt'?mber, no le •'CJ than 98,463 pack"ges of frmt and """""'~bles wero oxnorted from the port of Bowen, so that it ;vould lee seen that an;I?Ie use had bPen ma,ie of th,_ opportumtre~ aftord~d. Ile hoped, in view of the amount rn·oYiucd en the l~stin1ates, th~· ""· it v.;ould be ywcc;ble, befmu lo:<g, to enter into a defini~e comract w1th the Adelaide Company, Ill ·which it would be definitely provided that t.he compJny would ?ool down on each of their stc.>mers. The d1fferonce between carry­ing th0 prorluce in t~e _cool chan:bers com­pared with carrying It m tho ordinary wav was very apparent in the later months of the y0ar, when it "''s becoming hot. O':'ly recentlv the cucumbers and .tomatoes earned in the ~'I.. U.S.N. b.s. ·' Kanowna" were found t .> have become affected with the fruitf!y. The vm,fl, although e4uipped with cold­s'tvrage accommodation, had mch a large snace available that it was impossible for the growers to fill it, so thov v. ere unable to make use of it. Roughly speaking, ab?ut 5,CJO or 6,000 cas'Os were lost through bemg et.ffocted with the fruitfly. Had they been carried iTt the cool chm,Iber that loss would probabl;: not have occurred, or, at any rat~. it would have been n:r.; I.mch less.

Mr. KIRWAX: Why?

Mr. C_\IJ'\E: He took it that deterioratioll! would set in much more ranidly when carried on the deck, perhaps even in the· sun. He mentioned Bowen, but losses might have occurred to the growers at other portR. He thought they would J;>e able to enter into this contract m the near future, z,nd he was please? to ~e" the amount on the vote. In connection wrth the lossPS which had occurred to the farmers, he took the opportunity of thanking the Agricultural Department for their prompt efforts to assist the Bowen growers. When the matter was brought under the notice .of the Under Secretary recently by the AssoCia­tion and himself nrompt efforts were made to asqist them. An inspector was sent down on one of the boats which was carrying a. large consignment, and he was !'lble in Sydney-which was the port at which con­demnation had been taking place-to se& the state in which the produce arrived. The­authorities were condemning the shipment to· a certain extent, but he was able to induce· the authorities to allow the tomatoes to be repacked, and it resnlted in a considerable reduction of loss to thP grower. He could not thank tho dcrartmont too highly, and he kn<>w the farme.-~ a:d growers were particu­larlv thankful for the prompt action taken. He· would like to mention that the growers in Bowen. at ,a, meAting of tho. Queensl~nd Fruitgwwors' Industrial Tradmg Socrety (Bo'Ycn branch), on the 18th ultimo, had r as·-cd t 1l8 following resolution:-

" Thn.t tho :Mini•:ter for Agriculture be asked to amend the Diseases in Plants. Act givin;:-; power to and that it be an im truction to the fruit inspector to re­jed from shipment to interstate portSc

Supply. [3 NOVEMBER.] SUD/ J

all fruits and vegetables, partit•;.tl.arly tomatoes and cucumbers, which have been damag; d by grub9; also to give the in­spector po\\·er to reject fruit which has been dumped into cases."

He understood that under th<o· Diseas% in Plant" Act there was amplr po>:er to cope with ca.;cs of that sort, and he hoped that the matter would be c.1refdly looked int,J bv the a•cpartment, and that so1.1e cteps "-\'auld l~H? taken, by 1VU.J u:.. re0uJ ations and instructwns, to .. ce th<Lt this protection V"<· s afforded. It might nsily happen that through the c:~r; · ossne' 3 of one or two in the method of p"cking their fruit, or in other n· pect', ; : e other growers might suffer, and he trub.d:l that a> -ismnc·• would be given to tho grmH•l'' in Bu•• en in the way the:; requn·cd.

l\!Ir. GILLIES (E<i· hu •) desired to say a few words on thi9 imporbnt vote before it went through. He realioed tho i111portanco of t:w Agri ·ultural Dept rtment, which h<' thought s;:ould be a department of experts, and one which, if it did not sho · 'he farmer ''rher._ the deep ate:· \Yas, shoulc: show him wher.· tho <·.oals were, so that h" could a\ oi<l nwking ui,takc . That was the pnm••.ry object o' the Agricultural Depart­ment. 'vVhether it was fulfilling its func­tion> in that rc-pect at the pr<>sent time he w•" r:os able to say; he did not want to o'ndcllln it before he was certain that he was j;r tified in doing so. He might say tl!at there, -wore one or two men in the Ae;ri:tlinual Department who knew their dutie.>. He wanted, fir"t of all, to congratu­late ti1P han. member for Paddington and the hc.:l. member for Keppel on the speeches they rne1de the other night on this vote, wh1ch he thought contrasted f"-vourably with the speech made this afternoon by one han. member. That han. member got in his usual plea for low wages, whereas the hon. member fo;· Paddington, who was not a practical farmer, ,•hawed that it was pos­sible fer the far.ner to embrace the latest s•lientific methods and the beet !:>reeds uf cattle. He believed ttat the farmer of the future was not going to be the typical Eng­lish Hodge, but a scientifico man. He did not know \\hether he would roach the stage which had been pictured, when he would sit in a cushioned seat and touch an electric button, which would be ·all that was necessary for him to do, but ho was convinced that the f.anEl'l' of Queensland would have to embrace the latest scientific methods and put brains int., his industry to make a suc­ces. of it; It waq no use getting off this antiquated rural wor!rers' bogpy, and think­ing they were going to help the farmer by th,.t mctJJOd, becal!se that was altogether out of date for any intelligent farmer to be scared by. The up-to-date farmer was going to seek good land, the best cattle, the best seeds, the latest scientific methods, and tho latest machinery, and it was the duty of the Agri­cultural Department to assist such a man to make a succe.,; of the undertaking. He wanted to say a few \Vords .about tho dairy­ing industry. His advice to the dairy farmers starting in his di,trict-and the grtco~t bulk of them were starting without experience-was the advice which was offered this afternoon bv the han. member for Murrumba-that ~Va'-, if they bought only two cows, get the best qualit•.-, bccms•.> they would be the nucleus of a herd. He was going to briefly quote l\!Ir. Graham's report showing the difference bctwe"n a bad herd

and a good herd. Thos~ members who had not n c,cl the report would be surprised at the difference but" ·een a bad herd of cows and a good herd of caYs. From his kn~\Y­If'dgce of :VIr. Grah_un, tho D.nry E p;., t, tn":t gentleman "a'• •CJUU•' '''pable to fill the po'!­tion. ..He -w:-u quito sut>J·kd thr..~ l\h~. Uraha~n undcrstcod ,,_-hat tho up-to-de to f:>.rmer m (/ueen·l ud wanted. In gLnciP • throu.~il ~he 1 er-' wt. it could } e s-t ~n th~tt ~1,• ,_'lorougn~y Pndo,· .mod ' hat it w pob5Il c to do m h( 1·d t.:-;t;nrr b· .. lixg c.:1t '· rfbbt ~.,," a1~d ,·Jo,>ting tho \-.-.ry lD·~ '''1Jt ,-ri~n 1 ~-0-r ... 1~et.~1ods i1• d.-irv farrr1 v;,--)rk. As t' r,-_~nlt of ,__..-_v~Jnt;-;.·

~ .-L._' ~cXpf· 'i-.;nc-; in herd t -..:-',:_ing in Dcn­nH~rk---,Yhi.·h "'·Vas r.:: JE- so bin· ~ the Dar-liY' s Dov.n~-- v.-it3}· Pt a1 ... _~. incFea~-P in L· num Ler ,: chen· he d:, Lc. out-put h:td be-en in. re<1bed b:' £2,000,Ll:J ster­lino-, That showed what could be done by systPm,tic h rd tes+ing, and that wa,. one thing \',~hich Mr. G1·:1.h~m w<..s U!'gE· g upon th'l 'd<~irv f.trmors of Queen,]and to adopt, end t), . ., d<

1Jartment wa.s g;ivin::; them all the

assistance possihle to te· t their herd,, '"1 that cattle whi<-h chould be sent to the butcher ehould no+ be kPpt on cho d<, ry fa;·m. That '"''c ono \V- v oi ,·:.._abFnC"'" the dany­;n:; :ndcc, 'rv to· paf eTu.diy as good '·a-·."'3 as 'n1an'"~~ o 1·her industric . No\V, dtho:q:~h Denn1ark \V.US nnallor than ih-·· Darling Do,\·n,, tl~ ... ~v. not only produced cnotl'?h butt0r for thur oy·n requ1ren1f'nt;;:, but they ,Jso exporte-d £8,500,000 ·worth of butter everv ,-ear. He admitteil that Denmark ha.d a-dvantages over Queens­land in so·,·1e res:'e~ts. It was right on the doorstPn~ o{ the world's markets, but against th{l.t fact there were climatic conditions. He kne" he would be told that thcv had low wages to assist them, hut aga.i!>et tbat there ·. ere tho high rents. That nahralh· follon'cl. In a country \Vher•· rents were high ,.., i land was dear, war;e-;. vv0re neccssaril. lo1v, and the far.mer n1ade an unfortunate error \Vhen he i1nag1ned thott he wvuld do better b:· pa:,ing £20 ~r £30 or "£.fJ. for his land and sqeezing h;s worker do" n instv-"!d of paying £2 for h1s land and paving his "orkcr a fair wage, because. afte1: all, it was the >~ orkcrs of th,,• world who provided th" m·ukot for the farmer. There were 12,000,000 people in GTcat Britain who bf';,ause of the low wao-es curse could n~t buv Australian butter, and -therefdre the intclli"gent dairy farmer should be a barraclier, not-like the han member for Mirani-for lo:ov wages, but for fair and reasonable conditions. because the first thin~ that was cut down if wages were reduced ~as tbe butter from the breakfast tabl<'. Th·_ part of l\!Ir. Graham's report which he wir,hed to quote was that on page 21-

" Cream in,pectors are to periodically visit th0 manufncturin~ factories and c;,refullv ex2mino ~nd classify the in­dividual supplies of cr<'am delivered there. A recnrd of the names of those sunpl.ring second or thir~ ar1de _cream "'ill be tah n, toc~·,ther W'th a notmg as to the !,articular· defects in the quality, and the probable c1.u< J to which ~he in­fN·ioritr of the coa:n may be attnbuted. This information will he communicated to the c~airv inspPrtor in whose district the dairv farmer resides: the inspector will in · hrn visit th<' dain'man con· cerned, a~~·l -in con,,ert \Yith thA dairy fanner he will m ort hims·•If in the work of investigating the actual cause of the

Mr. G1'llirs.]

23!W Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

defective quality, and he will be pre­pared to give -~uch instruction and assist­ance as shall be necessary to render the cream of first quality.''

He thought that was a step in the right direc­tion-to send out inspectors to the farms, instead cf sending the cream back, as they were doing twelve months ago in his dis­trict when a private factory obtained there. The men in his district were, in many in­etances, not experienced dairymen, but men who had followed other occupations and had made a start in farming there, and it was a step in the right direction to tdl them where they were wrong. It might be something in the fodder, or it might be something in the methods of keeping the utensils cl€<1ll, and he was satisfied that Mr. Graham was on the right track. He wanwd to quote another paragraph, on page 24, which substantiated what he had said with rBgard to DBnmark-

" To illmtrate the possibilities of systematic herd testing it is only neces­sary to apply the above figures of pro­ductiveness in their corn,et ratio to the whole of the dairy stock in this State, thB milch cows being set down as 375,000 in number.

" Three hundred and seventy-five thou­sand milch cows of the highe't average production >>ould in 3"00 days return £5,531,250. Three hundred and seventy­five thousand milch cows of the- lowPst avemge production would in 300 days return £1,453,125. Compared on the foregoing hypo1hesis of availabl0 profits, 375,000 milch co·:,·s of high0 st production would in 300 days contribute a net gain to the industry of £~,031,250. Three hundred and seventv-five thousand milch cows of lowBst production would in 300 days leave a charge against the industry of £46,875."

That showed that if all the cows were Bqual to the worst herds t<ested, tho total output of QuBensland would be £1,453,125; but if they were all equal to the bo·st, the output would be £5,531,250. That w11s a good .argument in favour of his statement that the dairy farmer of the future, by u,ing scientific methods, should be able to pay good wages and make dairy farming pay. He wanted now to deal with the sugar industry, and, first of all, he wanted to reply to the hon. member for Mirani, who made his u,.ual pl<·:t for low waQ·es in that industry. Apart altogether from tho dangerous effect-s such statements might have on the Southern l~gislators, it was inconsi·tent with ·"hat that hon. mem­ber had done in 1882, whBn, if his informant; was correct, he tried to form •• carters' union, ,1-·hen carting sugar fro1n :Home­bush to Mackay, He said that c•teh staw­ments were dangerous, be~ause they knew that m:1ny percons in the South W?re pre­pared to protect the sugar industr~- only that it might be a ·whit-e l<>'Jour ir,.Justry and pay f:.;ir and rBasonable wages, a·ld there were freetraders, like 11r. Cook, who were quite willing to reduce the protection if the indu·try was not worth pTotecting. He was surprised thnt the hon_ member, represent.· ing as he did a sugar <>Jmtituency, used that

- old frayed argument in regard t{) low wap-es. He did not say thc1.t wage" were too high, but he said that if the produc3r was harassed to that extent. thBre could be no expansion :in tho industry.

Mr. SWAYNE: Did I say that I was in lavour of low wages?

[ 2}f r. Gillies.

::Ylr. GILLIES: That was the inf-erence. Mr. SWAYNE: The infere!lce t Give us what

I said. Mr. GILLIES: He pointed out that i~ the

rural workers' log became an accomplished fact, it would absorb all the profits of the industry.

Mr. KESSELL: So it would. Mr. SwAYNE: That is a fact.

Mr. GILLIES: It was not. If the f~rmer adopted sciBntifio mBthods, and if he d1d not believe in high rents and dear land, he could make it pay.

Mr. BRIDGES: You put a lot of "ifs" in that t (Laughter.)

Mr. GILLIES: No award ever made l;>Y the Arbitration Court had ever b":en dis· ob<J)<Jd, and no award had yBt rumed an industry.

Mr. BRIDGES : I was referring to the " ifs."

Mr. GILLIES: They were possi~le "ifs." The whole facts must be taken mto con­sideration. Evidently the deputy "Whip" on the other side was an advocate of low wao-es and hi"'h rent and dear land, and that sort of thing."

Mr. BRIDGES: Have you ever heard me advocaw them?

Mr. GILLIES: It followed that a man who was in favour of high rBnts and dear land must be in favour of low wagBs. He had just as much practical experience of sugar-growing as the hon. member for Mirani, and he was prepared to say that the indmtry, if properly handled, ?ould J?ay fair wages. The hon. mBmber said nothmg about the "octopus." He said nothing about the Colonial Sugar Refining Company.

Mr. KESSELL : Still the sctme old gag­the Col{)nial Sugar Refining Company.

Mr. GILLIES : The hon. member did not want to hear about the Colonial Sugar RBfin­ing Company.

Mr. KESSELL : I know more about it than you do, if you talk such "tripe."

Mr. GILLIES: He took it that a man of the hon. member's kidney would have shares in it.

Th"' CHAIR:MA:01: OrdBr: The hon. mem· ber is not in order in referring to an hon. member as "a man of his kidney."

Mr. GILLIES: Was the hon. member in order in using the \Nord " tripe" ?

Mr. :'vfuRPHY: Of c our speech. He said your ":peech was ''tripe."

Mr. GILLIES : He wanted t{) take excep­tion to a paragraph that .appeared on page 16 of th<> report.

~'he bell indicated that portion of the hon. member's time had expired.

Mr. GILLIES : He would take another five minutes. He would not say that the parao-raph ,, as altogether untrue, but it was altog"ethcr miJeading. The paragr·aph was as follows:-

"Durin a- the vear 1912 the sugar indus­try passed through a very depressing period. In the first place, the abno.r­mallv dn sBason had a material effBct :n reducing- the output of cane, so that m the majority of sugar districts only half crops or less were harvested. In the second place the order issued by the Federal Gov'ernment in August, 1912,

Supply. [3 NOVEMBER.j Supply. 2391"

increasing by some 40 per cent. the wages to be paid to field hands, without providing the means of paying same in the shape of extra rebate or prott-ction, came as a severe blow to canegrowers, especially following on the dry ,season experienced."

That statement was absolutely misleading. Mr. KESSELL: It is absolutely true. Mr. GILLIES: The inference from it

was that the cost of production was in­creased by 40 per cent. by Mr. Tudor's re­gulation. Nothing of the kind. According to Mr. Crawford, who furnished a minoritv report on the Sugar Commission, in the crushing season very few men in any of the sugar districts received leRs than £1 lOs. a week, which, with board and accomm<>da­tion, to quote Mr. Crawford's own words, " was equivalent to .£2 5s. per week." The wages prescribed by Mr. Tudor were only 3s. more than that. Moreover, the Tudor regulations came into force in August, when

the crop was practically grown [5 p.m.] and the harvest had commencGd,

and harvest work was carried out by contract, which was not interfered with by the Tudor regulations. But if it had been carried out on the weGkly wage system, the increase would not be anything like 40 per cent. ; it would bG only 7 per cent. The stinking fish paragraph which he had quoted insinuated that the sugar industry could not pay the wages prescribed by the Tudor regulations, yet the Sugar Commission, after taking exhaustive evidence on the subject, endorsed Mr. Tudor's contention that the industry could pay ls. an hour. HG wel­comed the introduction of a Bill prov,iding for the establishment of boards to fix the price of cane, because the farmer was not receiving anything like what he should for his cane. At the same time he held that that was no reason why the fa,·mers should pav a low rate of wages. If people in the Southern States believed what was said bv people in Queensland who advocated Io,V. wages, they would take protection off the sugar industry.

The bell indicated that a further portion of the han. member's time had expired.

Mr. GILLIES: 'I'he evidence given by farmers before the Sugar Commission showed that the industry could pay a fair wage. One farmer whom he knew, Mr. Cooper, of Nerang, when giving evidence as to what should be done to improve the class of labour employed, could only suggest that they should give the men more money. The better the wages that were offered the better would be the class of labour which would gra'.itate into the sugar industry, and as a result of the Tudor regulations a better clas'> of men were to be found in the industry to-day than was the case previously, and that better class of men would reduce the cost of pro­duction. It was an absolute. falsehood to say that the cost of nroduction was increased 40 per cent. by the -Tudor Teo-'-ll.ations. He wished now to make a refGre ,;'e to the cattle tick, which was one of the curses of Queens­land. There was a paragraph dealing with this matter in the report of th" Dep;ntment of Agriculture for last year, but no reference was made to it in this year's report. The paragraph in last year's r,eport read as fol­lows:-

. "The discovery made by Mr. Munro Hull that, through some organi~m, his cattle are not affected by the tick, ha:>

undergone a preliminary invG.if,igation, and may p1;:ove to be a highly important discovery; but the second stage of th_e· investigation cannot be undertrdmn unt1l the hot weather, when the ticks again become rampant."

\Ve had had hot weather since then, but there was no reference to this important matter in the report recently submitted to· the House. The matter was on•• which was worthy of consideration; indeed, it was al­mo."t worthy of a Select Committee being appointed to inquire into it. If the Minister did not give some explanation with regard to this alleged discovery, he intended to ask that the correspondence on the subiect be laid on the table of the House. A promise was made by the late Minister for Agricul­ture, the Ron. J. Tolmie, to make some provision for the trout hatchery in the Her­berton district. He (Mr. Gillies) asked for a grant for that hatchery, because he be­lieved that if money was spent on it, it would prove a great success. The waters­an the ~Uherton Tableland were well adapted for trout and if proper attention was given h> the h~tchery, it could supply ova for the whole of the streams of North Queensland. 'fhe late Minister for Agdculture promi•ed that he would recom!flend an expenditure of £200 for that purpose, but there -was nothin,. on the present Estimates. HG hoped that the present Minister would be able to give somL· explanation as to why his predecessor's sug­gestion to make provision for that amount had not been carried out

Mr. WILLIAMS : A great deal of money had been expended on the Agricultural Col­leo-e and P'<!Jerimental farms in the South. H~ did not object to that expenditure, be­cause he thought the agricu!t•lral industry was their most important industry; but he would like to see some edu~ati-:mal facilities afforded in the North, "hure there was •a population that did not understard agricui­ture as well as it was undet·stood in the South. In places like Charters Towersr where people were struggling to acquire some l{nowledge of agriculture, a little money ought to be ecpendcd. Everyon.) knew that his district was suffering from. depression, and people who were nut abl" to leave the place had to try to earn a living in some other way than by IYliningr and a number of them vere turning therr attention to agriculture. No~withstanJinr< their .difficulties in not '"' vinG" the good soil that there was in the South, and notwith­etanding the rainfall, they were making some progress. ·within the last twelve months they had produceJ potatoe,. to the value of about £1,000, and they belipved that, ·" ith a little knowledge and ac•sistance from the Government, they could grow maize and crops of that kind, and there w .1s no doubt they would have a fair markot for what they grew. The Premier had ah·eady ex­pressed his kindly sympathy, and thought there were possibilities of agriculture being carried on succe<.sfully in the di,<trict, and he trusted that the Secretary for Agricul­ture would endeavour to give those people· some assistlmce at an early date.

