Februarv 1, 1884,] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



S9SB 



THE COOLIK QUESTION IN QUEENSLAND. 



The MacIIwraith Government in Queensland having 

 been defeated on the questioa of land grant railways, 

 a general election was about to take place in the which' 

 the question of cooly labour will be a burning one. Mr. 

 Hume Black, who represented the Sugar planting in- 

 terest of Mackay District, wrote thus to reassure the 

 white working men : — I pledge myself to see that 

 all coolies shall, at the termination of their agree- 

 ments, be compelled to return to India, or re-engage 

 for tropical or semi-tropical Agriculture. That any 

 person employing them otherwise shall be punished 

 by tine at the rate of ten shillings per day for every 

 daj they are so employed. That all expenses con- 

 nected with their introduction. Depot, Hospital, and 

 Gaol expenses, and return passages be paid by those 

 employing them. That any Captain landing coolies 

 in Queensland or anj of the adjacent islands instead 

 of returning them to India be liable to a fine of 

 from £100 to £500. I shall also see that any further 

 regulations are made that may be necessary to con- 

 fine coolies strictly to those occupations for which 

 only they should be allowed to be introduced, namely. 

 Tropical and Semi-Tropical Agriculture.— i/aci-«y 

 Siaudard. 



BLUE GUMS AND RED. 



To THE EDITOR OF THE "AUSTRALASIAN." 



Sir. — As many folk are disappointed in growing 

 blue gums, in consequence of their dying when a few 

 years old, for the benefit of such I give my experi- 

 ence of about 30 years, about which time since I 

 planted a lot of blue gums, some of which are stand- 

 ing now, but a number of them died off when about 

 12 ft. high, r planted again in the same places wit!i 

 a like result. I then tried the red gum (land poor, 

 with yellow clay close to the surface), and they have 

 grown very well, and are now 30 ft. high, healthy, and 

 of good shape. I plant a few every year, and my 

 plan has been to go to places where they grow natur- 

 ally on the margin of tbe creeks and dig out a plant 

 with a sod of earth, and after fencing a panel square, 

 dig about 3 ft. square and place the sod in centie 

 and they grow in either wet or dry places ; but not 

 in lof'se sand (where blue gnms will do well). I fancy 

 the GeeloDg and Skipton plains would grow red bet- 

 ter than blue, and as now is a good time to plant 

 perhaps you will insert this. The blue gums now 

 growmg with me are in better soil and sand. The 

 red will also grow well in good soil, but not in sand — 

 I am, &c., j_ H j_ 



[Blue gums have been extensively sown as break- 

 wmds on some of the large estates in the western 

 districts of Victoria. The practice has been to plough 

 very shallow— not more than 4 in. deep; then har- 

 row and sow seed at the rate of two and a half ounces 

 per acre, and finish by rolling. The trees have 

 generally grown viel\.—'ED.]~Aui/ralaaian. 



♦ 



THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. 



QUARTERLV REPORT. 



The following report by the Acting Government 

 Resident of the Northern Territory was bid before 

 the Assembly : — 



Government Resident's Office, Palmereton, 

 Sir— I have the honour to forward the following 

 quarterly report on the state of affairs in the North- 

 ern Territory, and am glad to say that both pastoral 

 and mineral puisuits are making steady progress 

 Agriculture, although as yet only in its infancy, is 

 also beginning to sliow that good crops can be grown 

 h»re in suitable localities. As it may be of benefit to 

 tbe country and of iutereet to the general public to 



have the fullest information as to how our several 

 industries are progressing, I have, with tbe assistance of 

 several managers, obtained the following information : 



AGRICULTURE. 

 I regret to have to report the complete abandonment 

 of Owston's sugar plantation on the Daly River. This 

 is very much to be regretted, as many of the diffic- 

 ulties incident to the commencement of any new in- 

 dustry had been overcouie, and 1 am informed by 

 those who visited the site recently that the cane was 

 growing most luxuriantly in the nursery, which con- 

 tained twenty acres. One of the drawback« to the 

 Daly River 13 its difficult navigation, and probably 

 I this had something to do in influencing the sharehold- 

 ers to withdraw, but this is a difficulty that could 

 be overcome by the use of small steamers of light 

 draught. The land selected for this plantation I am 

 sure is capable of growing good crops. Work has also 

 been stopped on Mr. Sergison's Adelaide river plant- 

 ation. Mr. Biddies, the new manager for the Delissa- 

 ville plantations, has been very energetic sinc& his 

 arrival in examining the country on the Douglas 

 Peninsula, and has, I understand, succeeded in find- 

 ing some land on which he hopes to grow good crops 

 of cane. That cane of good quality can be grown 

 in the Territory is beyond doubt. At tbe small plant- 

 ation of Messrs. Uloppenberg & Erikson on the Douglas 

 Peninsula, and at any of the numerous gardens worked 

 by Chinese in the neighbourhood of Palmerston, cane 

 of excellent quality may be seen ; but then it must 

 be remembered that these are only small patches, and 

 the occupiers are too wise to try and force a growth 

 on any other lard than that which is suitable. Had 

 care been taken in the first instance to select land 

 suitable to the growth of sugar-cane, that industry 

 would have been now in a very different position to 

 that which it at present occupies, t ane of good 

 quality has been successfully grown on tbe McKinlay 

 River on the gold-fields — of course, only a small quant- 

 ity — a tamplu of which I forward with the other ex- 

 hibits. I am glad to say that Mr. Poett's cinchona 

 and coffee plantation is making steady progress. It 

 is now between ten and eleven months since that 

 gentleman commenced operations, and commenced by 

 planting coffee both of the Arabian and Liberirn vari- 

 eties ; also cinchona, indiarubber, tobacco, and cotton. 

 With regard to coffee, the success ao far has been 

 beyond anything that Mr. Poett anticipated, and it 

 must be remembered that he is no mean judge, having 

 been occupied for nearly a quarter of a century in 

 Oylon as a coffee-planter. There are half a inilion 

 young coffee-plants of excellent growth, and present- 

 ing a highly satisfactory appearance. Mr. Poett says 

 nothing in or out of Ceylon could be more eucourag- 

 ina or more suggestive of the future success of coffee 

 cultivation in the tropical portion of Aiistialia than 

 the present appearance of this nursery ; he challenges 

 inspection and courts enquiry. It is also a matter 

 for congratulation and encouragement that the greatest 

 enemy ths coffee-planter has tver had to contend with, 

 viz., the Semileia vaitatrix^ has not put in an appear- 

 ance. The nursery also contains ' several thousand 

 plants of the cinchona succirnbra, which, notwithstand- 

 ing that their treatment had in a great measure to be 

 left to unpractised hands, the result is considered to 

 be on a par with that of a successful nursery in 

 Ceylon. Seme of these plants are sixteen months old, 

 having been planted by Mr. Mackinnon previous to 

 active operations being commenced on the plantation, 

 and are now over four feet high. Mr. Poeti is of 

 opinion that cotton and indiarubber may be safely 

 added to the list of vegetable products that will grow 

 successfully in the Northern Territory when labour 

 at a sufficiently cheap rate can be obtained. He 

 strongly advocates the adoption of Malabar labour for 

 plantation work, and has kindly furnished me with 