Mr. STEVEKS (Roseu·ood): A great amount of ad·, erse criticism had bean lGvelled at the DPpartment of Agric·rlture during the debate, and, considering the energy the, present Minic>ter had infu30d info the denart­ment since he took charg-e, he thought it

},£ r. Stevens. J

:2398 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

was a pity that the eritici.qm }, ad not been ·of a rather nulder nature. H':l was raiheJc amused at _the reason ,,~hich ;;he leader of ~he OppositiOn gave for moving a reduction Ill the salary of the Under Secretar .• ~.

;ylr. RYAN: Is this in ordd·? ';Ve want to get on.

Mr. STEVENS: So far ao he could gather .the hon. member '"'id that he moved th~ amendment because of the adverse criticism .that emanated from the Government side of the Chamber.

The CHAIRMAN: Order: !

Mr. STEVENS : The report of the de­partment proved that they had a number of ver,Y able men m the department, and he . believed that, undc,· the present Minister there would be a great improvement A_ good deal of capital had been made o~t of ~he fact that agnculture had not advanced m Queen.sland at the mtc at which they would Wish, and an endeavour had been Ire a de. to blame the department for that state of thmgs. Some years ago the farmers of Queensland had no market for their pro­due~, and they could not make •a living by ordmary a~ncultural purc,uits, and they had to turn thou. attentiOn to some other channel. HP would .!YIVe a httlq, personal exp8l·icnco J::Ie rB'_llembered getting. a crop of comething him srxty bags of mmze from one of his fields, and the return that he got for tha"' ci:op wa·> about £7. That was no good t.;: hun, so he boug·ht a c.oup~e of cows with the £7 and •tarted " dany herd. Th" eccperi­

·ence of othe;s _was similar, and that ,, "s the rea~on why aan·ymg had superseded ordinary agnculture to such an extent in Queens­lan.d. They h1d to find some product for whwh they could secure a market outside the State, a~d that they found in butter and cheese; .Bemg more particularly interested m ~a1rymg, he was very pleo sed to notice the Improvement that had been made in the metho?s of the department with regard to tha.t mdustry. He maintained, when the Dai~y Produce Act waQ being passed, that; the I~dmtrc· was attackBd at the wrong end, and rt appeared for qmte a long time after the paesmg of the Act as if the object of the graders \\us to prove that Queensland butter was not fit for export; but he was p_leased to note that, under the administra­tion of the prf',.cnt Da,iry Expmt, better methods were adopted, and the grading of thC> Governmei_It graders in Brisbane tallied very closely 'nth the grading of the factory managers. The factory managers were keen. busmes.< men, and thev were not going to put th~ir first-grade _br:and on. second-grade butter If t~ey knew .It. Octaswnally a mis­ta!w was st!l! made m the grading, but such nustak~s d1d not occur with am~thin!l like the same frequm1f'y that they did ~ few wears ago. He ';·as pleased to Fee that the methods Df <;ducatmg. the farmer> to improve the quahty ?f their cream and of their herds that ';ere bemo; advoc~ted by Mr. Graham were likely to pro<;!uce Yery good results. It appeared to hrm that the work of the De­P" •tr":ent of Agric.ulture .should be mainly expcrunen~al and mstrnctiOnal, such as by the est.abhshment of experimental plots to ns?erta!n ~he best crops to be grown in cer­ta m distncts, the analysis of boils for the same purpose, Rnd the instruction of the farmrrs as to the best crons for them to grow and t~e best class of cattle to hrend. All those thmgs were objects to which the ·department should turn its attention, and it

[Mr. Stevens.

should not b~ its object to make a com­mercial success of an experimental farm or anything of that kind. The introduction of improved breeds of stock, both sheep and cat~le, was receiving attention by the depart­ment under the present Ministerial head, and he was glad to see it. He was pleased to note the succ.~ss that attended the experi­mental station at Y eerongpilly under Mr . Pound. Mr. Pound was a capable official, and w.as well able to conduct those experi­ments, and he honed his senices would be long retainBd for Queensland. He congratu­lated tho Agricultural Department on hav­ing got a man like the Ron. John \Vhite at its head, and he trusted that, under his re:l·im~, the department would be more use· ful than it had been in the past .

Mr. WIXSTc\NLEY (Quewton) pointed out th'1t although Charters Towers was not an agricultural district at the present time, it "'as very de.;irous of becoming one. There ""' a fair amount of good land around Charters To·"' ers, and, .if the.v only had a re;::ular rainfall, they would be able to go in for agr;culture 011 a larger scale. The trouble "o1s that the rain fell almost in a heap at one portion of the year and then the:·e \\a.~ no r~.in practically for the rest of th0 ye:or. They had good fall' of rain in November, December, January, and Feb­ruary, but Y'lrv little rain in the other r.onths, and foi· that reason it was almost impossible to go in for agriculture there, as it was too much for those who were desirous of going in for agriculture to umtend with. Th,•re were many ways in which the depart­ment could help people to go in for agricul­ture----:-including those now engabed in ~nining -owmg to the. fact that they had a splendid mc,rket closP to their doors. A proposal was n1~de RO.i<1e t.ime ago to clen1onstrate what could be done at Chart,ers Towers in this direction, and he would like the Minister to give th. m all the information he had on the . subjccL-how it was progressing and "hedwr there was any likelihood of its maturing or not. He believed that there were people prepared to put money into it to try and help along a community which was desirou; of doing somBthing in thB direction of making it an ao;ricultural community. The hon. mHnber for Charters Towers told them about a large quantity of pota,toes which had been succe>sfully grown there. That result was primarily due to the Charters Towers Horticultural Society, a body com­posed of working men, who demonstrated what could be don€ there by growing vegB­tab]e,, flower,;, ancl a crop of potatoes. This society had applied to thB department for tlw subsidy granted to other institutions, but it had been repc ,ttedly denied them. HB was told the~ tk subsidy was paid to the Charters TDwers Pastoral .and Agricultural Society, .and there was a re!l'ulation in the department t1Iat the subsidv could not be paid to two societies in t~he same town. Well, it waJ time that that regulation was abolished, because if there were two sociBties in a town doing entirdy diffBrent kinds of 1vork, and their functions did not overlap in any way, then they might eaFily both Teceive the subsidy. ThBy did originally all belong to one section, but as the horticultural part of it was neglected, those who took an in· terest in that bmnch launched Dut and started a society for themselY< s. They had be"n doing splendid work, and had demon­strated that certain things could be grown commercially in that district. The )iinist.er made reference to the travelling Bxhibit

Supply. (3 NOVEMBER.] Supply. 2399

which travelled round the district and which was wch an eye-opener to the people who saw 1t. There was no doubt that that exhibit was a credit to the department-to those who got it up, and to the State itself. It should not only be sent to the agricultural districts. He thought it might be sent to Charters Towers to let the people there see what could be produced in other parts of ·Queensland. It would be an education to many of those who had not been a11 ay from

·Charters Towers, and it would be an incen­tive to others to aake a successful effort to do likewi,e in the coming year. It would be the means of encouraging the people there to a great extent to go in for agricul­ture. The department should not only be sympathetic theoretically, but they should be sympathetic practically. Sympath•.- with­out relief was like mustard without beef. \Vith regard to cotton-growing, something had been pointed out about what had been

.done in that direction in other parts.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE : I think -cotton-growing \\ould suit your district better than anything else.

Mr. WINSTANLEY: He thought so, too. A few years ago there was quite a rush into the cotton-\FO•I·ing industry, and thev had proved that it would grow most profusely in and around Charters Towers. The only trouble was to know how to pick it after it was grown. The <:otton had a <;·ood stapl<:>, and there was no trouble in growing it, and all they wanted to know was how to pick it at a price that would make it a marketable commodity. He "auld be glad if the Min­ister WOL!Id give them some particulars of the price which the cotton realised when it was picked. Probably they would be able to over0ome all difficulties in the Charters Towers district and go in for cotton-grow­ing, especially those who would be able to take up homestBads under the new Miners' Homecte&d Leases Bill. If the department could do something to help those people alon!j", they \\ould be grateful to them for helping the district out of its present de­pressed condition. The vote had been lengthily discus.,cd, <J.nd a lot of useful in­formation had been given which would be beneficial to the farrnPrs.

Mt. ADAMSON (Rockhampton) : He had read the agricultural r;eport, so far as he was able, with a great deal of interest. There wn' a great deal of useful ,and valu­able information in it; but, while that was true, it was a groat pity that the report vas not in the hands of members earlier in the year, so that they could have an opportunii y of getting more information out of it. If they could only get the report earlier, the~" could make themselves acquainted with wha'. was going on throughout Queensland. \Vhat he had to speak about was agriculturE' in relation to Rockhampton and the district immediately around Rockhampton. A great

number of people rFgard-,d the [5.30 p.m.] Central district. particularly the

country round Rockhampton, as a place where very little could b& gwwn. That was an altogether wrong idea, b '~"m'o round Rockharrmton there ''as wme of the finest land to be found in Queensland. A great deal of avriculture was going on in that district, and it was likely th ct in the near future the lands round Rockhampton would be better known than they were at the present time, and there would "be a great deal more closer settlement, so far as agri­cultu~e was concerned, than there had been

in the past. While he had been in Rock­hampton within the last few days, he had seen samples of agricultural products grown there. One was a sample of onions. They were very large onions, and the crop was e, very valuable one, and they were grown just a few miles from Rockhampton itself. .At the same place some very valuable crops of potatoes had been grown during this sea­son.:__clean potatoes, free from disease; large potatoes, too, and very marketable-and they had been spoken of in the highest way pos­sible. Then, he had given to him a sample of wheat that was grown about 16 miles from Rockhampton, and that wheat had no rain from the time it was nlanted till the time it came to maturity: He had shown the wheat to the Minister for Agricul­ture and others, and they had spoken ve1·y highly of it. although they said it showed '·igns of drought; still they said it was a very good sample under the conditions, and the people in Rockhampton who knew some­thing about whPat-growing spoke very highly of it indeed. He would like to call atten­tion to one other matter to which the hon. member for Keppel referred, and that was in relation to the wheat grown in th•• CCJntral district. He saw the article that appeared in the "Daily Mail " of 19th September, and had called the attention of different members to it. There had been some very fine wheat grown at Yamala, near Gindie, during the last season, and there was a feeling in the Central district that. with fair play, there would be a great deal more wheat grown in that district than there had been in the '.!St. In the Central district, roo-near to Rockhampton-some splendid pineapples were being grown and some splendid bananas and a great many varieties of grapes, and it had been proved that cotton could be grown on the Peak Downs near Capella. The people of the Central district felt that they were not getting a fair do as far as the Agricultural Department was concerned. The Rockh<tmpton Agricultural Society had be0n doing its best to advertise the Central district; and, because it felt it had not received fair play at the Brisbane show, they sent their exhibit down to Sydney, and while they did not get the first prize, as they did in Brisbane the previous year, their products were spoken vmy highly of, and as a result of that exhibit going down to Sydney a good number of people from New South Wales had come to the Rockhampton district and had examined the lands, and spoke very highly of them indeed. Those interested in agriculture in Rockhampton felt that they had a claim on the Depart­ment of Agriculture and Stock to do some­thing more than they were doing. For in­s+ •nee, so far as advertisements went, and r.: tho lite.rature sent to the old country, it was felt that there were far bettnr illustra­tions of what was being done on the Dar.ling Downs than there was in connection with agriculture in the Central di·.:-rict. and they felt that if harvesting- opel ations could be pictured on the Darling Downs, then har­vesting operation' at Yaamba should be rlenicted as well, .and the advertisin£; of Central Queensland as a wheat-growing dis­trict should be on a nar wirh that of any other part of the St-;,te. E'veryone knew that Central Queensland was regarded a· a dry belt, and particularly so around Rock­hampton. He did not know why that should be, because, according to the report of the rainfall during last year, they found that Rockhampton was fourth of the coastal

Mr . .Adamson.]

2400 Supply, [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

cities. Cooktown stood first, with 94 inches · Mackay second, with 90 inches; Bunda berg third, with 81 inches; Rockhamvton fourth :"ith 51 inches; Brisbane fifth, with 4g mches; and Townsville sixth, with 48 inche'>. Perhaps that was not a fair way of spe"'king about the distribution of the rainfall, but that was the statement given in the report and if they looked through the rainfalls fo; a longer period it would be found that Rock­hampton and the Central district had an exceedingly decent rainfall, and it was not right to talk about it as the dry belt of Queensland. There were some exceedingly fine lands m and around the Mount Larcom Scrub, and some fine land about Bushley where the wheat he spoke of was grown: There was some exceedingly fine land in the Barmoya Scrub; and .all those nlaces could be developed if the Government showed the same kind of care towards those districts that they were showing towards other dis­tricts. They wanted .a railway so far as the Mount Larcombe Scrub was concerned, and thev war,ted a railway so far as the Alton Downs country was concerned. That was altogether an agrif'ultur.al district, and yet they had not got one distinrtive agricultural railwav in the Central di,trict. It was said that thg Dawson Valley Railway was an agricultural railway. Well, it was not built for that purpose in the first instanc~. It might be said that the North Coast line opened up some agricultural land. It did­some very fine agricultural land, and as good land as would be found in any part of Queensland, and not very far from Rock­hampton either. Rockhampton had been asking for an agricultural railway for the last" twenty-five years.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: Not the only one.

Mr. ADAMSON: No; but they had agri­cultural railways galore on the Da,ling Downs and they had agricultural rail\\ ays in the North, and it was about time the Pre­mier, the Secretary for Railways, and the Secretary for Agriculture should feel tha.t Rockhampton had some claim for an agti­cultural railwa;·, and the ~\!ton Downs peopio felt that that should be attended to. There was some fine sugar land npar Yeppoon_ That had been proved again and again, and yet Central Queensland got no encourage­ment as far as sugar-growing was concerned. He claimed that amongst the next sugar-mills to be erected there should be a sugar-mill in the Central district. As the hon. member for Keppel had said, there was some ver_,.­fu1e land in the 1\Iount Larcom Scrub, and_ some of the very best cane grown in Queens­land had been grown there. Also at Y eppoon_ and at Alton Downs-in all that vast dis­trict, amounting to hundreds of thousands of acres, sugar could be grown, and nothing­had been done by the Government to en­courage the growing of sugar there.

Mr. KESSELL: Why not erect a mill at Gladstone?

Mr. ADAMSON: Let them have a central mill, and let the farmers of the Central dis­trict say where it should be established, and he did not think it would be established at Gladstone, but at a more central place_ There was another matter that required attention in connection with the Central_ district-he knew the Premier laughed at that matter and practically put it aside aa a chimera and said it could not be attended to until they had a very much grenter popu­lation. He held that irrigation was one of

[Mr. Adamson.

the things that was needful not only for the· Central district but for the whole of Queens­land and the sooner they went in for irri­gati~n and closer s.ettlem{lnt-that was, smaller farms for frmt-growmg and other· kinds of a~riculture-the sooner would they prove what Queensland could do as far as acrricultural products and close settlement "~re concerned. It would not be a bad thing, in his opinion, if there could be a loan of a million of money so that they qould go in for irrigation settlements. He would be qmte willing that £400,000 sho~ld be spent in the South; he ,,, auld not mmd about £325,000 of it being spent in tJ;te North, and he would like £275,000 spent m the Central district.

Mr. KESSELL : Rockhampton? Mr. AD AMBON: He did not mind where·

it was-Rockhampton or Gladstone. Mr. KESSELL: I did not say that. Mr. ADAMSON: Whatever was best for

tbe Central district. He wanted to draw the Minister's attention to the fact--although really it was hardly necessary to do B?­that in New South \Vales they were facmg the matter of irrigation for close settlement in a very effective \\ay. The Hay and Ba.l­ranald trusts were concerned w1th the n·n­gation of 11,600 acres, and the Murrumbidgee and Northern irrigation scheme had an area of 560 000 acres on which it was proposed to settle 50,000 'people. Victoria had spent. £2,889,479 on irrigation scher:'es; .and they knew what was being done m Mildura at. the present time, where there were 47,664 acres under cultivation. There was a popu­lation there of between 6,000 and 7,000 in. 1911. Then in South Australia, in the Ren­mark irrigation set.tlement, there were· 5 200 acres a populatiOn of 2,000, and pro­ducts to the 1•alue of £100,000. Without, irriO'ation it "as said that that particular part wouid not have carried 500 sheep, let alone 2,000 human beings, and products .to, the extent of £100 000. As far as Amerwa was concerned, they would find that irriga­tion had altered the face of the country altogether; there were beautiful towns an.& villages all through those a~i? belts, an~ It had tended to the democratismg of agrwul­ture; it had i;Pnded to make the life of those who were living in those settlemel_lts very much more pleasing and bearable In every \Yay. One of the grea.t probler:rs . be~or& Queensland was the problem of IrrigatiOn. (Hear, hear !) The Chief Secretary never, even looked up to say whether he believed. in it or not.

An OPPOSITION MEMBER : He is asleep. (Laughter.)

Mr. ADAMSON: He was either asleep or dreaming, or something else. He. k';'ew. h<> had no· favour for irrigation, but IrrigatiOn .,, as one of the great problems that would ha.ve to be faced by Queensland before she made the advance she ought to make.

The PRE'I!IER: Elwood Mead did not re­commend it.

The bell indicated that portion of the hon .. member's time had expired.

Mr. ADAMSON: He admitted that Elwood Mead was an authority that every-. body must give heed to, and nobody would say that his opinion cou1d be in any way dismi,ssed in a sneering way, but eyen me:n like Elwood Mead might sometimes J::s­mistaken and he believed himeelf, .. nd 1t had been' held by those who knew something:

Supply,

about it, that it would yBt be proved that Central Qneensland under irrigation woc~ld support. a very large and a closely settled populatwn, He wished to emphasise the fact that, . 111 his opinion, agriculture '"as the supreme mdustry of any country, and this department and the Lands Dol>artment were the two most Important departments of the Slate, a. d whatever could be done for close settlement and for agriculture, to his mind, ought to be done. He ,,·auld like to finish With a quotatiOn from Professor Oldenburg, who was one of the greatest authorities in Ucrman} on this matter, and who said of Gernlanv--

" The national economy has been com­Dared to a building arranged in storiP,;. The . iitrong gro~nd fiG?r IS agriculture, and 1t Lears the rndustrral -,uperstructure the upper story, upon its shoulders. s~ l~ng "'-' uncultivated land remains at chs:JOcal. the. basement may be extended to the frontier of the country, and this extended basement can bear a corres­pondingly industrial story."

That was the opinion of one who was re­garded as a very eminent authority in Germany-that agriculture was the basic in­dustry, upon »·hich all others must be reared. If It was prosperous, and the country was a~ clos~·ly fettled with agriculturists as pos­~lJJle, 1t WC•Llld tend to brmg about otber mdustrws. In a young country like Queens­land he hr;ld tl1at irrigation would help in that chrectwn, and everyone in Queensland no matter ~·hat his position might be, should se:k to brmg It about, in order that they might have a broad agricultural base and clo";er sc!tlei_Uent. ':fhere wa~ a great deal tv ;,p sa1d m relahon to scwntific agricul­tur:e, and any01:e who :went in for reading Prmce Kr";~otkm's "F1elds, Factories, and Workshops, would see what was being done. It must be done in the most scientific way and if he thought it was desirable to say what _he coul~ say in relation to that matter, h'.l might J?Omt out what was being done as far as agnculture was concerned in Japan· but _he supposed the Minister, who was ,;, r-eading rnan, kne\.v 1-Yhat wa~~ being done in Japan as well as he (::Mr. Adamson) and some other mcmbcn of the Committee did What he wanted to emphasise was this; that durmg the war with Russia it was J ap:m's :1gric ulture that saved the country and enabled her to carry on the war-to feed her troops . very largely independently of other countnes-and if that was true ther: in the matter of defence, if there wer~ agnc·Jltural settlements and irrigation settle­ments along the sea-Qoast where we could grow what we wanted for ourselves as well as for c':port, it would be one of the best ways to defend our country and be prepared for the fight, if ever it did come in our c~untry's history. He had read the report with a gre0~t deal of interest. It was a most important report, and he hoped that next year thev would get it a little sooner than thev had got it this vear.

Mr .. SWAYNE : fie had ventured, when spcakmg before, to express the opinion that there was a limit bevond which the producer could. not go in the 'pa;·ment of wages, more especially 11·hen competing in thG export mark0ts of the world. He noticed that the hon. member for Eacham had tried a little eh;ctioneering tact.i<'s at his expense. and eaid that he (:Hr. Swayne) had inferred that low wages should be paid. He thought it was very probable that he paid higher and more wages than the hon. member paid.

1913-7 H

2401

Mr. GILLIEb: I do not think so. Mr. SWAYNE: That was by the way. As

far as export markets went, there was <> limit, and anyone who tried to make out otherwise was building a fool's paradise, and was not a friend to the working man. They all depended upon the <'Xllort industries. \Vhen speaking before, he 1Iad proved, in connection with the dairying industry, that, if tho I ural worker;' log was acceded to, it would absorb the whole profit of the cow. They could pay in the sugar indu,t.ry what­Dvcr wages the protection cnabled them to do, and thev were quite willi1,g to pay them. He thought that the Preini<:r s'howed evi­dence o; a desire to give practical assistance to the industr) when hB asked the Interstate Commi -sion to go into the question of more protbction for it. He thought it \\as most un'air to bring Mr. Cook into the discussion; but he would like to say in reference to him, that he, in the sho:t time he had been in office, had equalised the bounty <tnd excise, and Mr. Fisher had not done that, thereby taking hundreds of thou>ands of pounds from the producers, although he had been in power for a long time-much longer than Mr. Cook. That wa; practical sympathy coming from tho Libe1·al party.

Mr. THEODORE : IIe made the Colonial Sugar Refining Company a present of £150,000.

Mr. SWAYNE: That was not true. The hon. member for Eacham .also was in doubt as to whether th<: Tudor regulation increased the cost of prodnction by 40 per cent. He noticed th"t he carefulh· refrained from any mention of the decrease in the hours, which was very largely where the increase ca1ne in. He knew of one farmer,. "·hose book; were kept very carefully, who showed that the regulation meant for the first half-year an increase m the eost of 4s. per ton. There "as one other matter to ·.,,·hich he wished to refer -the h11lary of the Instructor in Tropical Agriculture. He had ment'oned the import­ance of the possible tropical products which theY could grow, and he thought a salary of £2'0 absurd for instruction in such things. So far as his inquiries went, the holder of th0 position was a most competent 1nan; but, in any c:;se, the salary was ab;urdly lcnv. A good dPa] had been said with refer­ence to the need for having commiesioners to control the various branchc·.J of agricul­~ure, and if there ·was any branrh in ·which :hey wanted competent men, it ,·;as in tropi­cal agriculture. vVith regard to the position of 1.: nder Secretary, the question had been rais0d as to whether they wanted .1 practical man rather than an administrator ior that position. The various branches of agricul­ture \Yerc ,,o nun1erous now, and so special­ised, that it would be almost impossible to get a practical man in regard to all of them, and the general experience in re;raru to men who had practical knowledge in one particular subject was ~hat they were inclined to ignore or be Jea10Us of those who were interested in other branches. He thcrdore did not think that the suggestion in regard to a practical man in that position was one of the best.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE (Hon. J. White, Musgrave): He was glad that -at last he had an opportunity of saying a few words. (Laughter.) He would try to reply individually to hon. members wh-o 'had

H on. J. White.]

240:Z [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

criticised the work of the department. The principal grievances were: (1) The com­paratively slow progress in agriculture; (2) the decrca3e in the quality and quantity of butter; (3) too much energy in the slaughter­ing department-(laught0r); (4) that the department or the Minister was not spending er.ough money; and (5) the quf"'tion of sepa­rate departments. He would like to reply to them sP;oarately. HP did not think the iirst con•plaint was of >cry great import­ance. It was important that they should ha' '' a brgo agrih1ltural area, but con­ditions h:td not been 'o favourable to the aeyeJopm.~nt of agricultural industry alto­gether as they had been in the otl1er States. It had aln<cdy been explained by members who had spoken in reference to wheat that, in areas 'Yhere they had ·winter rains and methods of cultivation such as "in South <lusiralia, it was comparatively easy to turn out large areas of wheat, and with steam ploughs to take fifteen and twenty furrows at a time. His opinion in regard to Queens­land was that there should be more sold on tho hoof and less in the bag. In scattered country like this it was much better to keep pigs and cattlo and send them to market, probably, tha.n to grow wheat. The farmer was the beet man to know whether wheat­growing was going to pay. He had had <'Xperienoe; he had tried the various sys­tems, and if he found that dairying WaR going to pay him much better, it surely was reasonable to think that that man had thought the matter out. So far as the assist­ance given to the wheat-grower was con­cerned, it was much greater than any mem­ber seemed to realise. They had a great many experimental plots right from Goondi­wmdr m the South-west to Nanango and 1\Iaryborough in the North, and at Gindie State Farm they were trying to grow wheat abo. It ha"cl been tried with partial success, and he honed that in the future the success would be greater. When he put Mr. Sautter in cha.rge of the wheat-breeding station at Roma he wrote him a long letter distinctly stating what was in his mind and the minds of other exnerts he had consulted in con­nection with wheat-growing. IVIr. Sautter 'Yas now carrying out experiments with dif­ferent kinds of wheat, trying to obtain one that would mature quickly and would have lie" hter straw, and he had great hopes that he would succeed in that direction, and that the efforts that were being made in the fur­ther cultivation of wheat, especially in Goondiwindi and the \Vest and around 'I':"nnvmorel and other places on the Downs, woulrl meet with more success. He knew­of one instance in which :Mr. Quodling, their wheat expert, who knew wheat better, pro­bablv than any other man in Queensland, and ·thoroughly understood it, and another cxncrt "ent out to show a man how to grow u ilew vuiety. They not only had to show him how, but they also had to plough the land and nut it in them,el, e"'· That was surely ac:~i;ting agriculture to the very b~st advaDtagc ! He knew another 1nan, in the electorafe of the hon. member for :Maranoa --'\h. Griffin he thoug-ht was his name-who got a bushel of ,,eed wh~·at which had been grown on one of their experimenta.l plots from seed obtained from America, and got 70 bushels from it. That wa3 sown by their

"experts. He need not go on interminably in regard to the wheat industry; in saying what hr> had, he had replied practically to all the critics. This season they would have a large amount of seed wheat, true to name

fHon. J. White.

and from the best varieties that had been proved at Roma, available f~r ~he farmers. It would go out into the drst.rrc~s around Roma ,and around Goondiwmdr. They would also have 1,600 to 2,000 bushels of seed whc"at at the Hermitage State Farm that would go out in other direct.ions, 'and for the experimental plots whrch they had in manv districts the farmers were getting 2 b'ushels "each of whe':t that had been proved to be a ;:-ood vanety for that particular district. The instructions now were that seed wheat was not to be sold at all for sowing or planting unless it had been proved to be first,cl'""'' wheat for the particular district for which it was sold. The hon. member for Paddington rnade re­ference to the decrease in the qualit: and quantity of their butter. ~e wa~ pleased to say that they both we:·e mcreasrng every day. The quality of therr cheese that they were sending home to the Englrsh markets was equal to the very best K e>; Zea­land chec·,e, and was bringing the best

prices on the London market. [7 p.m.] The quantity of cheese manufac-

tured was 250,000 lb. more. Practieally 4,000,000 lb. were made . '!' Queen<land last vear and he fully antiCI­pated that 6,000,000 lb: would be mad'.' durir:g the prcJent year, as everythin!l' pornted. m that direction, and the quality wa.s rm­ptoving. The han. member for Padd1:ngton aJso stated that the quantity and quahty of butter were decreasing.

Mr. FIHELLY: Not the quantity; the anality. -The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE:

The quantity had incr"eased by about 2,000 boxes per week.

Mr. FIHELLY: Don't misrepresent me. I said the butter was deteriorating.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: H" understood the hon. member to s<ty that both the quantity and the quality w:ere de­creasing. As a matter of fact, durmg the first three months of last year ~h<; first~grade butter' oTaded at the cold stores m Bnsbane for export amounted to 53 per cent. of the total, while during the first thre£ months of the current year the first-gmde butter totalled 74 per cent.--an improvement of 21 rer cent. for this year.

GoVERNMENT NIE}VIBERS : Hear, hear ! Mr. FIHELLY: What about the previous

year? The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE:

The quality of the butter manufactured dur­ing tho year 1911-12 showe·d. an Improvement as u->mpared with the quality of the butter made in the year 1910-11.

Mr. FIHELLY: How does the average com­pare with the other States?

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: It was higher than the avBrage of any of the other ~'Hates. There was 22 per cent. of second-grade butter, and only 4 per cent. of third grade during the first three months of this year. This was exceptw:ral, and he attributed it to th'l fact that JUSt after he went to the department he sugg~sted that instead of the dairy inspectors gomg round the whole of the dairies in Queensland tJ:ey should get the" names of ~J:ose who s'.'pplwd third-o-rade cr<"am and v1srt them, wrth the view ~c bringing their •upplieo up to first grade. That was done, and every week the dairy inspectors sent in their reports <:on­cernlng the dairies which supplred tJ:rrd­grade cream, and Mr. Gra)1am wro~e drrect to the suppliers and did hrs best wrth them

Supply, (3 NOVEMBER.] Supply. 2403

:in tha_t way: A great many of the dairymen brought the1r cream a long distance on horse­back. He had met some in the electorate of the Home Sec:etary carrying cream on horse back for 15 and 20 miles. In the Miles dis­trict men carried their cream 30 miles to the £actnry.

Mr. :MoRGAN : Forty miles.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: They could . hardly expect those people to brmg m thmr cream every day, but even in such dictricts the quality of the cream was g,·aJually being brought up to the standard, and he sincerely hoped they would be able to conti"cue the in1provement until 75 per cent. or :0 per c:mt. of the butter was first­gra.dc. I£ that was done, QueenslanJ need have no fear of the bugbear of margarine. Another matter which had been diocus,ed by hon. members was that of slaughter-.vards. Du:·mg the present :;ear the department had done particu'arly good work in that con­ncctwn. Bo,fore motor-cycles were o~ tained, -only son;.•) .,Q or 50 per cent. of the meat slaughtered were regularly inspected, but now the per< entage was 95 per cent. to 100 per cent., and that was done at no extra cost to. the J,,partment. .'l.nothe_r great grie> anoo w1th the butchcrmg estabhshments was the closing in o: butchers' shops. The hon. member for Enoggera had a good deal to say on this subject, He congratulated the hon. member on the splendid job he had mad8 of his shops. Many butchers had come up to and even beyond the standard required by the Act. Had it not been for the ·anxiety of the han. member for Enoggera and others to clo particularly well in this matter, they .could have satisfied the regulations at half the cost.

Mr. TROUT: The job would have been a -botch, then.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: He did not think so. Whatever the butchers might think of the matter, he knew that the public of Brisbane were more than satisfied with the great improvement which had taken place in the butchers' shops in BriPbane. It was to be regretted if there had been any loss to the butJhers, or any unple.a ;antness inside the shops. He had gone into many 'The slr1ps used to open on .a Friday night. am! hac! never felt any unpleasantness.

:!\h. TROUT: \Ve are not open on a Friday night.

The SECRET"\RY FOR AGRif'ULTL'RE: The o:10p used to Oj:'!Il on a Friday night.

Mr. TROUT: No.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: He ' as u:1 at l3oonah the other day, wlwn the tc·mperature was taken on the pavement and insiclo a butcher's shop, and it was found that it was cooler inside than it was on the r1avcment. \Vhen only -a few shops were closed in, Mr. Chalk, one of the inspec­tors, took the temperature in ..enclo•ed shops and !n unenclosed shops, about forty in all, an? 1t. was found that there was nearly one pomt m favour of the closed-in ohops.

Mr. TROUT: What was the humidity?

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE : "The humidity was not tested.

Mr. TROUT: It all hinges on that.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE'· He visited a great number of shops on th~ ·south side, and most of the meat was taken

into the chilled stores or the cold stores, and "as only brought into the front when it was required.

Mr. TROUT: \Vhen do they cut it up ? The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE:

He supposed they cut it up in the shop when it was brought in.

Mr. TROUT : They cut it up before they bring it out of the chilled room.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: He visited the Pastoral Com pan: 's hop in South Br.isbane, and they werP perfectlJ satisfied with the c<mditions, and said they thought it was a great improvement.

.1\lr. TROUT: They are going to meet you to-morrow with a deputation. (Laughter.)

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: If there was any great difficulty dm ing the summer months, he thought the department should try to meet butchers in the matter, but in his opinion there was practically no difficulty, and the people were do!ighted that the shops were closed in and du~t and manure could not get into tho shops and that dogs were kept out. It was about time that something was done in that direction.

l\.fr. TROUT: It only wants common-sense administration for three months in the year.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: He would be glad to ment the butchers in any way he could, but he was quite sure they appreciated the fact that some of those who used to have dirty carts going round and who kept dirty shops had been driven out of the busines" altogether. (Hear, hear!) It had been stated that he was not placing enough money 'n the Estimates for the department. He had not been long in the department, but he had a! ways taken the view, before spending any money, that he should satiqfy himself that the money was going to be spent to the best advantage. There was about £3,000 more on the Esti­matu this year for Gatton C1llege, and he asked his colleagues to agree to place that sum on the E"timates after satisfying him­self that it wouid be spent wtth aclvantage to the State, the college, and the students. He was prepared to put am' •Jbr·me before the Cabinet that, in his opinion, would benefit the primary producers, and he was sure that he would always be able to get sufficient money for that purpo"e; but until he could see that some advantage was to be gained, he was not going to nm the country into expense. It took some time for a Minister to settle down in the denarr.ment. It was his intention to try to improve some things as early ac he could; but he was not going to put officials into the rJ,epartment unless he was sure that there was need for them, because it was not so easy to get rid of public servants once they were appointed. Another matter which had been mentioned by han. members on both sid. ~ was the advisability of dividing the department. That was another matter that might require a good deal of thought. The hon. member for Paddington asked "hat wa" the zood of the Under Secretary, and whether he was a practical man.

Mr. FIHELLY: Don't add words to my statement.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: He would read the han. member's own words. He said-

" First of all, he would like to ask the Minister if the Chief Inspector uncle::

Hon. J. White.]

Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] J5urpty.

the biscases and Stock Act. t:1e Chief Inspector under the Slaughtc ing Act and the Dmry Act, hHi any expert know­ledge Y Thai was a fair question .and it could only b,, replied to in the 'nega­tive. The Chief Inspector had no know­ledge at all of any of thme thz ee Acts."

The Under Secretary had twenty-four A< ts to admini,ter, and he could not posqibly b~ expc>ded to ha \e an expert knowledge of every one of them. They had an expert veterinary aurgeon who dm·oted the whole of his attention to veterinary work, and the chemist wa.s ther<; to attend to the chemical part of tlw work; and what they w.·n1tcd for th• head of the deJHrt:nent wa-1 a gentleman with aciministr<ttive capacity, to do the Lest he could for the "·hole depart­nwnt.

The PREMIER: A layman gcnernlly makr=s the best administrator.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULT"CRE : In many cases profe::F.ional men were not practical. Mr. Scriven had been in the department ever since it was a department, and he devoted his whok atten:;on to iL. He wao ~],ere day and nig-l:Jt when he was wanted, and, while he might not have all the ability in the world-neither had he (Mr. White) all tho ability he would like to have-at the same time he was a co,lEc:entious officer who was doing the very best he could for the department.

Mr. FIHELLY: My contention was that he was not an expert officer. I did r.ot qm,;tion his conscientiousness.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE : He did not believe in having- experts a& heads of departments. Last Ma:) he dis­cussed with the Under Secretary the advis­ability of altering Mr. Graham's position, but still holding him responsible to the Minis­ter and to the Under Secretary. The same with Mr. Cory, so that anyone wanting in­formation could go direct to Mr. C' 1ry for it; but it was recognised that Mr. Cory waq frequently required to leave Bri bane. and it was thoughc he could do htter work for the StOlte outside the officce than by remaining constantly in Brisbane. Th, han. member for Padclington said that thG inspection of meat for export was in a disgraceful stat'"' until the Commonwealth took it oyer. He ( .\lr. White) went through the whole d th,• papers in connection with th• transfer of the work of inspecting meat for e•:port to the Commonwealth, and he could not '"~ from the papers that there was c,ny hult found \Vith the control bv the Customs De­partment, who. took m er _the business. There was no tro·1ble 1t all untll the Labour party got into pm, er in the Commonwealth Parlia­ment.

:VIr. KIRWAN: Poor old Labour party ! (Laughter.)

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: They wanted to appoint the whole ?f the inspectors from Melbourne. They d1d not want any men appointed in Quf' 0 nsb.nd.

Mr. FIHELLY: They appointed only com­petent .veterinary inspectors.

The SECRETARY FOR .\GRICULTURE: Thev W't'lted the Agricultural Department here" to control those officers, but the depart­mer{t was not to hav<" pow,,r either to appoint or dismiss them. That was considered a most invidiou position for the denartment to be placed in.· and it v. as thought fa,r better to­hand ov0r t]>c> whole hu,iness to the Com­monwealth. But during the whole time that

fHon. J. WhdP.

the DeLJarb11ont of Agriculture ,vas examin­in~ and despatnhing meat to London there ne1·c,· was a single complaint about the meat sent to London, and there 'vas never any meat rejected in London. That was ;Lboolute­proof that the work v,cas well and effectively done.

Mr. BEllBI:SGTON: Hnr, hear! That is the hect.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: He was onl,: too pleased to know that the Hou;,, had taken such an interest m the· _'\.grwultLrral Department to give it '-orne cnticism. 'l'he criticism was quite. refrc,,hmg to him. and he would ten time; rather ha,ve that criticism than h•. e the vote pasoed over without anv co<.Jments. His only regret "as that during tho whole of the, debate npon the Eetimates he had not heard une si:1g1o pr:1ctical suggestiOn r1;1t for\:a~d· that was going to help him in lns admmlS­tration of the department.

Mr. KIRWAN: \\hat about the hon. member for Manlla?

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: The hon. member for Murilla made some ""ggc <tions, bnt it would cost a )arge 'llm of money to carry them out. he drd not know where he would find the men to grve· vaLie for the money to c~rry out tho sug­ge·,tions of the hon. member. If he could find tlw man who would give v'\lue for the money and make the wheat mdustry _m Queensland what it was in South Austraha, he would nd hesitate to pay him £1,200 or £1,3CO a year.

Mr. MORGAN : I could get you the second best man in Australia?

Mr. FIHELLY: Is that the han. member for Drayton? (Laughter.)

The SECRETAI{Y FOR AGRICUL1URE: The] might get him the best man m Aus­tralia, and he might not do for Queensland. The wlwat expert' who came from New South \Vales brought rust-re"sting \\:heat from that State vet when they grow .rt m Pueensland it r~st'cd straight av .. q, and one e'xpert could hardly beli<'Ve it.. T_hc"'e were the difficu!tie" that they met wrth m Queens­land.

Mr. TROUT: Cannot YOU alter the climatic conditiom? (Laughter.)

Tho SECRETARY FOR ,.\GRICULTURE: The Ar>;ricnltural Department could do a iF''~t d' al. but they cvuld not alter the ch­matic cond:tions. He was in hopce that they would be able to produce \\heat i::z tJ::e M •ranoa di·,trict that would suit the chmatw ' Jnditions of Qc'''Pnsland. It had been sug­g-e ted by the han. member for Maranoa t 11at ;y1r. Sautter, officer in charge of tha CX''•erimentol farm at Roma, ohonld go to America and sec the conditions under which wllol' was produced thr rc, but ho thought that Mr. Sautter could do better work where­he was than by going to America. (Hea,r, hear!\ Thev did not want to know the Anwri,no.n conditrons, but the Queensland conditions.

Mr.· BEBBINGTON: All the experts who have rnao here have learnt after they an'rved here.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: In reply to tho hon. member~ for Padding­ton and Burnett about havmg tubercular tests of cattle, he could tell them that the department had made some tests, but they could not test r·verv herd as they sug:;\ested. 'rhere were 13,686- registered dair1es in

Supply. i 8 X OVEc&Bl!~n.] Supply. 2405

Q-1cec. land \Yit:1 317,00" m:Jking co··'"· How \'.( ru -lh.·y gorny- to g·~t the rr1oney or tho nv n to t• · t all tcwse cows, because all tesbrs would hrvo t0 be vutcrinary s.trgeons? It was only when people knew that tlwir ·CJWS wer· l•·lrbcularly bad that they wanted them tested. The vetorina.ry surgeons in the dopanmcnt tested 344 cows la't nar and ;nJy forty-four CacOS ro.acted Out oi the 344. That wac not a partH;ularly bad record, but n.st•· tel of Q·wcnsland being rotten with tuborculos1··, a·. tho hon. members stated !hd·o w.~ · no State in Australia so free fro~ lt.

;\h. FrHELLY: Is that any reason why we should not take precautions? .

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE. ThBy_ were takmg precautions. He sent .~ vet0rm;;.r.{ surgc·on to tho Isis district only t" o or tnree weeks ago, and he followed hm1solf to see the cows. They were priz•· -cows, and the owner had boon offered £40 for ,.,1ch . of them tho previous Saturday. Th"" vcten,•lar:,T ;::,rrgeon condmnnod tvvo cows worth of. !0 each, but the owner never hesi­tated "- rnomBnt and ;.,~nt them in to be de­stroyed. Thev . also sent a veterinary sur. goon to the Ag·rwultural College at Gatton in l<~ebl;;lary, and he condemned, cattle worth £2,0v0, b~cause they werB suffenng from tuberculosis, and made the place absolutely .clean. The cattle wem put into a paddock by themselves and lnlled, and the grass of that paddock was burned off so that every­thmg would be absolutely clean, and the -colleq-e wac now absolutely clear of tuber­culosis.

Mr. FIHELLY: Any compensation?

The SECRETARY FOR_ AGRICULTURE: There was no cocnpensatwn for tho college The hon. member for Paddington suggested .that they should put a tax of ld. per lb. on butter to pay the compensation, but that would be an unfa1r tax, as there was not a ,,Profit of lei. a lb. in many cases on butter.

Mr. FIHELLY: Suggest a better way.

Mr. BEDBIKGTON (to Mr. Fihellv): We don't . want any advice from you; ta'ke my word for 1t. (Laughter.)

;\Ir. FIHELLY: The farmers .do. Mr. BEBDINGTON: No, they don't.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE. He could assure th.e Hou.se that _the depart~ ment ._,as thoroughly ahve to rts duty in :e~ard to tub.erculosis and in regard to the Improvement m the herds and the dairy pro­.ducts of Queen~land, and they were gradu­ally workmg thmgs up to a better standard The d:partm~nt was in a continual state of BYolutwn-eyol:vmg from one thino- into .another. Out of all tho criticism th';..t had taken place in the House he had never heard one concrete instance of neglect. It was all vBry well for members t<> make a general statement and say that this was wrong, or that was wrong, and that the Agricultural D?partnwnt was a de::td dnpartment. It might not be as live as it should be but "o far as his ability wont, since he h~d been put in charge of that department he ha·d de-:oted his attention both '!ight and day, ana even on Sunda:ve, to brmg that up to what he thought should be the standard. (Hear, h:·u !) The Un?er Secretary was ahvays w!llmg to help hm1 and to go with I~im herever he w::tnted. In fact, he would like to spend h1s weok-<mds everv week up at Gatton College. They had a good man in .charge at Gatton College, and he had faith

that he was ,.;oing to make great improve­m· nto there. Be would like to see the Gatton College atiil:ated with the farmers' unions throughout l;lueensland, so that thBy eould send lecture;rs to attcmd the farmers' union rnoetings and tr:" to bring thern up to a hig·her 'tan dare!.

;\lr. KmwAN : Instead of talking politics. (Laughter.)

The SECEETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: Y "'· It wnuld be a great deal better for them. (Laughter.) He was in hopes that they v,ould arrive at c•omething of that kind.

It would all take time, but he [7.30 p.m.] hoped to do it in tim<> At the

beginning of next session he was in hopes of being able to take members on a visit to Gatton CollBge to enable them to see what. was being done there, and then they would be satisfied that the department was not as dead as they thought it was. Th<e hon. member for Padding-ton then gave "' r,uotation from a ::\fr. ::Vlc:•t-bb, who said tha-t tho Auslralian cow was a failure and would Lot pay for her oats. As a matter of fact, they clid not fet d their co.,, s on oats, as thc·y wern quitB contented to give them wmething else.

Mr. FIHELLY: We ought to get something to feed our statesmen on.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: It W<lco once ;;aid to a Scotchma.n that oats were fed to horses in England and fed to the men in Scotland. " Yes," the Scotchman said, " but where will you find such horses .and euch men?" (Laughter.) The hon. member further said, " The yearly butter yield had been raised in Denmark from 112 lb. to 224 lb., and thoro was no such average l!>f that kind in any of the Australian States." As "' matter of fact the· Gatton College this year would have nothing less than 300 lb. of comm<>rcial buttBr per cow.

Mr. FIHELLY : What is the Queensland average?

The SECRETARY FOR ~\GRICULTURE: The Queensland average was very low, but they had not bBen dairying very long . Twenty years .ago it was said that this country would never make a success of dairying. The travelling dairy was the first to begin dairy work in Queensland, •and there was also a butt.ar f<1ctory connected with a creamery "hich did a great deal, and the hon. memoor for Drayton had told him how much that company had donB for dairying when it first came to Queensland. He believed that the farmers of Queensland would make a gr0at thing of dairying here yet. The hon. member for Cunningham re­ferred to stud wheats he had brought from South A·t.;tralia. The department was very thankful for the wheat brought, but they had .a great many of those wheats before and a great many had been grown at the Hermita~e. The hon. member for Cunning­ham also said that there were only 30 acres under wheat at the Hermitage, while, as a matter of fact, there were 106 acres under wheat at the HmmitagB, and it was up to the hon. member to havB found out the facts of the case before making a statement in the House. The hon. member also referred to the Slac!B sheBp, and he WllS in error when he referred to 400. He (Mr. White) thought only 144 of the Slade sh< ep had hoen sold altogether. \Yhen he went up to look at the place h'" thought it was hardly suit­able for the Slade sheep, and the department had tD shift them to some other place, as

Han. J. White.]

2406 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.:; Suppty.

the;y: wanted the whole of that farm for the rmsmg of pure stud wheats. They wished to get_ ~oeed fron: America, try them at the Hermrtage, and rf successful distribute them to the farmers, but the farmers would have to pa:>' for that wheat. This year the depart­ment also had conductBd wheat experiment plots at Mrtchell. Wallumbilla Du]Qcca Gvomburra, and KaimkillBnbun ',and maiz~ plots at C:row's N<·,t, KillarnB.):, and Mun­dubbera. These were all imported fro:rn Amerrca-~bsolutely nBw varieties of seed marze-anu when the dBpartment received them there were application·: from all over Queensland, and no farmer got more than fr~m 1 to. 2 bushels, and that maize was domg particularly v- ell. The deparL>nent was JUst now gettmg another lot of maize frorn Amerrca, and would conduct experimental plots at B?audesert, \Vondai, o~ow's :\Test, .Memm ambr, Gym pie,_ and Danderoo. They had two young men m chariTe of the wheat pkts. It had been said that the m2n were too youn_g, but both thooe young fel 1ow: had been tramed at the Gatton ColJege, and they were under the supervision of Mr. Quodling w~o went from place to plac:_, in counectio1~ wrth srlos. Those young men devoted their whole attentiOn to those wheat plots, and they recmved therr mstructions in the first rm•mce from Mr. Quodling. :1Ir. Quodling ':is_ devoting a large alllDunt of hi'> timo to SLD". He nul. de arrang-emenb -v:~ ith the farmers m different centres. The green crop"' .were g-rown by the far _ _iwr-;; and they cam.o 1ntD one centre <and the :-oilos \Yere IHl t ~P m the stack by Mr. Quodling-that •,·as m case' where the farmers could not ~fiord to cr~<JCt concrete silo,. The hon. member for Fassrfern referred to the duties of the Under Secretary, and he al'-o said he did not sec what use the Under Secretarv wa'. If the hon. member "as in the d'epartment, he would very soon !mow that the Under Score­tar~ had a ;_;reat deal to do, and he (Mr_ Whrte) w~s. sorry ~o say he th?ught the de­bate on l! rrday mght went below the stan­<lard of what a debate should be in the Quc.ensland Parliament. He did not c:cre what any member said about himself, as he WoQ; there to defend himself in the best wav he could. However, he was plE;ased that th~ vote ·was passed. The hon. member for Fas·.ifern !'lso wanted to compare the Gatton College •c<tth a college that was founded in Denmark in 1783. To bring the Gatton College up to the standard of the collerre rderred to a sum o£ .P-158,00~ would be ~cquirecl, and at the present time it would be foolioh to ~pend that amount of money. As he said oefore, he as not going- to the Premier and ask for money that he knew would not be SJ{cnt to the best advantage. The han_ memuci' also stated that Queensland had to ~end homB £1 ;,000,000 every ynar to pay mterc·.t on her debts. He would like to refer the hon. m<e•,Jber to the Tr~asurer's tables •and it would have been better if the hon: n,embrn· ha~ looked at the Treasurer's tables before makm:; that statement in t 11e House. The hon. member for l\1arvborourrh was rat~er complimenta~y, hut he 's>id th';,rB w.as no '!'formation in the Agricultural ChemiFt's cc;:trficC~tcs as to what was needed by the ;;'?rl. H" (Mr. White) knr>Y that :'lh. Briin­:rrch hardL evBr sent out a statem<ent show­mg the analy.cis of soil without stating exactly •:·hat the •oil r<equired to bring it back to rts pristinB vigour. HB had asked Mr. Briinnich this morning if it was not so, oand he mid he .a]" ays .d:id oo• :

~Hon. J. White.

and he (Mr. \Vhite) told him to be very par­ticular in future when he sent any analyse& to the farmers to send the result. The han. member .also spoke ·about limestone-that tlwy shou:d try and iind it at all cost. There was limestone in every part of Que<ens­land. At the present time it was being sold on the G.\ rnpie line, delivered in the trucks, from 6s. to 7s. a ton. That was a low price. He was tr·ying to get the Secretary for Rail­ways to c.crry it at -a lm•er price on the rail­ways, as it was very much used.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILV.AYS: I know nothing about it. I thought it ,,_as from 1\-larmo~ to Bundabcrg.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: yes, he had spoken to the han. gentleman hrmsel_f about several matters, but he got very lrttle encouragement about it. (Laugh­ter.) He informed him that the,- were­already carrying ]imC"•tOnB under COSc-that was the mual gag in the Railway Depart­ment.

OPPOSITION MEMBE!cS: A split in the camp. Is that why you dropped tho Railway Bill? (Laughter.)

rho SECRETARY FOR AGRICULT"CRE: Tho hon. metnber for MarybJrou;,;h also sug­gested that lectures should be given in dif­wrent parts of the State. He quite believed in that. He had indicated already that they Int 1H~ed to .,ork that to son1o extent frorn the Gatton Coll<ege, and h·· was <tlf'J now arranging with Mr. Pvund to go round and c:rYe lectures on the tick bnsines -not per­h.tps on the extermination. of tho tick; but there we:·e many he ·ds which c.Juld be treated rather bc'rer by the c .. >raying S}stem than they could by the ,,;:pping system; it "auld not knock them off the milk so much. Another thing that the Agricultural Depart­ment was doing a great deal iP "as the valuing of different grasseo in all parts of Queensland. Mr. I3riinnich was engaged in finding out their value as fitted for stock, sheep, or an} other eLLs of animals. The-;­vcere taking the grasses at .all stages of maturity from C:harleville, Ounnamulla, Longreach, \Vinton, Hu::;henden, J\Iaekay, Townsville, Cloncurry, Kormanton. Taroom, G; mpie, Tiara. Toowoomba, Beonleigh, Har­risvillP, Esk, R.ogcwood, Bunt:b.berg, Gatton, Gindie-all over Queen.e!and. From every part of Queensland they were t,ctting- the graoses at ever~· stage of th··ir growth. s<> nwt it could be found what thev werB best fi'ted for, and what were the be-t grao,es to grow in the different parts of th., f',tate, and the results would come out in the next "_\gricultural Journal." The hon. member for \Yide Bay had made some com~limentm·y referenCBs about the late :Mr. :McLean, stock inspector in the Marvborough district. He· was grateful to the hon. me!.lbC" for men­tioning the mattBr in the wav he did. There was no doubt that Mr. McLe.m v.·as .a g-ood officer: and he v·as an oflic .. or of the Agrieul­tunl D<:'partmont, that did nothing. There ~ 1,'f'rf' a]~o oth( .c jv1spector.·: of stock, \l!. ho were "'' c-ood a:• :\fr. Lean.

Mr. BoOKER: Don't spoil a good thing.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRIC"CLTl:RE: He was not spoiling- a good thing; he was speaking up for the other offir'<ers of the· Agriculturai Department. There was one officer of the department, who, wh<>n the retrenchm<ent came, the people in his dis­trict paid the whole of his salary, and kept him there so that he could look after th&

Supply. [3 NovEMBER.j Suppty. 2407

stock. Was not that a good indication? He thonght therP were good men in the depart­ment; men who were capable of carrying out their duties with the highest advantage to the State. With regard to the bonuoes paid by the Meat and Dairy Board, he was not in the House when the matter was first brought on. The board had been going on for about ten years alto']"ether. The monev was not in th0 Agricultural Department--th~ whole of this matter was managed by three or four big squatters, who compo<ed the board, and M:r. Scriven was chairman of the board. He never got a single penny in con­nection with his work as chairman, and, at the end of the time, when thPy were break­ing up, there was £250 divided amongst the officers, and that "as taken out of tho meat and dairy fund, not from the consoEdated revenue.

Mr. BOOKER : A trust fund. The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE:

A trust fund which was bL·ing contributed to the people of Queensland. H"' was not dPfending this bonus system; he thought th,, system was wrong, and it had now bee:1 entirely abolished.

Mr. RYAN: Tho fund did not belong tD tho Minister ; it was a trust fund.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: No, it did not belong to the Minister, it was a trust fund.

The PREMIER : The board recommended the payment.

!'he SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTLJRE: "Ps. The hon. member for \Vide Bay hctd also referred to the inoculation of cattle by Mr. Pound. That was a year ag-o, and he might say that Mr. Pound had had very f, w f•,"ur· ind0ed. Some cattle would not take the inoculation, just as home people would not take vaccination. Some cattle mig-ht not take it the first time, but would take it the second or third time, and some might not take at alL The percentage of failures had been very small~as a matter of fact, they could not trace more than three. !n one lot of fifty there were only two that ·lid not take. It was unfair to take the cattle to any of the stock yards, or to any place in Brisbane-; if pc'Jple wante"l these things well done, they should take them to Yeerongpill;<', and get them properly tested and cared for. They were nursed !Jroparl.'• there, and the whole charge was only 2s. 6d. a day.

:Mr. BooKER: There were two valuable bulls in my district which died within three W<'eks after they were inoculat.~d.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE : There was absolutely no proof that those two bulls died from redwater.

)1r. BooKER: Absolutely ! The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE:

.·\ bsolutely none! The hon. member for Wide Bay gave five different names, and the denartment wrote to evervonc of thosP people: .and they were all perfectly sati sfkd with the inoculation that was done at Y eerongpilly.

:\Ir. l'>'""' You are absolutely wrong. 'l'he SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE:

H., was prepared to prove it. R 0 ferenco had f,~cn mad0 bv the hon. mmnber for Keppel to the remarks of the Under Sec­retary on the sugar industry, but th<·re was no intention on the part of the Under Sec­retary to make any reflection on the Federal Government. If the Labour party had not

been in power in the Federal Parliament, he was quite sure that the statement would have been welcomed by the hon. member. There was no question about an increase of 40 per cent and, after all, Mr. Fisher and lYir Tudor' had been in power for three yea-rs without abol'lshir,g the exci~ e or equalising it and the boun~y, and rt was only when Mr. Cook came mto power that the excise was abolished. There was no ·' oubt that the people were prepared to J?UY tho extra wages because they were gcttmg an extra 2s. per ton, and thi' Gove;nm~mt immediately passed the necessary lepslatron enabling the men to get the extra wages. The hon. member for K.Jppcl vut'' aJw.1:vs t ·:ving to belittle the Agriculture! D"part­me;.t in some wa:v became of the areo of land t'' (:r>r cultivation.

C\1 r. 1A.Bt"<lY!BE: Nothing of thP kind. The SECRET \ RY FOH AG R ICl'LTVRE :

For that matter. this was not an agncultural State at aiL But the figures in_ r?gard to liYe stock WPTP. 1.1articularly strdnng. In Nev. South \Vales th<c numbc~- of shc.ep p0r hc·ad of popu: ttion was 26.74: m Qnl·Onsla~d, 33.3;; in Vict01ia, 10.17; in Sm!th Aust1 ,tha, 14.76; and in Western Australia, 18.40. In Onccn~1and, the nurnb~r of hor,c,('s W:I.3 ._J9, a'nd c ..tt.!.le 8.26, v lcilst the cornspondmg figure Lr j\Jp"· <Couth \Yalcs 'vcre . .;1 horses and 1.43 cattle, Victoria, .37 horses and 1.24 cattk. \vhilst in South A ustraha the percent­age of c-cttle was .96 and of horses .62.

:\1r. MoRGA::<:: \Vhen we incroose our popu­lation it "ill not be so gnat.

The SEC!lRTA~RY FOR AfiR.T\ 'l"LTl~H.E_: He lwnPd that thev would increase then herds at. the same ti;nc.

Mr. RYAN: -Thnt stateEtent pro•. es not''''t''· The SECRETARY FOR AGRICl'L'l'(TRE'

It proved that they had stock in Qw •ns­land if thPV had not av.riculture. The hon. 1nembnr foi~ Carnar··o::1 created SOlile amuse­ment by his descrintion of sh ''ghtering of goaLs in the backbfock . But he \•ml_d say that in every caC•' of a \V c•·torn dt~tnct, m v;hich they had been accnstom"d to ,,aug~ter one or two cattle c.wh we~;,, the regulatwns had not berm 0nforced, because he had ~-ecog­nised that it would be an iniquiLms thmg t-:> do. Tho hon. mr nbpr for .Burnett made a v0ry good speech, although he was rather ronf"h on the !.1P!lartrncnt and ~n som~ of tho off:cers in it. Ho said it was rmpos.1blc f_or anvonc r:-oinr:- into tho department to miss f;o0ing th-e Ui1Cler S·ecre-tary and

1 no one else.

'That '' a• not the c oc·c·., and .J.•:t he went into tho office that morning Mes rs. Cory, Graham, and ::'cicGo,vn, and other, sent t_n letters addressed to himself :olating thPt It \Vas not a fact, and that anyonn could .go straight to them and get any informatwn they rPquired without going to the Under SPcrrtarv a+ alL

Mr. RYAN: Then the hon. member for Burnett is 1nisreprcsent1ng?

The SECRETAHY FOR AGRICULTT:RE: 'The hon. members for Burnett certainly was rnisr0presrmting the facts in reg-ard to that. Hcc mthL'r 'Dnrecia.tcd the speech of the hon. member, be.cau .. f' he had a good deal of fact'·; h1t he was horrlly fair to the depart­mc"lt., ar;cl he wa-, quito sure that whe:r;. ~e put the matter before him he would admit rt.

J\.lr. HYA~. He moko right and Yoted \\TQfiO'? -

Th;SECRET \RY FOR AGRIC'CJ/l'URE: No; he voted right. (Laughter.) The hon. member for Dravton was advising the de­partment to intr~duce the soya bean. They

Hon. J. White.]

2408 8uppT;1, (Af;3El\'IBLY.j Suppi:;.

heel had that bran in Queensland for years and y(ars. They had had it on the State far:as, but they cou:d not ;::ot the farmers to grow it. Tbev had another shimnont of it arriving- in Bi·isbane from China this week. HB bdiPvi!rl it was a good thing, and would do all that thp han. me'mber said in rpgard to making oil cake; but he waJ afraid that the eoot of production, including the crush­ing, would not be as effective in Queens­hen<! as in South China, where labour was vuy cheap. It had been found very diffi­<'•lit to get the farmers to take it up; but if the> hon. member for Drayton would trv to '' (Jrk it u1' i1.1 ~on:w of the farmers' unions he Yisitt•d. it mi<rht be nossible for them to do ~o•nuh;no: with it ;·et. A great deal of seed wo' availabcc. and they would be very glad 1o har.d it over free to all those who wished to gTo"· it. Th· hon. member for Mirani had : '' irl a good <kal in reference to tropical a!!ri, ultnre. and held that the department wao, not pa;:ing .Mr. Newport a oafary suffi­ci<nt for the work that he was doing. As a matter of fact, it was almost impoosible to get anyone to take U!J tropical agriculture in thn ::\"orth at the nrescnt time. Evorv­body went in for sugar; and he did not think it was much u·•e kePping him up there if they did no• g-et better rP,ults. If tho land at Charters To'>ers which had been talked about wa· opened, then it might be possible, on the height;, to grow cotton; and, as they had made comprehensive arrangements for tho purchase of cotton from the growers, it might be a success. The hon. members for Charters Towers and Queonton wore very anxiuus to haYe something done in that dire,...tinn.

Hon. R. PHILP: Why do you not put or, Mr. Jones?

The SECRET.\RY FOR AGRICULTURE : He had tried hard to get Mr. Jones to take up a cotton farm in the Charters Towers district, but ho would not. It was iust pos­sible that the land there might be- utilised in that wav. He believed that there was a dam on tli'e Burdekin River. He had not yet seen the Treasurer in reference to the matter; but h<e intended to go up in the be¥inning of the year, and it might be pos­sible to use the river for irrigation purposes to make the ne11ly opened land a very valu­able asset to the State.

HoxorR.\BLE lVIEMBERS: Hear, hear! The SECRET.\RY FOR AGRICULTURE =

The hon. member for Herbert had been rather ,~verc' in his criticisms with regard to the sugar regulations. It was a very difficult matter to get out those regulations as tho matt~r was an intricate one. and a~

international one, but there was [8 p m.] really no time lost. \Yhen the

Labour partv were in power in thf' Federal Labour Parliament, all thos"'" people were working in the mills exactly the same as thPy were doing to-day. ~\t the time of tho deportation of !tan:1kas, a 'reat many kanakas 'Yero exempted rv the Federal Par­liament, and they still reinain in the State and it would bo unfair 1 ot to make som.,;;, provi;.ion for them while they were here.

Tho PRE)JIER: Thev are exempted uncle,.,. the_ Commonwealth ]~w. -

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE :: That was so. The rec0mmendations of the Roval Commission on this subject were aB follows:--

" (a} The substitution for bounty and excise or an excise tax on the produce o :E growers employing coloured labour.

[Hon. J. White.

" (b) The provision. either by C'?m­mon·,, :!alth or by State legislation, that coloured labour should be paid the same ratE as \vhite lalrour."

That wa.'· exactly ' hat the Government were doing. .

Mr. FOLEY: Arc you satisfied that alreno are getting thosD wages?

Tho SECRETARY FOR AGRICUL'rURE: He would have to be sati,i',ed, or there 1vould be t1 oublc. It was laid down in the rcguL1tion'• that kanakas who were growmg caLe on thmr own account shonl·d be ex­ea1pted. He wished the han. mernber for Herbert to ur:derstand clearly that e\ ery part of the Act had bee;r carried out, that the rPgal <:J.tions were stnctly 111 accordance with tho Act, and that he would endea-:our to carrv out l1oth tho Act and the regulatwns to the host of his ability and for the e:ood of Queenshmd. The hon. member for _Charters Towers referred to the tick questw~, and sur"gested that Mr. found sho'!ld l?e grven a. free hand to extermmate the trek rn Queens­land. While that kind of thing might be all right in Georgia, Texas, and other parts of America· it would be a great task for ~tockowners' to attempt to extc;rminate ticks in Queensland at the present trme. Quem;s­land cornprises a very large area, and "\Vhrl_e .a crreat deal micrht be done to !e,3en thrs ter~ible tJCot, he" did not feel justifie~ in giving Mr. Pound a free hand to extermmate ticks at present· The.hon. member f?r Mur­rumha referred to frurt experts. \Vh1le there was no doubt that Mr. Benson was a par­ticularly good man, still hP believed ~hero were some just as good men t~ be obtamed. TheY had a very good man m Mr. Ro<s, who" had recenth visited the East Moreton district and given great satisfa~tion to the orchardists there. He had re<:.erved several letters from orchardists te,tifying to the good work which had b0en done by that gen­tleman. No doubt Mr. Benson was a very nopular man, but he was not .as young .as he used to bo and he "as now m Tasmama. He had hacl some idea of getting .Mr. Benson back in Queensland, but some thmgs came in tho way. But we h:tve e;oo~ men hero and crood men could be got; rt -:vas onlv' a rnatfer of giving th·'m g-ood salarr~s. I-Ie" was trving to assist .the; fruitgrowers m each diFtrict, and was havmg a conference at ~ambO'lr on Saturday week. ?'he dep_art­mental officers would take UT) 11lust_ratwns of the life of the fruit fly and other msects, and give the growers any information pos­sible. It had been suggested by s_ovoral members that tho nrovisions of the Drs~ases in Plants Act should be enfor9ed. That was a verv bi" order. They tncd to enforce the Act when there was phylloxera, and _it was found that tho disease existed only .m one distr;ct-Enoggera. Th<; entomologist exe.mined every part of the -;mos and roots, Hnd inc:tructions had been grven that after the pr<>sent crop w:.s taken off the whole of the vines sbo11ld he rooted up and burnt. The han. membL·I' for EaclHm and another han. member wanted to know whv they v ere not S'lppb·ing trout ova to the Herber· ton district. He thought Hcrberton had done vorv well in that mattor. Tho dcpartm~nt ·"·nt up one lot of 100,000 ova about two,zcars ag-o, another 10'1.000 IatM on, and then f.o,OOO. The Railwav Denartment pa1d half the c"'t of the fi·:-8t iot, and the Agricultural Department paid for both the other lots. He thought it was hardly fair for members to make another reque,t 'to the \gricultural Department for trout ova. He would rather

Supply. L3 NovE~fBER.] Supply. 2409

buy a zc od J crsey bull than supply any more trout ova. Another little matter men­tioned _!:>} the hon. member for Eacham was that o! Mr. Munru Hull's tick treatm<:mt lie ,,Tas no ... going to waste any more tirn~ <•ver Mr. H:-x~!'s, specific. Mr. Pound was perfectly sahc.neo that there was nothincr in the wggcted -treatment. Mr. Hull had 'had

-every po· 'lblo chance; the department kept stock for h_, elve months and did everything that cou,ld lJe done to test the matter, with the rosmt L ct they became attacked immedi­ately they ,were turr;ed out with tick-infested cattle. 'Ihe farmmg rcpresentativer; had been ra~lwr rough on the department. He really drd not know "hat they wanted. He h!'d been attending shows during the last CigHt months, and everywhere he went the people were delighted ~o see him, and there was nc•- •r any complamt, but cvervone had a good \Vord to say for the department. It ,wao only when h~ ca.ne _to that Chamber that he_ he·ar,d bad thmgs sard about it. (Laugh­ter.) 'Ihe, had a large number of profes­siOnal and scwntific men in the department. The.re y, ere . four veterinary surg.eons, an agrrcultural mspeetor, a botanist, an assist­ant botanist, a dairy exjwrt,_ an entomologist, ~nd a:r assrstant entomologJSt, an mstructor 1n fr:tnt cult~1re, a "'urveyor, an instructor in tropiCcel aygncultu,r;e,_ the editor ?f the." Agri­

·cultural Journal, m'~ructors m agnculture and wool. and a botamcal and entomological collector.. Then there was the Agricultural Bank wrth twenty-four officers. IIe knew t!'at the hoi_I. member for Murilla did not hko the Agncultural Bank, but it was doing a grea~ deal o_f good work, and it was abso­lutely m the _mterests of the farmers. The great complamts that were made against the bank were made by new arrivals.

Mr. FOLEY : They are too slow.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE · "They used to be too slow, but they we"e not <3low no;v. It would be a good thing if the farmers umons would do as ~a'l. done in ·Germany. In_ that countr:-;· a umon woul-d go to the bank m Berlin and say, "Here are dec·ds worth £15,000. We want £10 000 " The farmers had control of that money the~­selves, and they could lend it out to the farmers .and do the work of inspection them­selves. The grectt delay was caused by hav­ing to wait for the inspection, because money ·?ould not be -advanced until the property was mspected. In eases where farmers had not got th:ir deeds, they could obtain advances on thmr le':lses, as they ":'ere doing now. To show the kmd of comp'lamts that were made at the Agricultural Bank, he might mention t~at the other day an hon. member came to hrm -about a man who said that he had £500 worth of land and he w-anted .an advance of £200 to buy cattle. but the bank would not -give him the money. He was rather staggered, and he took th£ man's letter to the bank, when he was told that the land mrght be worth £500 when it was all paid for. but the man had onlv p-aid £9 2s 6d .and he wanted £200 stra:ight away t,; buy ·cattle. !Laughter.) Continuing the list of experts, they had the Gatton Agricu:tural College wnh 21 offiPcrs, 12 stewards, and farm labourers we_re ad-ded from time to time. 'In the Botamc GHrdens thm-e were 4 officers -.and ~0 gardrmers and labourers. In the chemrcal laboratory there were 7 officers -and _2 messenger~ and cleaners. In various publrc gardens m Brisbane there were 2 head gardeners and 3 gardeners. In connec­tion with the Dairy Produce Acts there w~s

~ dairy expert, 24 inspectocs, and 4 gradin,;; mspc-ctors. Under the Diseases in Plants Act there were 3 inspectors. Under the Shearers and Sugar \-Yorkers' Accommoda­tion Act there were 3 inspector' Thb,l there were 6 State fa,ms with their managers and farm hands. At the sugar experiment stutions there VI ere 14 officers aud 3 farm hands. In connection with sheep, liYe stock, rneat export, and brands, there were 5 veterinary inspectors, and 56 in>; 1ectors, and there wece 20 slaughtering inspectors. The hon. member for Murrumba referred to the blowfly pest. He was determined to do '''omething to cope witli the pc·st, even if it cost £10 000 or £15,000, as it was decimating the sheep throughout Queensland. The Com­monwealth Wl1S going to establish a research institute, and it would be a good thing for all the States if it undertook research work in connection with beef nodules, blowflies, foot rot in sheep, and ticks. He thought he had dealt with all the subjects referred to by hon. members, and he could assure hon. members that whatever ability he had was at the service of the State and of the primary procl.uc,,rs. (Hear, hear !)

Quc,tion-''Chief Offiee"--put and pacsed.

AGRICULTL:RAL COLLEGE. The S'ECR:E,TARY J<'OR AGRICULTuRE

moved that £13,816 be gcantcd for .. Agrwul­tural CollDge." There was not much change in the salaries, but Mr. Pitt got an !f,crease of £30, and he wa," well entitled to n-he was one of the masters and secretary; Mr. Ellard, another of the masters, go-t an in­crease of £25; Mr. ClYdesdale got an in­crease of £10; and the farm overseer got an increase of £25. In the vote for wages, hou"e servant-;, ctores, and incidentals, there "as an increase of £860, as they expected a good many more hoys at the college.

Mr. FoLEY : The dairy instructor gets an Irishznan's rise.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: The former dairy instructor left and a new man vvas appointed. There was an increase of £150 for machinery and implements, as they had to get. a good many new imple­ments, because thev wem now cultivating between 700 and So'O a<Jres, where formerly only 150 acres were cultivated. New seeds and plants were rbponsible for 11n increase of £200. There .,-as an increase of £60 for the library and apparatus. There was an incre-ase of £100 for railway fares and freights, etc., and there was a vote of £1,050 for new buildings, but he did nGt think they \\ould spend all that amount. There was another new item of £1,200 for motor-trac­tion and implements. The price asked for a motor-tractor was £1,200. It was tried at the cGI!ege, and he got the motor for £1,000. TwG were placed under offer, .and he got a man from the Ipswich Railway \Vork,hops to make a thorough i~;spection and report upon the twu-the Romney and the Big Four, and they purchased the Big Four. It was a splendid imnlement. It ploughed up a paspalum paddock of 69 acres, 7 in. deep, .at a cost of 4·. 6d .. an acre, as against £1 5s. to £1 7s. 6d. an acre by the, old method.

Mr. FIHELLY: Will any of the stu-dents see an implement like tha:t ''hen thev leave the college? ·

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: It was quite probable that they would, a>

Hon. J. White.l

2410 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

motor traction was now in general use. It ploughed up the land and cross-disccd it twice, and the whole cost of the machine would be saved in the first two vears. It was a good investment, as it savc'd the u&e o( twenty horses, which would have cost at least £40 each. In addition to that, they used the Big Four for pumping water from " creek, and it was throwing up a magnificent stream of water for irrigation purposes. Altogether it would be a splendid advertise­ment for the college. He was sure that the college was on a first-class footing now. ~hey were now breeding-up their own stock, m pla,,e .of thc"'e which the:: had to destroy as suffermg from tuberculosis.

Mr. FIHELL Y complimented the Minis­ter on his st:ttement in reply to the last vote. There was no doubt the :Minister went into d•Jtail a_nd touched on almost every 1tem. The Mm1ster nuslod membero to a cer­tain extent, and, in order to put them right he would quote from the report of one of the bnttor-graders, as shown in the report as follows :- '

" That th~ all-round quality of our export butter is not so good as it should be, there is only too much evidence. In c0tnr:nenting on a shiprnent oi last surn­mer's butter, Mr. Allen, in one of his reports, remarks: 'A great d~al mo1·e care is required in classing the crea1n. '!.'he quality of Queensland butter is steadily getting v·, or:Je.' "

'!.'here tho grader stated that the quality of Queensland butter was ge';ting worse. I-1 0 (2\ir. Fihellr) did not refer to the matter just for his 0\YU sratification, but hu thought some bcFnr method might be devised for im­proving butter. He had marked half a dozen quotati'?ns in tho report which he could g-iv<J as bearmg out what he had said on the sub­jf'ct. He trusted that in future the Minister would not dismiss his remarks in that li[!ht and air0 fashion of his. He was just as anxiouc as the :11inistcr to make the Queens­land buttGr standard the highest in the world. He did not nose ;>s an expert in acricultural matters, but he v, as pleased to IH>cr that his re narks had been endorsed by tho leon. mf'mber fur Burnett. The bon. nJ<·mbcr for Burnett rr.,de the best speech in the debate, not even uxcepting the ondnra'lcc t<>~t of th-• Minist-r. (Laughter.) \Vhcn lw spoke on the first ·.-ate, he was preYented from referring to the Gatton Col­lege, althoul!h other members wore allowpd b make r<'fercnce to it. It w'•s tho rcsu::. t of. a. misnnd<'ro-tanding: but he hoped the lVT!mstPr would be more careful in future. He wanted to get some refennc:E>s t,, the college· into "Hansard," and he noticed tha.t the "Courier" to-dav had a subleader on the bad cqnipmPnt at the Gactoll CJll<{e_ Evident:y 1'1e "Courier" thouc-ht the '-ub­.iect was good enough for a subleadcr, and he thou!Tht it sufficiently important to give '1 quotatwn hims01f. Th<> following appeared in the rcnort of thA Princinal of Gatton _.\gricv1tnl':'l] Collc·gfl :-· -

The etatus of the QuNms!and Agri­cultural Co1lcge is but one remoYe fron1 that of a farm-training "chao!. Equip­mont for instruction in scic>ncc is all but non-exi~trmL lVany scbools in Austral_ a·ia have better equipped chemical laboratories than this college. vVe have no biolovic l !a bora tory. Tho college docs not ow'l such fundamental appara­tus as a 1nicroscone or a _!:5erminatol:" much less any special appointments o.;.

rHon. J. White.

facilitiPs for research. Moreover, ev.en> with the most elaborv.te means of m­struction, any effort to_wards a h1gher standard wuuld be stultified by th ~ pre­sent regulations, which '!How b'?ys of t~e raw age of fourteen, Inexp_orionced _In farm work, and of low educatwnal att~m­ments to enter the college at -an:· tune during the voar and to rmrsue a n1oro or· less fitful course of studic-,, according to their individual tastes and without re­gard to their own ultimate good."

He noticed that the yield of milk per co_w per annum in Queensland \\as lower than m the other States, and lmYcr than the average yield for the Commonwealth. In Queens­land the vield 1wr cow for tho last year figures wei·c available was 210 gallons; ViQ­toria, 340 .r-all ons; Now South \Vale', 277 ga!lonc; and tho average for the Common­wealth was 280 gallon,s. Tho only" State that '.\a< lower than Queensland was \y_e .. ~ern Australia. He admitted that the Mm1ster was going into his department w!th a great deal more eourage than any· of h1c predcc'ls­sors, and he ho!led that Queensland would benefit from it in tl-:le n8.U future.

Mr. SWAYNE was very glad of the spirit of enterprise shown at . tho Gatten College. He noticed a recent Brisbane paper h,,d the following paragral)h in r 'gard to Gatton Agricu:tural College:-

"The rams recently purchased in Sydney by ft<' principal of Gatton Col­lege are of the Romn<'~- :VIarsh breed. The Minister for Agriculture and Stock proposes to eeouro a flock of about 500 4-tooth ewes for the purpose of testing the cross-breeding of sheep bela''' the range, which is a locality in which la'nb­raising has not made much progreB'. so­far. The Minister thinks thet _there 1~ a future for this asnect of land mdustnes. Sheep, besides the profit that comes direot, are great sca.-engers on_ a farm. At the college at present there 1s plEnty of feed. Mr. Brown was not able to 10et dairv stock for stud purposes. :Mr. \Vh1te \.Vas "anxious to seC1lre some good strains of Ayrshires and Jerseys."

So far as Ayrshire3 were concerned, t~e Gatton herd had alway! bcr>n nokd for 1ts quality but the other b,·ceds wer0 not up

' to the standard, which was [8.30 p.m.] larg8lv owing i-o parsimonv ?n

the nart of the deprrtmr>nt. \V1th re<rard to the r~ising'of lamb .• , he was part!­c,_;l;·rly pleased in that r<'garcl, becauce 1t was a matter he had urged three yea's ago. Speaking on that matter ir: 1911 he mentioned tl-. •t Victoria in the prev1ons year 0xnorted 700 000 bodies, New South Walco. 400 000 h,dics South Australia 150.0(~ bod1c•., and Queen's!and only 17,000. o,·ing . to the threatened competition of margarme w1th the dairying industry, an~. for othr>r rert.'•'lnS, it was particularly desnablc . that .. mme stron<r stimulus should be g1vcn m the matte~· of lamb-raising-, and he hop<;d what was being done at Gatton would g1ve tl_lat encouragement just the same as the tra ;·clll:>g dairy years ag-o enconraged tho da-rymg m­cluslrv. Regarding the large area that had ' ~on~ put under cultivation at Gatto•1 Col­',rre, that was advDc'>tf'd years ago by the Jete principal. He had always ad,:oca!<_:cl that a large area be put undel' culhvat10n ond that a motor traction should bo secured. but possibly the then Minister did not see-

Supply. [3 NOVEMBER.] 24U

eye to eye with him. However, he (Mr. Swayne) congn,tulatcd tho present Minister on what h0 had done in the matter.

Tho CHAIRMAN: Order ! I would Lke to draw attention to the fact that there wu s an arr.angement made to take tho g, nor a! chscusswn of the department on the firsc >ote End it has been the usual cu.tom when that was done, just to refer to the different vot. s in passing in order to get any desired infor­matiOn. If hon. member, are goiniT to mak 3 long speeches on each item that ar;ange:nent will be broken.

~\ir. SWAYNE: He did not want to break any arrangement. He would point out that the time allowed for discussio;, on the first vote was too short for an importcnt dqoa1 t­m,,nt like the. Agricultural Department. Ho•.; ·:\·cr, lw drd not wish to set a bad examp]f'. Que~tion put and passed.

CHEMICAL LABORATORY.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE moved that £2,255 be granted for " Chemic·t! Laboratory." The agricultural chemi>t had received an increase of £50. He con·-idorcd that Mr. Bri.innich was one of the best ngri­cultural chemists in Australia and he was still a little bit under the chemist in th 3

Treasurer's Department. ~1r. Briinnich was good in every dcnartment; if ho was ennt to the sug<.tr-mille he was good, end he was good in the laboratory. He was a first-class man, and. hE; (Mr. White) hoped he would long remam m the sen·ice of th~ State. The total expenditure last vear was £1 988 and the sum of £203 was ;.eceived for ~nalyses. Next year, if he had the honour to put through those Estimates, he hoped to gGt tho information morE' in the form of a balanPe­shecl so that he would be able to give the Committee every pos.-ible information.

Question put and passed.

DAIRY PRODUCE ACTS.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTCRE moved that £7.680 be gra;.ted for "Dain· Produce Acts." The expenditure in th:{c connection last year Y-as £7,470 and th, re. venue was £2.250, the cost to thn c Jnsolidato revenue being £5,255. That fund wa ,, now in debt owing to the abolitio:-1 of the cow · ''=· There were very few increa ,s in the department, but a number of insppctors h , d received increases of £10 each.

- [r. LUKE noticed that thoro wor0 fou. inspectors at £190. thirteen at £180, fiv,, at £170, and two at £160. Thuo insp< cton; had very large districts to · uporvisc, and lf they wore to carry out the work they were supposed to, they should be paid a big') :,r salary. If they inspected each dairy they were supposed to, they \\ould be travf'lling the greater part of the ~e:n, and he hoped that next year th" MiniJt·tr would see hi; way clear to increoce their salarie" and allox them more travelling expenses than thc>"­received at present.

Mr. BOOKER (Wide Bay) entire'y en­dorsed the remarks of the hon. member for Aubigny. The dairy inspector stationed at JHaryborough had to deitl with a district from Rockhampton to C.,bcolture. He was not questioning his salary I 'lt he had every

right to qu~ ;tion the expenses allowed. That officer only received £50 a Y(far to cover travelling expenses, and that drd not make for efficient work. That man "'"s keenly enthusiastic in his work~he was one of the Y.cr..; bo.~~ officers in the departin nt-but 1t wa; an injustice to the officer and an in­ju-ticG to the area that he had !o look after. That man had to travel from .Marybo,ough to Rockhampton and from JYL,r: bot"''ugh to (;aboolture and up and do>~ n the brancn lines and it was a denlorable allowance for a m~n filling that responsible po,ition and it affect-ed the efficiency of his work. No matter how earnest or how enthusia,tic he r,<ight be, he had no right to. be a~ked to cut into his salary to pay hrs su"'enan~e "hen he was away from home. A man m that position could not go k> a h;rsh:house, and he could not camp out m the park--he had to go to a decent hotel •. where he m:t the people he hail to do busmess wtth. he c.-as quite certain that the Mtmster .would grasp the position, and that on the EstPr~a.te3 next year there would be bdter provrswn nade for the men who had to travel OYer curh a large area. It was not only that

1 .n ; and he was pleased the hon. nwmbGr :o~ Aubigny had raised the same pomt.

Mr. STEVEXS wi .. hed to support the hon. nwmbor for Aubigny and the hon. member for \Vide· B·w with regard to the calartc,• ar1d alla-n ances 1~aid to the dairy in:cpec:ors. !fe ,,·0 u!d Ji].·p to draw the JYlinister's. uttentwn to th0 diriercncc bdweun the salar1es of the g-radi~g in· ~"'uc+ors \Yho had no b aYE'l~_ing and tlw dair.v im "dors who had to tra> el. over large an "1S of coantry. As he had pre':10nsly mentioned, he considered the work m the countrv f1w more important than the work in t 1ro 'town, ... nd he thought tlnt the depart­rnu;t might very well clisp~nso . with the scrv~cc,,: of one of these grading Inspectors, an:l. appoint rnorc in:· pector~ in the l'lUntry, w as to n•rhcl tlw area that thny had. to travel on•r. It ,,·as practic dly impossrble for the inc·,ectors 1-.l do theiT duty as they v auld v; i h, Lavinq; such a large ~n;a of colnltrv to tr ;vel oyer, and con· 1dcr~ng ~he ::--~1,;_11 ":1Ilov .<.nee they had for trave!hng expen~c. "·

l\Tr. BRBBI"\GT0:'\1" (Dn •Jton) was in at'ccrd ith othor h<;n. me :~hers Y ho hsd s-;;oken o~1 :!-hj., 1natte1'; in f.:-tct, he had re~ n1incled ·h,, department once or t·::ice that the ;Il'.'1F·r'tor::::; ''?:2·0 in sotno pb.ces a very long~,,_,·,. a;jart, ar:d '~ t;rc t 'Ll:vollinrr at lc~st ~0 or 50 n.ilc"· ~thr far:\ory Inspectors l)rln­ci -,an v he 1_; :1.s sp(-tking o2. .£1 a ·week \Y~\ ·' iro+ .;uf!}cicnt for travollirFt ex ron ~S. To c;et to the factor.' :hat h~ (l\Tr. Bebbi:og­ton) v :;,s cm'h ·kd with. ·;. hich 1. as 5 mrles from C.'n1hooya, , n in"lJC.;tor ,,~ould have to l' '-:.' at lca',t 1C 6cl. fm a salky to go from the r 1ihcay station to the factory. IIo be­IicYC'd that thrse men could not do half what tlLv "ould like to do. They ,,·ere YcrY n·od. 'P'"l. He knnv ::\Ir. \Yilkin in t~w Scnith and :•lr. \Ya+;on in the Bundaberg drs­trid: thcv were two splendid cher cmakers, a·1cl reallv first-clac., factory managers thf'm­selvPs, aP.d WC'rcl ,, ble to ~·ive instruction either in factorv work or anvthing else that '' ~ needed. " Their travelling expenses should b~ incr<'a~ed b,· a consid-·rable amount, anrl he did r:ot tliink it W'lS too late for tho 2\IiniFtGr to arH something to them this year without w."iting for next year.

MT. MORGA:\' (Jiuri/la) understood that in conuect'on with the inspection and grading

Mr. 111 organ. J

2412 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply,

of butter and che,'-;e, Queensland was the only State in Australia that insisted upon compulsory inspection and grading. He would like to know from the Minister if this co1npulsory inspection and grading was a benefit to Queensland? Were they receiving a bettor price in London for butter which was cent from Queensland than the other Statec; of Australia, and were they getting better treatment as far as chcece was con­cerned? If not, was it wise to continue the in.o;Jection and grad:ng of butter and cheese £• 2ing that it was no:· compulsory in othe~ State,? lie certainly thought that they should send away from Qtwonsbnd the best poocible <..rticle, and endeavour to get a name for our butter and chehe, L.1t compulsory inspection and grading had been going on for some years, and he would like to know if it had a good effect? So far as the butter factories were conc·orncd, tho managers and directors did ,not altogether approve of. compulsory gradmg. The pr<nmpal factones had dif­krent names for their butter. They called the first quaTity a certain name-he did not want to mention any name now as it would disclose a particular factory-and they had a name for their second quality. It had been brought under his notice that in some in­stances the cecond quality had been graded in Queensland as the first quality, and allowed to go in amongst. the first quality butter. A certain amount of dissatisfactjon existed in connection with grading. Some of the mana(\ers of tho butter factories in­formed him that the butter coming from a country factory by train in tho truck Pro. vided was immediatel-c graded when it arrived at the grading station, while it Was in a hot condition, and thov caid that that was unfair. ·

The SECRET\RY JWR AGRICULTURE: That is not the case.

Mr. MORGAN: They said that the butter should be put into the cool chamber, and allowed to cool down to the temperature it would have in the cool room of the factory. He had been informed to that effect by one of the managers of a butter factory which had the brgost output of butter i~ Queensland, who said he had seen this done, and he (Mr. Morgan) mentioned it to see if something could not be done to ensure that the butter WM graded and tested under the very best conditions.

Mr. BOWMAN (Fortitude Valley) thought the dairy inspectors did not get as much as they should get, so far aq the travelling allowance was concernBd. He had had one or two communications on the matter. The inspectors WBre doing a beneficial work for the State, cmd they were not compensated as well as they should be. The hon. member for \Vide Bay had referred to one inspeotcr who had to dip into his salary so that he IJ1ight do his work for the benefit of the Govcrnmcn•, and he did not think that w-as a fair thing. He believed that Mr. Winks, the senior· grading- inspector, was a very excellent officer for the position he occupie..d.

;\i[r. BEBBINGTON : For any position.

Mr. BOWMA::\1: He was not a farmer himself. but he ho.d lishned to the debates in the House for years paqt, and there h::ad been a strong agitation on the part of ha.n. members on both sides of the House to have the butter graded, in order to get the beost re~ults from the dairying industry.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE : Hea.r, hoar!

[.ilfr . .ilforgan.

Mr. BOWMAN thought it waul~ be a huge mista.ke on the part of the Commrttee to do away with the grading system.

Mr. MORGAN : That is what we want to lind out.

Mr. BO\Vll'lAN: Unless some stronger reason could be given to h1m by ,members opposite he would not d1spense w1th the system. ' He thought that when the butter w.to graded tho producers coul.d rely on getting a very much better pnce. m the rnarket than if it \vas seut f'pasrrlodwally.

Mr. BEBBI~GTO~: Who is competent to grade?

J\Ir. BOWMAN: He ventur;,d to say ~hat tho h'ln. member for Drayton had an 1dea that he was competent to grade butter and cheese. (Laughter.)

Mr. BEllBINGTON: ="io, I am not.

Mr. BOvVMA::\': The bon. member never rrot up but what h<c was on cheese or butter ~r something of that sort .. _(Laughter.) He was satisfied that the Mm1ster was domg the rig·ht thing for the repuLtion of Q.uee_ns· land in other parts of the world m oontmmng the grading system.

Mr. BOOKER: He was present with the Minister at the opening of the Murgon Butter Factory when the manager, a very .able man, went very fully into the question of grading, 'lnd, li~e many Queenslanders who w<'re interested m the quesuon-to some extent he was interested in ·every butter f.ac­tory in the Wide Ba~· district-he .w~mld hke to hear what the views of the Mm1ster ana his officnrs ·were.

Mr. BERTRA:U:: That manager did not ob· ject to grading.

Mr. BOOKER: He was not speaking in .any sense for or again~t grading, J:>ut he thought it was a very npe opport:rmty for the Minister to give the 9ommrtte~ . the opinion of his .advisers and h1s own opmwns on the matter. He had an opinion, but he was open to get ir.'formation, an~ pe would r<tther hear the opmwn of the M1n1ster than give his own.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: He was rather glad thoat the discussion had been raised. He would like to say that he was of the opinion whic'h the members of the Committee seemed to hold-that t!'e allow· .ances of the dairv and cream mspectors were too little for the great area of country thev had t<1 cover. The districts, on the av~~·age, took in over 1,000 dairies each, and althourrh it was rather difficult to get .all the monev o YOu wanted, if he was in charge of the dep~rtment a little longer and kne':". the conditions as he tried to know the condJtwns of .all tho~e concerned in the dairying indus­try he hoped they would get a little more tha'n they had allowed them then. . With regard to tho very IIDJ?ortant qu<•»tlon of but~er-grading, he was m Tasmama at the beo-innino- of the year at a confer8nce of M~ister~"" and experts on that .and oth.er n~>:tttors. They had two experts fro:n Vw­toria, wh-ere they did a great d<•'d. in butt.er, the expert from South Austraha, whwh did verv little, and tho ex put of New Sou_th Wales. ·The Minister and experts from Vw· toria had only one o:'inion-tpat they were going in, so soon .as they pobJb]y could, for compulsory grading. As a n;atter of fact, thev told him that although 1t was not yet compul;ory, 90 pel: cont. of the farmers in

Supply. [~ NOVEMBEP.J Supply. 2413

Victoria had applied to have their butter graded, so that the primarv nroduc<er there nreferrecl t.o have it grad€d -before it left tho State.

Mr. H eNTER : How long ago is that?

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: In February last.

Yl:r. IIUN'l'ER: They think that it might help to meet the competition for margarine?

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: That was partly the reason. Every one of the States was very anxious to grade their ·butter. Queensland was abdut 2s. behind Victoria on the London market.

Mr. MORGAN: They do not grade there.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: It was not compulsor0 , but 9G per cent. wa~ graded before it left the State. This was not a matter which the farmm had wanted him"elf. It was only a few-a very few­butter factories that were against compul­sory gmding. As a matter of fact, Queens­land butter had got on the av·crage better prices during the year than ever prccviously,. and that was satisfactory. Inspectors from Victoria and Queensland had compared notes in refer<>ncc to the grading of a certain fiftoen boxes of butter, and in thP cam of only one box was there a point difference between them, so that butter-grading had been re­duce<'. to a fine art. Thc•,c men knew .abso­lutely what they were doing. So long fS he was in the department, he was absolutely in favour of compulsory gra:Oing, and he be­Iiev<>d it would have the tendency to keep up the q~ality and be in the best interests of the pnmary producer.

Question put and passed.

DISEAOES IN PLANTS ACT.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE moved that £4,249 be granted for " Diseases in Plants Act." The cxnenditure in that sub-department in 1911-12- as £4,G35, and la't year was £4,447, whilst the incom<J was £1,944, making it a comparatively small vote so far .aB the consolidated revenue was concerned. He believed that more money might have to be spent in connection with ~he exten;nination of phylloxera. It had not oeen decided to take up the whole of the orchards at Enoggera when the Estimates were made up, but it might be necessary to spend a little more money in order to clca.r up some orchards that he had seen. But if ~hey enforced the Diseoses in Plants Acts, It would cost a good deal of moncv and would havo to be done gradually. ·There wa•. reall:y a decrease in the votle this year.

Mr. HUNTER Piaranoa) was very glad to hear that it was tho intention of the department to take up the phylloxera trouble at Enoggcra. IIe had vory strong reasons for being anxious about that particular dis­ease, because they had some very <'xtensive vineyards in his district, and very profitable they were so far as thev wf'nt, ailthough they might p<>rhaps be made more profitable if they had some system of marketing .and probably more supervision. He believed it was quite possible for the grapes to reach the London market, .and he would like the de­pa,rtment to take the matter up seriously. It was a very big and important question in connection with the profitable occupation of

the "\V estern area, and there was a, big field ther<> for the industry, but thb

[9 p.m.] people must hav~ proper advice, and that advice should come

from the DopttrL,wnt of Agriculture. He. hoped the dcpactment would not neglect the dread scourge of phylloxora at Enoggera~ b• cause if it was carried into other districts it would be a very '·'rious matter. One man in his district had 200 acres of vines, and if the disease got amongst them, it w<m],d simply meHn ruin to the owner. If the dis­CRSP was dealt with at its present 0tage, future trouble might be avoided, and he would st-ongly impress upon the Minister th" necr ·<sity of <l.ealing with the matter without delay.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE : Notices have been sent out.

Mr. RYAN asked, on behalf of tho hon. member for Cairns, why the amount of £100 for a fumigating chamber at Cairns. which was voted last yc ar, had been omitted.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICuLTURE : Tne otamber was only erected last year. and the,;­did not require another .-ote this year.

Question put and passed.

ccHE.\RE:::S A:<iD Sl>~ IR WORKLRS AcCOMMODATION ACT.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE moved that £1,000 be granted in com:ecticm with thf' ShoaJ·ers and Sugar \Yorkers Ac­commodation Act. The amount enrnt la t year was £1,093. There was a red-uction of £50 in the item railway fares and freights, travelling expenses, postage, and incidentals.

Mr. RYAN: Wh.,- is that? \Vas the amount voted last year not expended ?

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: No.

Mr. HAMILTON wished to know from th~ Minister why effect had not bPen given to the motion moved by himself and r.grced to by the House last year, affirming the desir­abilit0 of <'xtendin;7 tiw Shca,crs and Sugar \Yo,·kor; \ccc mmodation Act so as to in­clude men engaged on stations all the year round and insure to thorn proner sanitary accommodation? Nothing' had been done in that direction. There had been outbren ks of typhoid fever in the \Vest, and this week's papers reported that more case' had been brought into Winton. Tho disc·aso had bee'" pretty serious at \Vinton, where eight or ten deaths had occurred, and the local authority had spent a gre<1t df•,d of mone ,- in com· bating the outbreak. A matter of this kind. which concerned human live·, should rocf'i• e more attention than it did. If a dis<>1se broke out among cattle or pigs or fowls, an expert was s 'nt out to 1nake inqn: ries and report, but wh0n an outbreak of typhoid fever occurred nothing wa·· donC'. Just as much care should be taken o' human livr•s as of the lives of animale, and he hoped this matter would receive immediate attention.

Mr. MAY (Flinders) endorsed what had been said by the hon. member for Gregory with reference to accommodation for sta.tion hands. He did not see any reason why the amount for travelling expemes should be reduced, because inspectors had to go over a

Mr. Llf ;zy.]

2414 Supply. [AS SEMEL Y.] Supply,

vast area of country. He thought that in­spectors m the far West should be provided with motor-cars.

The PREMIER : Motor-bikes.

Mr. MAY: Well, give them motor-bikes, but If they had motor-cars they could give: ~ hft to a person on the road. One of tho mspectors had be<•n in the service for years and he was only receiving £250 per annum: He thought that ':hen they were raising the s>:lanes _of the big bugs they might have given this man another £20 ~ year.

Mr. PAYNE (.'IIitchell): He had hea:d a _great many complaints from his electorat "'Ith reference to the matter mer,tioned b,­th~ . hon. member for Gregory, and the Mimster would find tho,e complaints in his office. The last complaint he received was from a number of men who were men enough to sign ~ letter on the subiect. A numb-·r Df stations in his district supplied first-cl a'ss accommodation for their men, and the Go­VPrnment should insist upon other station,, which were lagging behind coming up to the level of those which provided clean an-d honest accommodation. In some places the men had to draw water half "' mile and having 'been a shearer him-•elf, he !me.~ wha'c that meant. If men had to work amon,­the grease, sweat, and filth of a shed, ~nd thee- had not a dcc"nt opportunitv of getting a bath at night, it was little wonder that typhoid fever broke out among them. I-Ie hoped the Mini>ter and the inspPctors would t'ke some netic_, of what he was saying, What annoyed him most was that there would be one station that required no looking after at all, as the accommodation w<>s fir,t class and 50 or 60 milt"' away thoTe wou'd be an~ other station where the conditions were just as bad as they were before the paseing of the Act. The greatest offenders were the men with shearing plants. Some of the plants were filthy, and it was little wondec there was sickness. \Vhere ten o~ tweh,r 8 sheep ,,-ere killed every day, tho offal should either be burned or otherwise be got rid of but it was allowt>d to lie about within 100 yards of where the men ate. He could support what the han. member for Gregor v -said with reference to the outbreak of tyPhoid at \Vinton last year. There were eight or ten young men who wont to the hosp:tal at Winton and died from typhoid.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: 'What shod did they come from?

Mr. PAYNE : He thought most of them cu.ne from Kynuna. They were practically dead when they entered the hospital. Fie did not \Pnt to say that the Government were calion , or that tho:; 1rould bke more -care \vhcre anin1als 'vero concerned than in the rc"e of human being~. but that appeared to be the 0!1inion in Central (iueonsland. If any pest was discovered, the Goyernmen t took steps to try .md wipe it out.

Tho SECRETAHY FOR AGRICULTt:RE: Surel:s-~ you don't think we would not take mol'".', trouble in the ca•-e of human beings?

'\1r. PAYNE: He 1'ould not sa> that of either the hon. l!enthoman or the ·Premier but it was possible that thev did not kno,.,; about the c·tses to which reference had bee:n made. Some of thP sheds at which shearin ~ plants worked in his electorate wore simpls dioll'racoful, and were in a worse condition thon they were twenty-five years ago. Th_43 letter he had handed in to the departme11 t

[ill r. ilf ay.

,,_as signed by over twenty men, and those men would not have put their name' to the letter unless the statements were true, and un:ess tho conditions were very bad indeed.

Mr. RYAN trusted tho l\Iinister would make some reply to the question raised by the han. members for Gregory, Flinders, _and Mitrhell. In the first place, the Committee wets entitled to an explanation as to '':hy lho Government had takc'n no steps to give effect to the resolution which was passed by tho House last se-ssion with regard to apply­ing the Shf•uers and Sugar iVorkers .~\ccom· r odation Act to statwn hands. Particularly_ i-~ matter of th'' t•·phoid cases at \Vinton required explanation. He had received some letters with IT'•pect to that matter from ollicial 9 of the unions, and it was suggested that it was possibly on account of the non­obson anc0 of the rcr;-ulations that the out­break of typhoid took place. H~ was S';Ir· pris<'d the Yl:inister was not acquainted With 1 he fact that several shearers and shed hands were brouiTht in to the iYinton Hospital from at lea ·,t o;e station and died in the hospital under, very sad circumstances. Had it hap­pened in Brisbane there would have been an outburst of public indignation and a de~and for invr,tigation as to whether the drsease was due to neglect of the regulations. He remembered seeing a report of -a case w~ere two voun" fellows went on to one statwn, and one '~as taken ill with typhoid, and h_is mate took him to the Winton Hospital, and m brii'!l-ing him in he himself contracted the disrase and diod before his mate; and they 1rere both buried' thousands of miles away frc.m their friend8, Th8 least they could do was to inveo,tigate the matter and ~ee that such a thing chould not occur agaw. Hb hP d seen no ronort from anv officer of the Health Denartment or from any other official eource which satisfiod him that the outbreak was not due to neglect of the regulations.

:::VIr. RCNTER said that he had addresse::J some quP,tions to the :Minister upon th_Is question with reference to some ;---tatwns. Ill his district, and he was not satisfie? with the Minister's replies, and he would hke t~e han. go.1tleman to get a report from his inspectors upon the matter. There was one ;,heel v·hich at one time was qurte beswge? "-ith applications from shearers, but thrs • Pa celn it had to advertise for slwarers. It was not because men were scarce, but l>e< a use m' n aid not care to work there. The thing was serious, and the hon. gentle­man si<ould ask his officers for a report.

The ScCRETAHY FOH Aomcl'LTURE: We got a report.

l'v1r. HU:'\TTER : The han. gentleman got a H'port by wire.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTUHE: No; we got a long roport.

Mr. HlJKTER: He would be obliged if t~1e han. £l'entleman would let him see that report. He knew the report by wire was simplv a confirmation of the previous report, and so was worth nothing.

ThA SEORE'l'ARY FOR AGRICL;LT'GRE: The question of what action was to be taken with respect to applying the Shearers and Sugar \Yorkers Accommodation Act to station hands was one of Govemment policy, and he was not the head of the Govern­ment. He aso.ured the hon. member for Maranoa that a long report had been re­ceived on the matter referred to by him.

Supply. (3 NOVEMBER.] Supply. 2415

He had ju,,t asked the L:nder Secretary to get it, and he would be very pleased to show it to the hon. member. The officer who made the report stated that thm·e were .several cases of typhoid on one station, and h~ had got a doctor's certificate to that df,,ct. Immediately an:; report came in, the department asked for a report. In the case of outside stations it took a long time before they could get a report, so the department 11sked them to wire immediately and follm' up with a written report. It was tho duty of the department to carry out the pro· visions of the Ad to tho fullest exte1t, and they were going to do it.

:Mr. IL\:YIILTON thought the A~t should be amended to give the in.;pectors more power than they had at the present time. At the pre,ormt time the mspectors could not take action straight away. They made an inspection and ordered that certain things 1Je done. and theJ had to come back again to see if they 'Were carried out and then refer them, to Brisbane before they could summons. There was too much red tape about it. Everyone knew that there was an Act in existence and that the;, must conform to it, and the inspector should be given suffi­cient power to see that they conformed to it straight away. It was impossible for the in­speptors to got round the whole of their -districts before shearing time to see that all the necebJary accommodation was there. Tho :"<orthern inspector was a good man, but in 'orne case' he could not arrive till shearing startC'd. There was no <loubt that typhoid broke out on the station in the \Vinton dis­trict, and further inquiry should be ma<lo into it. Some of the doctors seemed to think that a typhoid carri<er brought the disease there. It was a serious outbreak, and ten or twelve fine young able-bodied men lost their li' d. Further precautions should be taken. He hoped the Act would be amended in the terms of the motion passed last year io apply it to station hands.

Mr. P A YNl<~ pointed out tllat it was impossible for an inspector to get round to all the sh0aring sheds before shearing time. An inspector had to have a pair of horses, and if th<cy rode a horse 30 miles a day for a week, they would want to give him a spell. The salary of £250 a year for the inspector,, was not sufficient if they had to take two horses with them. He had received no complaints from the permanent hands in his district. but he pointAd out to the Min­ister that if the station managers had clean ac<'ommodation in one part of the station premises ,, nd allowed another part to get into a t1lthy state, seeing that these men all mixed together, it would only moan that any diee•J·e that existed in one part of the station would be carried to the clean part, so it would be b• tter to insist on it all being kept clean. So far as he was personally con­cerned, he preferred a tent in the open air to a closed-in building, but as it was neces­sary in any ca·B to provide good clean accom­modatiOn, he hoped the Minister would give some attention to it.

Mr. RYAN: The Minister stated that it was a question of the policy of the Govern­ment whether the motion pa••sed last year with regard to bringing station hands under the provisions of the Shearers and Sugar Workers Accommodation Act would be given effect to. He would like to know from the Minister what was the policy of the Govern­ment on the matter? The Minister for Agri­culture might ascertain from the Premier

what was the policy of the Government on the matter, because Parliament had passed the motion that it was desirable that the provisions of the Act should be exten<;ied to station haTHlS. \Vhcn were they gomg to consider it?

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: Not this session.

Mr. RYAN: Would they deal with it next sc~sion?

The PRE:UIER : We will look into it.

Mr. RY.\N: Looking into it might mean that it would be shelved.

The PRE2\IIER: No; ,., e will consider it.

Question put and passed.

SLAUGHTERING ACT.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE moved that £5.160 be granted for " Slaugh­tering Act." The vote was an increase of l;G29 over that of last year. Last year they expended £5,202 on the vote. Thera was an additional inspector proVIded for at £200. and there were increases in the forage allow­ance, railway fares, freight,, and other con­tingencies.

Mr. GILDAY (Ithaca) was disappointed that more consideration was not given to the inspectors. They were doing goo-d work, and should receive better treoctment. They had in the service some of the best inspectors in the Commonwealth. Mr. Highet was an old servant. He jomod the department in 1897, and in 1899 he received an increase of .£44, bringing his salary up to £200. Since that time he had not received any increaFg. Mr. Ciweseman was another officer who should receive son1e consideration.

The SEGRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE : Cheese­man got an increase ot .£20.

Mr. GILDAY: Mr. Highet ha<l received no con•.idemtion since 1899, and such an offi­cer should receive consideration. Those men were looked to to safeguard the interests of

the community, and the Royal [9.30 p.m.] Commission pointed out that the

in,pection would have to be of a higher standard in the future. The men who wore over those inspectors were not as efficient in r.-gard to the work as the inspec­tors, and that ,,hould be taken into considera­tion. In appointing inspectors, consideration should be given to the men who thoroughly understood the trade. In Yictoria the in­spectors, in nearly every case, were taken from the trade, and were men who thoroughly under-toad the trade. He knew m<'n who had pas&ud the examination years ago, but up to the present they had not been called upon to take a position as inspector.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: I 'ap­pointed one only yesterday who l:tad passed the examination.

Mr. GILDAY: He knew of seYeral who had left Queensland recently and who had got appointments in the other States. He hoped the inspectors would get more con­sidN·ation in the future than they had re­ceived in the past, as he felt sure that, if any body of men required better remuneration than they received at the present time, it was the meat inspectors.

Mr. Gilday.]

2416 Supply. [ASSEMBLY. 1

The SEC'RETARY FOR AGRICULTURE. He was inclined to think that :Mr. Highet did got a riee, and Mr. Che<',eman got an mcrease of £30. He might also state that no insp:ctors. of slaughtering-house'< would he appomted m the future except those who had passed the examination. That would also apply to dairy inspectors and stcck in­spectors.

:Mr. GILDAY: Did not they always have to pass an examination?

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: ::.!o: but he had made a rule, which was passed by thr> Public Service Board at the lost meeting, that in future all inspectors must paes the examination. The department had an enormous number of applications for appointments as slaughtering inspectors and stock inspectors. There were 216 applica­tions for employment under the Dairy Pro­ducr; Acts, 338 applicatwns for appointments under the Stock Act, and there was ;a. tremendous number of applications as engi­nem·s, gardeners, fruit experts, etc., total­ling 1,339.

Mr. HuNTER: It is a good department to work for-no speeding up there.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: There must be something in it. They could not consider the salaries were too low, or else there would not be so many applications.

Mr. TROUT said it did not matter as far as he was concerned hov. many applications there might be for positions in the depart­ment. He considered that the persons who were employed as inspectors at slaughtering­hou.'"S were not paid a fair salary. The argument that numbers were applying for the position, to his mind, did not hold good_ They knew the men they had were good men, and they received something like £3 16s. lOci. a week, or 6s. 10d. more than the slaughterman who worked eight hours a day. He hoped the Minister would take the matter into consideration, and if he wanted to retain the type of man they had-he main­tained they bad men in that employ who were worth looking after and worth retain­ing-they would have to give them more consideration. It was wise in all businesses to retain good men when they knew they ha.d good men. The Minister hnd said that no sugg~·;tions had been made to him with re­gard to the administratic'n of the depart­ment. He (Mr. Trout) would make a. sug­gestion which he thought would simplify matters. ThP department were ·supposed to look after the whole of the workings of the trade. and it v. as the duty of some of the impectors to see t.hat the carts of Brisbane were kept up to the standard. He suggested that there should be certain days set ·apart in the vNn· for the purpose of inspection, and that 'the wh0le of the carts from certain dis­tricts on certain days should be brought together. Then the inspector would have the 't;hole of the <,uts together, .and he would be able to pass those that were kept in the c"Ondition. they ought to be kept in, and he could condemn those he considered shoul<l be condemned, or notifv the owners what r~· pairs he thought wer'e necessary. If the Ministf'r carried out that suggegtion he would find that it Would simplify matter.,., and that there would be less difficulty i.:n r<>gard to the carts of Brisbane in the futu:r:-e. There had been enough said about the sho~s, and he felt positive good would come of the

fHon. J. White.

discussion. No respectable man in the trade· was desirous of conducting his busine<9 other than on sanitary and eleanly lines. All that they were asking for was that during the hot summer months they had common-sense· administration.

Mr. BOOKER: Some of the comments pa3sed in regard to dairying inopectors would apply equally well to meat ins})ectors as to the exnenses allowed to enable them to carry out 'their duty in the beot possible way­that was, to serve the interests of the country. He just wished to make a. few r~marks deal· ing with the butchers' shops being, what he might term, hermetically seal~d in tho sum­mer months. Since he spoke on the questio01 last week he had been in Maryborough on Saturday and to-day. Th,c position had become so acute that the employees i,n the butchers' shops were refusing to work m the shops under present conditions. He would this week receive a memorial from the butchers' emp loyces on the question, and also tram tlw rnasfer butchers, and he understood that the same thing applied in other centres. \Vhcn the masters and the men agreed that the conditions under which they were asked to carry on the business were such that they could not carry on, and, further than that, that it affected the meat that went out to consumption, the Minister would recognise that there was something wrong and en­deavour to rectify it. There would be a very strong request, both from the men and the· employPrs, to a:ter tho present state of things, n nd he hored that in the interests ?f the public who had to consume the meat, m the interc,.ts of the men who had to deal with it, and of thP employers who had to carry th,, burden of it, something would be· done to relieve the pressure that everybody in con­nection with the trade and the public had to suffer.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULT'CRE: In reply to the hon. member for Enoggera.. he would consult the officer with regard to the carts, .and they would very likely be a,ble to adopt the hon. member's suggestion. He had been round with the Trec,,mrer through the slaughter-yards in the South Brisbane district on Friday morning, when they were in full killing. The carts were there, and there was not one of thf>-n that you could not have taken your food off. They were beautifully clean, and in splendid order. and as a rule the slaughter-yards were in splendid order. Both the Treasurer and himself were very pleased and surprised.

QuP,tion put and passed.

STATE FARMS, GARDENS, AND NURSERIES.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE moved that £12,015 be grantc"! £c;; "State Farms, Gardens, and Nursenes. There were very tew tncre.ases here; there was a reduction in one or two amounts. The amount last year was £14,015. when there was £2 300 for the esbblish'Tient of a State farm at Kairi, which had been omitted from the Estimates this year. The amount spent at tlw Hermitage was £762, at Gin-;li~ .£'21, rt K'1.iri, which h"d just b<>en m1t·ated, £1.185, at Warren £693, and at Kamorunga £1.086. He did not think anyone would object to what had been snent on the f.""tdens in Brisbane. The number of people who took advantage of the gardens on Sa.tur­da.y and Sunday was A.notinouR, a:id it was n.

Suppty. [3 NovEMBER.] Supply. 2417

plea,ure for anyone, either from this State or any part of the Commonwealth, when they came her•" to go to the gardens.

Mr. S"\VAYNE noticed unckr this heading £200 dm.·n for the Gindi<> State Farm. He suggc"tcd that a great deal more should be made of that farm than what was being done at present. It lay in the middle of -a very fertile belt of country, suffering eerl :cin climatic disadvantages, which extended from the Dawson on the south to Keto on the north. The soil wa<·' good; thirty-five years ago ho raised crops of maize, oats, sorghum, and so on, within 70 miles of it, on a station he was living on. The trouble was the rainfall, which was quite up to the average of many first-class farming districts ; but, being in the tropics, it fell in the autumn instead of the spring. It was quite possible that, by a sufficiently wide range of experi­mentation with different seed~ and crops, and different times of sowing, it might be shown that farming could be profitably carried on there. He had spoken to Mr. Jones, the cotton expert, the other day, who thought that that crop could be successfully grown m the Central district, returning £8 and £10 per acre. He had pointed out that it could be worked in with sheep on a farm, especially in a dry time, as they could live on the leaves; yet not a single plant of cotton had been grown on the farm, which was situated in the centre of th'l district where such possi­bilities existed. He would urge on the Minis­ter increased attention and enterprise in con­nection with the Gindie State Farm. He noticed that there was a sum down for thE• establishment of a State farm in the Cairns district. There ought to be a State farm at Mackay; there had been :1 requect for some time for the establichment of a small he"rd of dairy cattle there. They had snl8ndid dairying country at the back of the Range, rand just as there existced the need at the back of Cairns for a State farm to develop the dairying indus~ry there, they had . an equally good cafe m the lY1ackay d1stnct, and he "auld urge the matter on the Minister for his consideration.

Mr. ADAMSON was glad that the hon. member for Mirani had referred to the Gindie State Farm.

Mr. SWAYNE: If affects your district as well.

Mr. ADAMSON: Yes, not particularly his district, but the Central district. He would be very glad if the Minister would make some inquirieo and see that the farm was put to the best possible use.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE : I am going up there as soon as the session is over.

Mr. ADAMSON: He knew that Mr. Daniel Jones had done a great deal-there had been cotton grown in the Capella district to a fairlv large quantity-and he thought there ought "to be some experiments on the Gindie State Farm as far as cotton was concerned. He understood that there had been some very fine crops of wheat this season in the Spring­sure district. If wheat produced to a value of £13 to the acre, as was stated in an article in the " Daily Mail" on 19th Septem­ber last, that district was worth inquiring al'out, and the farm should be put t.o iL best use. He hoped that so:ne of the lecturers to L• annointed would be sent out to some of the f' r:,;"rs in the Central district, to give them information that might be serviceable

1913-7 I

to them as far as farming was concerned. ·what he rose to inquire about was the vote for the parks and gardens. He noticed that there was an increase this year of £285, so far as Brisbane was concerned, but he did not see anything put down for Rockhampton.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: That is in a different place.

Mr. MoRGAN: The next vote.

Mr. ADAMSON : He was quite willing to have the discussion on the next vote, if that was the place for it. There was .£4,135 to be spent for the salary of the manager of the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane, and for the gardens themselves, and for Mount Coo-tha -all in Brisbq.nc-while there was. nothing, so far as he could see, for other places. He would also like to remind the Minister that although he spoke about general agri­culture in the Central West and near Rock­hampton on another vote, he did not reply to his remarks. He hoped that the Minister would give some attention to the Central district, because if he did not, he had made up his mind to pester him in every way he could. 'l'here was strong feeling in Rock­hampton and Central Queensland in relation to the matter, and he was told that in the maps issued at the bureau in Sydney the Central district was shown with the smallest area, 151,000 square miles, which were the figures given by the Minister for Railways when they had the debate on Central separa­tion. He wanted to know whether that was the sort of thing that was going to be served out to the Central district, because he was going to serve its interests in every way that he could.

Mr. LUKE (Aubigny) would like to point out to the Minister that the State farms in tho past had not proved a commercial suc­cess, and the same experience applied to the other States. What they were doing in the other States now was having demonstration plots on privately owned land in commercial areas. So far they had been a success and had interested the farmers much more than central farms would do. He hoped the Min­ister would take a note of the matter and that some of their farms would be run Qn better lines than previously.

Mr. MORGAN was very pleased to know that the Minister was going to turn the Hermitage State Farm into what he might practically term a seed-wheat farm, where the farmers would be able to get their seed wheat. It was always possible to get a cer­tam amount of very good seed wheat from the Roma State Farm. He h:~.d sent for various lines of wheat for his own use and he was very well satisfied with it. It was true to name, and ·he was glad to think that he was getting a wheat of good quality, and the price he paid was no more than he would have paid to seed merchants in Toowoomba or Brisbane. He agreed with the hon. member for Aubigny regarding their State farms, which, no doubt, to a great extent had outlived their usefulness. In all the other States, and in other parts of the world, they had given place to demonstration farms, to show the people exactly what could be done and what could be grown profitably in the particular districts in which they were .,ituated. After the farms had been worked for a certain time and they were of no further use·" the~- were sold and the Govern­ment mad~ a hanclFCJme profit .. He hoped that the Minister would .<·criously consider

Mr. Morgan.]

2418 SupplyJ [ASSEMBLY.] Supply.

the advisability of selecting an area of, say, 1,280 acres as an ordinary selector of the lielar scrub in the >Goondiwindi district, or in that portion of the State running right through from Goondiwindi to Taroom, which, he considered, was far more suitable for growing wheat than the Darling Downs, where the soil was too rich and more diffi­cult to cultivate-although statistics went to show that wheat cultivation on the Darling Downs gave a better return por acru than in any other State of Australia. Notwith­standing all that they had been told about Queensland not being a wheat-producing State, he was of a different opinion. He had grown .,,heat in Queensland almost every year he had been here, and although he could not grow it commercially, bei~g too far fro!? a railwav, yet he was satisfied, and hrs neighboui·s were sati•,fted, that they could grow it successfully. I-Ie had grown as fine wheat here as any he had grown in Victoria, and he had not to work his land as much as he had to do in Victoria. ThBre he had to cultivate it and let it lie fallow and work it up after every rain, but here they gener­ally ploughed the land, sowed the grain, harrowed it over and left it till it was ready to take off. He ·•,1·ould have liked the report to have stated whether the farmers of Queensland have given wheat-growing the attention it deserved, and whether they had tried it in a scientific manner and by the latest methods. Mr. Quodling was a very experienced man with regard to wheat, and the~ should have a report from him before the~ condemned Queensland as a >vhcat-grow­ing. StatA. He would go so far as to suggest th:tt the Minister should write to th0 South Australian Gov£rnment and ask that Pro­fcs,or Lmn·v should come over to Queensland for a few months and go into the matter thoroughlv. It must not be said that be­caus'.l he had n,)t lived here for some years he could not report on the matter, because Dr. J"lweod ::Y1ead came here and gave very valu-. }·le in£or1nation so far as irrigation wa corccer"od. There was no doubt he was on the right track.

I1Ir. GU::{N: He IS no good on artesian water.

]l,lr. MOEGAN: He st,;_t, d that for many unr" it vould not be suit.tHe for the Que,ns­land GovcrnmPnt to undertake in··~-ation. It would be advis.• hie to get the very beet opinions it wa;; {JO' oible to get in relat;Jn to wl1c:.t. and he would also like to sco Mr. Sou<:ter, who was pr.wtically s, 1£-educated c· "he matter, and who hacl undcrt tken t11e hybridisi•,g of wheat at the Roma _State Farm, : .. nci h'd not had a", opportumty to gain c:cpericnce-which v:as hardly fair to him-·eno , , 1he SouthE-rn States, if they could not 1d him to AmericJ, to get the benefit of their experi•mce tl1ere. He was s ,~ir fied th:,t he would COIL J bark with much more knmvledge, gained in much leos time, than he would by the presen~ methods. He knew Mr, Soutter well, and he did not think there \•/as a more enorgetw or capablo officer

in the service; but he was not [10 p.m.] given a fair show. Mr. Sautter

h2.d natural abiliL<· for the worl< he ,, :ts engaged in; but the de~oartment could help him considerably by sending him to some of the Southern States, wh0re he could acquir8 the best knowledge obtain-2blr. Mr. Sautter went with him to South Au. +ralia to attend the dry farming confer­<Jnce, and took speei:tl interest in all matters relating to his work, and was anxious to

[Mr. Morgan.

learn all he could; but he had only a few days at his disposal. With regard to wheat cultivation he su.,.gested that the Govern­ment shm,']d establish a farm on a 1,28Q­acrE'S block for demonstration, not exp':'rr­mental, purposes, with the view of pruvmg that it wa• possible to grow wheat at a profit. He would like to see ~uch a farm c-tab!ishod in one of tho loca!Itres he had mentioned, on scr:>b, or box and sandalwood countrv. Thev could not raise lambs for freezi,;g witho.ut cultivating feed for them. Ia adopting his suggestion the Government would not have to pay anythmg for the land as it was Crown land. All they would hav~ to do would be to clear it, and culti­va t<:>, and in ten or twelve years, after t~ey had demonstrated to farmers that, W1th proper scientific methods, wheat _could _be grown successfully and lambs raised w_1th success, the farm could be put up to auctiOn and sold. The Government would derrve a profit from the enhanced value of. the land, and thcv would at the same time have demonst;atod the profitableness of wheo:t­gr?wing and lamb-raising. We had bc:1It rai1way3, but they would never pay with cream alone for traffic. In one of our best ddirying districts-Killarney-the railway was not paving; but if there _wa:; heavy traffic such as wheat going over It, rt would probably pay.

Mr. GuKN: They grow wheat in Killarney.

Mr. MORGAN: Y.-3; but not in sufficient quantitiP'l. If we could grow 10,000,000 or 12,000,000 buo>hels of wheat for export, that would afford traffic for our railways and employment for men on thE wharves, would induce people to come here from other part> of the world, and would assist to reduce shipping freights, as vessels would co'?e here to load with grain; and it would mcn,ase i:te ];-_mb-raising industry. If what he sug­gosted were done, Queen,Jand would be~ome one of the gre1,te't wheat-growing and lamb­producing States in Australia. It might take time, but tLtt. would happen, and the Go­vernr, eut hould a''c,ist in the develop"1ent of tlcos0 industries. ]\fen who were en(\'aged in Jairying had to work from very early in the morccing till late at night, &Cld get their children to help them in their work. Thoce :ncn had wheat-gr' wing in their ntindc, and en\fy encom:arem•·nt should be given them to undertake whec\t cultivation. \VlLat-grow­ing was practic;clly a gentleman's occ,1pation, and if they engaged in it th~y would n'?t have to work as they did now, or ke -p thorr 'hildrtn at wo~k in cmm--ction with the dairy. Ho urged upon the Government. to do their level b0st to plaue whc a t-gro\' mg on a ,L :1tisfactory basi.:~, '1Y. he yya~. sure, from the E -'1 eriencc he had L~d iu Quec nshnd, that wLea,t could be grown here sucnssfully. Only £750 was placed on the Ercimaks f 0 r experimental work, while in other Stahs, v·here their exneriment in-Jitutions were Huch more ",dvanced than ours, tlF< were spcmcling thousands of pounds ·mnuallv in that direction. \Ve all• knew wh:>.t a little thing sometimes led to an incr• 1sed yield, as was proved 'l>Y Ferrier, when he dis­covered the wh0at known ae Federation whe'lt, which practic 1lly ircrea '"d the yield in Vi ·to ria by 2! bushels per arre. If we mccecded in growing wheat on a large suJe, it would not only mean a profit to indi­viduals and advantage to the country, but it would be the means of destroying the prickly pear and keeping land free from that pest. Ploughing would destroy more prickly

Supply. [3 NOVEMBER.] Supply. 2419

'pear than Mr. Roberts or Dr . .Jean 'White, and that was the reason why he wished the 'Government to undertake the establishment ,of wheat demonstration farms.

:i\Ir. BOiYMAN wished to refer to the Botanic G~I:dens, Brisbane, which every per­son who VISited them must admit were very wei~ kept. The gardeners complained that theu "ages were not ,atisfactory. He under­stood that sixteen permanent employees got an average of 7s. a day each.

The SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC LANDS ; They get more than that.

Mr. BOWMAN: Sixteen of them got £9 16s. 8d. each per month. They had to work -on alternate Sundays, and he did not think t~e_y got anJ thing for that. Seeing the splen­<hd work that was being done in the gar­dens,_ the men deserved better pay. He ~entJoned the matter to the Minister some time ago, and the hon. gentleman said that ~e regret.ted he could not give the men an mcrease JUSt now. The han. gentleman said that evening that there were about 1 300 applicants for positions in various bran~hes

,of the department, and he seemed to regard that as proof that sufficient w.as being paid t? men; but he (Mr. Bowman) did not con­<n.d~r that was logical at all. Nobody who V!Slted the (;(ardens could deny that the men did sr:lendici work, and the lea,t thoy should be paid was £10 per month. While he was pr_oud to t]_link that. Brisbane was getting tlu, ex;,enditure on Its gardens, there were ethe;· plac.es tl;at were equally de ;erving of consideratwn m th3 s:;me direction. The Rockhampton garde,Is were most pictureoque, and reflected the greatest credit on the cura­tor, l'IIr. Simmons. Th" gardens at l\1ary­borough and To,rncvilh were al~o very fine, and l1e woc1ld h_ke to see provmCJal towns whwh had public gardens treated in the sa.me v a.- >.S Brisl-.ane. HD was delighted With \\hat a'• done in Bri,:.,ane, and he thought th~ departmc:1t got full \'alue for what was sp0nt on the garden:;. They gave pleesu,re ull ,the wee!~, but espPcially on S.a~urna:;· a.n. Sunday, and thousands of VICcit<rs to Q•I•_,_ uslar:d. visited the• gardens an,J c·{pr< •, ~d the opmwn that Brisbane had r~~s?n to be proud of them. He hoped the l\1ll1JSter would not lose sight ef the claims of the Lwn emplo:.·ed. in the gardens, ,and !hat he '""o.uld see h1s "·ay next year to mcrease theu pay to £10 a month.

, Mr. ORA WFORD (~![aunt Jlil organ) said 10!1at he calle~ upon tne department some time ago to dJScovN what they intended to do with regard to taking students at the Vifarrcn State Fe~rm in Central Qu"ensland. S•veral lads had applied to him to know "II l1ether they could be accommodated there, not bein;; able to go to Gatton Oolle~e bat ,,_t that . time there s.•emed to be' ~ome obstacle 111 the way, and he \\ ould like to know from the Mini>td what that ob.taole was, and whether it still existed? The manager at VVarren, J\ilr. Jines was an ex­~ellent man and enjoyed a high reputation m Central Queensland. He had df'livered <a n.umber of lectures at Mount :Morgan on agncultural matters, and ihose lectures in­duced a number of people to leave Mount Morgan and take up agricultural pursuits.

The SEORE:r'A?Y FOR AGRICULTURE: 'The only obJectwn to teking students at vyarren was that there was no accommoda­iwn for them. When the sw;ion closed he

intended visiting Warren and Gindie, with ,a, view to finding out what should be done there, and he would let the hon. member for Mount Morgan know his decision as soon as possible. With reference to the sugges­tion of the han. member for Murilla that a portion of belar scrub should be used for wheat-raising, he understood that one of the station-owners in the Geondiwindi dis­trict was going in for wheat-raising, but he would consult Mr. Quodling ,and probably Mr. Brooks to see whether it would be possible to start a demonstration farm on the lines suggested by the han. member. With rderence to the men employed in the Botanic Gardens, they were employed the whole year round. If they were sick, they were paid while they were sick, ,and they got annual leave and were paid while absent en leave. It was very nice to have ,a position like that, but he would again consult Mr. Bailey, the curator, on the matter. The men were paid fairly good wages for the hours they had to work, and, if they ·worked on Sunday, some <'onsideration was given them.

Mr. HUNTER notiood that the manager of the Roma State Farm ·was down for only £200. After all the encomiums that had been passed upon him, to keep him on the same dead level as all the other managers was not much encouragement to him. \Vhere a man showed qualities such as this young man had shown, he should be rewarded.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE ; And he certainly will be.

Mr. HUNTER: Well, that was not shown on the Estimate3. That was not the way to reward a man for good work. There had not been u Minister in the department who haci not quoted him as an ideal man, and he hoped the Minister would see that he got so1ne rewoar L It 1vas not because he happm.ed to know Mr. Sautter that he re­ferred to the matter, but becam:3 he knew hi.; work. He hoped that State farms would not be done a\wly with for some time. He acmitted that the time might come for that but it could not be said that they had yet c: .. no,cstratbd to the people of Queensland \ ·h,:tt their lando wore cana1)le of producinoo. As for lamb-raising, the' hon. memlo~r fgr Carnarvon had told them that they could not produce freezers on the Downs and send them to Brisbane. It was ,a .-erious state­ment to make in the House. He was talk­ing to one nf thq buyers of lambs and he said he v.as taking 25.000 lambs a; freezers for shipment from Pittsworth to London. They were also sBnding lambs from Mitchell ";oo miles from Brisbme, ,and from Rom;, and other places, so statements made like !h~t of the han. member. would only d~ ll1Jury to the State.

M:r. BooKER: If the price is good the lambs will be there. '

lUr. HUNTER : He was told by a buyer that ho could not get all he wanted. The Do,,·ns was an ideal place for l<tmb-raising, l'tnd the lambs mffered nothing in their Journey to Brisbane by rail.

Question put and passed.

MISCELLANEOUS SERVICES (SUBDIVISION).

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE moved that £9,200 be granted for "Miscel­l1,neous Services (Subdivision)." The votw

Hon. J. Whitt.]

2420 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Land Act Amendment Bill.

was an increase of £1,320 over that of last year. Provision was made for £1,100 for the catalogue of Queensland plants, which was prepared by Mr. Bailey. This was the outcome of an arrangement made with the Hon. Dr. Kidston. It was a very valuable work. His Excellency the Governor had re­ceiv<cd letters from England, Victoria, and South Australia, saying that they appreciated the book. Copies had been sent to the Governor, to the King, to members of the Britioh parliamentary party which visited Queensland, and to the Secretary of State for the Coionies, an<I they were all delighted to have them.

Mr. THEODORE : Who suggested sending a copy t{) the King?

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: His Exe'lllency the Governor. The hon member for Rockhampton said there was no vote for the Rockhampton gardens.

Mr. ADAMSON : I could not find it.

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: There was £447 2s. 6d. voted for the Rock­hampton gardens last year, and in addition they received a special grant of £283, making a total of .a little over £700.

Mr. ADA~!SON : What is the vote this year?

The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: The total Yote was £3,000 for all gardens. It was divided equally between them in accordance with the amount subscribed by the various town councils or shire councils.

Mr. THEODORE noticed that the vote of £100 to the Chillagoe Caves which was on the Estimates last year was not provided for this year. The vote had only been made for two years, and it enabled the local shire council to effect a number of improvements at the caves, such as providing entrance gates, appointing a caretaker to look .after the caves, and widening some of the narrow passages, etc. The caves were a well-known beauty spot in North Queensland, and were visited by many people during the year-. Amongst other visitors there had been the Governor, the Chief Secretary, the Minister for Railways and other Ministers, members of Parliament, tourists, and a great many private people. Unfortunately the caves had been subject to depredations at the hands of tourists, who took away the beautiful stalactites and injured the beautiful stnlag­mites. The beauty of the caves was well known to the :Minister for Railways.

The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS: They are verv beautiful .and wondrous. In f,:10t, it is a p"lcturesque district.

Mr. THEODORE: Owing to the railway service not as many people visited the caves as would like to, but the Chillagoe Company proposed to light the caves with electric light and run a special train once a week from Mareeba. They tried it on one or two occasions, but .as the train did not pay it was dropped, and the company were going to try again. The Government should give some assistance in that matter, as it was a magnificent district, and the money spen. t on the caves all went towards improving it, and was money well spent. If any member of Parliament visited the district he would receive a cordial invitation from the Chill~­goe people to visit the caves, and he would be struck with their wondrous beauty.

[Hon. J. White.

:Mr. BOOKER was glad to see the vot&· for refrigeration on Northern steamer~ in­creased to £1,300 a year. He would like· to see more provision for carrying fruit from the Southern portion of the State, par­ticularly the citrus-growing districts. At the present time when the boats arrived fr?m· the North the space was all taken up 1y1th Northern fruit, which was a good thmg, and he was glad to see it, but some. further proYision should be made to g1ve the Southern citrus-growers a chance, as it meant when they sent their fruit to the Southern markets that those who sent their fruit in. refrigerated space had under .2 per c~nt. of losseJ, while those who sh1pped m the· ordinary way had 20 per cent. of losses. He· obtained those figures as the result of actual shipments made during the ~am~ week, one man sending 300 cases expenencmg as much as 20 per cent. of losses as against less than 2 per cent. in a shipment in. refriger.ated space the same week. If suffi01ent refnger­ated space were provided it would also savE>· the exporter the expense and necess_ity_ of re­classing, recasing, and many other 1nmdental expenses. This was a matter that should receive the attention of the department. There was a great deal of discussion among: Southern fruitgrowers as to why the Northern growers should be benefited while the Southern growers were asked to stand: out.

At 10.30 p.m., The CHAIRMAN said: Under Standing

Order No. 306, I must now leotve the chair­and make my report to the House.

The House resumed. The CHAIRMAN re­ported progress, and the Committee obtained. leave to sit again to-morrow.

LAND ACT AMENDMENT BILL. COMMITTEE.

Clauses 1 and 2 put and passed. On clause 3-" Amendment of sectioR

110 "-Mr. HUNTER moved the omission of the·

word "twenty-five" on line 15, with the view of inserting the word "forty." He­had intimated on the second reading of the Bill that he thought the Minister would be doing a just thing to the selectors if he in­creased the term from twenty-five to forty years. That would be doing only the right thing to the selectors on the land at the present time as well as giving encouragement to others to go on the land. He wouJ.l hB told that the agricultural farmers C)n1y g'!L twenty-five years, but that wa~ not a fair comparison, because the agricultural farmer probably had no pear to clear, whereas the man who selected a prickly-pear selection had to clear the pear and keep it clear. There was a vast difference between the two. He might also be told that the price of the pear land was nil. All pear lands wer~ not nil and in his district they ran from ml up· to '10s. an acre. He thought that price was too high but still the department had charged that price and, on present terms, it meant that a man with 2,250 acres of land· had to pay a rent of £50 to £60 a year.

The SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC LANDS : That iS' not m"ch.

Mr. HUNTER : If the hon. gentleman was on the land he would know how much it wa&. He knew men on pear land who were not­able to meet their rents, and £60 or even.

Land :Act [3 NOVEMBER.] Amendment Bill. 2421

£20 was a lot of money to them. In speak­ing on the matter the qther night he was re­ported to have said that a man might go on the land with £4,000. He did not say that. What he said \\as £1,000. But even with £1,000 to go on pear land-to clear pear, do all the necessary improvements, such as scrubbing, ringing, providing water, fencing, building houses, purcha;;ing stock­. it ran into a very big amount, and every £1 that the Government could afford to spare to the farmer in the way of rent was helping .him to carry out the covenants he had entered into, and was going to assist him in making a success of the business, whereas otherwise he might be a failure. He was sure the Minister did not wish to see any man a failure on the land. The lower the payments the better for the men on the land. It was not a wise thing to give a long time to clear the pear, as the pear should be cleared as early as possible, but the longer you allowed a man to pay his rent the more he had to spend in clearing pear. It was not so much rent that the Government •wanted as to have men take up the land to clear the pear. During the past fortnight the C::Jmmittce passed a Bill in which thy -extended the term to forty years for those who selected under the Closer Settlement Act. Those settlers got their land in a favoured locality, and the Government had to pay hard cash for the land, but in the case of the prickly-pear lands they co~t the Governrnent nothing, and, if thcv w'?re not selected, by and by nobody would select them, as they would be covered with prickly pear. That was a matter that the Committee should consider very seriously, as it was one that affected them in every possible department, and he hoped the nlinister would accept the amendment.

Mr. TROUT: Did the selectors ask for it? Mr. HUNTER: A number of the prickly­

pear selectors wanted it. Mr. KESSELL : Did they ask for it? Mr. HUNTER : Yes, they did ask for it.

At the conference held at the instigation of the hon. member for 1v1urilla a motion was -discussed--

Mr. KESSELL: What was carried? Mr. HUNTER: He was not talking about

what was carried. At the suggestion of the hon. member for Murilla, it was decided not to ask for it because he thought it would be asking too much.

M;r. MORGAN: A vote was taken, and it wao defc,ated by a huge majority.

Mr. HUNTER: Because the hon. member suggested that the Government might not agree to it. On the Maranoa there were several men who hnd taken up prickly-pear selections who were struggling hard, and they were asking for that relief, and he (Mr. Hunter) was afraid that it would not be •mfficient. The Crown would be losing noth­ing by offering them f01:ty years. If the land cost nothing, it did not matter to the Crown whether it was forty ye .. crs or twenty­'five years, but if it cost lOs. an acre it mc-n.nt a lot to the selector. \Vhiche;-er way it was, the request was a fair and reason­t~ble one.

At 1L.40 y •. m., The CHAIILHAN: Under Standing Order

11, I call unon the hon. member for Coo­roora (Mr. -.Walker) to relieve me in the

·chair. Mr. WALKER took the chair accordingly.

The SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC LANDS regretted his inability to accept the amend­ment, a•· he thought the term in the Bill 1' . .ts very just and liberal. He had gone .as far as those \vbo \Ve:te interc~tc.:d in the matter-the prickly-pear selectors-had asked; he had gone further, and provisiom wme made by which an extension might be granted to them to clear their pear of the time provided in the opening conditions . Where land was thickly infested with pe':Lr, it was being opened at the purchasing pnce of nil, so that, as far as the persons who were taking the land were concerned, forty did not protect them any more than twenty­five years.

Mr. HL:NTER: The Crown either.

'I'he SECRETARY FOR P'CBLIC LA::\DS: Then the price of prickly-pear selections 1·aried from lOs. downwards. There were very few at lOs., and a greater number at 5s. For the sake of argument, take the pur­chc.lsing price at lOs In twenty years that was 6d. an acre, and if after having cleared the land they were not able to meet the rGnt at . 6d. an acre, there was something wrong with the land or with the selector.

Mr. HUNTER: Perhaps they have no money.

'!.'he SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC LANDS: From the point of view of the department, it was undedirable that the amendment should be made. If they extended the term to forty years, the department would lose more than the rent in sending out noti,ces, and he did not think the country should lose all that. He believed the hon. member was :ympa­tlwtic with the selectdrs in moving the amendment, but he (Mr. ToLnie) was quite td s0'mpathetic as the hon. member. He did not think there was a man on the land who did not think that he would give him all the support that he could. They were doing a fair thing; but the hon. member was like the renowned Brew.3ter, who came along when a conces.sion was offered; the bon. member said take another million. He hoped the amendment would not be pushed to the extreme, as it might lead to the drop­ping of the Bill.

Mr. RY~\.N said the Minister had not advanced rtny reason why thi~ extension should not be made; at all events, why some compromise sh.-,uld not be made between the period ;otiggested in the amendm'·ut and that proposed by the hon. member for MJ.ranoa. It did not appear clear to him what was the question before the meeting referred to by the hon. member for :Maranoa, but he noticed that it was suggt·.cted that the hon. nwmLer for Murilla said that no fur­ther period than this v. culd be· accepted by the Governnwnt.

Mr. MORGAN: Th.o.t is absolutely untrue; I never 1aid anything of the sort.

Mr. RYAN: That it would not be advi~­able to ask too much. He understocd that the hon. membt:·r must httve thought that more than twenty-five years would be too much; if he did not mean that, it was quite op;1n to him to Prty so. It seemed to him that if the principle was sound to grant, as th·_ v had clone, forty ye;us in the case of clo.ser sP.ttlement for the totd purchasing value of the land, there v:1s no reason why the same privilege should not be extended in the cJ.se of prickly-pear land, particularly if the f;.cts stated by the hon. member for

Mr . .Ryan.3

2422 Roma to Orallo Railway Bill, [COUNCIL.] Loca~ Anthorilies, etc., Bill

Maranoa were correct, as he had no doubt they were, that some persons who had taken up such land were struggling •and unable to meet the demands made upou them. Per­haps the ::'.finister would be prepared to aecept some sort of compromise. His idea was to get some advantage for those who were struggling under these peculiar circum­stances. He should certainly be interested to hear the hon. member for l\1urilla on the subject, or any other han. member who could see any reasons why the period should only be extended to twenty-five years. As far as he w;;s at present advised, he was prepared to vote for the amendment.

Question-That the words proposed to be omitted ( llr. Hunter's arnendrnent) stand part of the clause-put; and the Committee divided:-

Mr. Appel , Barnes, G. P. , Barnes, ,V, H. , Bebbington

Bell Blair Booker

:', Bouchard Crawford Denham

, Douglas , Forsyth , Grayson

Gunn ,. Hodge

AYES, 29. Mr. Kessell

Luke , Mackay

Mackintosh !rforgan Paget Petrie Philp Stevens Swayne

,, Tolmie Trout

, Wel,by Williams

Tellers: Mr. Grayson and Mr. Swayne.

Mr. Adamson , Bertram , Bowman , Coyne

Fihelly Foley

, Gilday , Hamilton

Hardacre Hunter

NoEs, 19. Mr. Huxham

Land Larcom be

,, Lennon O'Suilivan

:' Payne Hyan Theodore Winstanley

Tellers: Mr. Foley and Mr. Payne.

PAIRS. Ayes-Mr. Allan, Mr. Hoberts, and Mr. Vowles. Noes-Mr. McCormack, Mr. Gillies, and Mr.

Barber. Resolved in the affirmative. Clause 3 put and passed.

On clau"e 4-" Cases where time for clear­ing pear may be extended"-

Mr. HUNTER asked the Minister whether the clause would ,apply to grazing lands?

The SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC LANDS : Only to prickly-pear selections.

Question put and passed. The House resumed. The TEMPORARY

CHAIRMAN reported the Bill without amend­ment, and the third reading was made an Order of the Day for to-morrow.

ROMA TO ORALLO RAILWAY BILL.

COMMITTEE.

Clan •Cs 1 and 2 and the schedule put and passed.

Th" Hon''e resumed. The CHAIR:YIAN re­porter] the Bill without amendment and the third reading wa" made an Order of the Day for to-morrow,

The House adjourned at five minutes to 11 o'clock.

rJir. Ryan.