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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[August i, 1884. 



thousands of minute whity brown creatures, whose move- 

 ments are all but imperceptible to the naked eye, are 

 seen. In less than a month's time the excrescences would 

 be collected, transported, and suspended on the branches 

 of the Wax tree. At first they spread themselves on the 

 upper side of the leaves during the night, but hide dur- 

 ing the day from the sun under the leaves. After a time 

 they spread over the brauches and secrete the wax. 



The narrative from which the foregoing information is 

 gathered is worth the time occupied in its perusal. It is 

 printed by Harrison & Sons. — Gardeners 1 Chronicle. 



THE PRESENT ASPEOT OF THE SUGAR 

 INDUSTRY IN QUEENSLAND. 



There is a very marked difference between the aspect 

 of the sugar industry now and what it was only a few 

 months ago. The most casual observer cannot fail to per- 

 ceive this, nor is it difficult to arrive at the exact reasons for 

 it. On every plantation visited by our agricultural reporter 

 the 6ame ideas were found to prevail, and the same anxiety 

 to reduce operations to as small dimensions as possible was 

 manifest ; and this on account of the uncertainty regarding 

 the labour question. Enterprise and capital are staggered 

 at the present outlook. "Very large sums of money have 

 been invested in an industry of an exceptional character, an 

 industry the success of which mainly depends upon excep- 

 tional circumtances, and an industry which has already 

 furnished a history fluctuating and uncertain, at present a 

 very fair success, but formerly fraught with many disappoint- 

 ments and heavy losses. Although sugar-growing has come 

 to be fairly successful, clearly that success is owing to the 

 high prices ruling for the manufactured product in the local 

 markets, the low price and plentiful supply of reliable labour, 

 and the facility with which a sufficient area of good land for 

 the purpose could be acquired. Under these circumstances 

 rapid growth of the industry and immensely increased pro- 

 duction of sugar naturally resulted ; and now a somewhat 

 serious reaction has set in, consequent upon changes in all 

 these particulars which have so far fostered its growth. A 

 short time since the average value of a ton of sugar was fairly 

 estimated at £20 or even £25 ; now, however, it has dropped 

 to from £15 to j£17. Kanaka labour formerly cost the im- 

 porter from £10 to £12 per head, and now it is reckoned at 

 £25. A few years ago laud for sugar-growing could be select- 

 ed in auy quantity at a nominal yearly rental, said rent form- 

 ing the purchase money of the estate ; but now if land is 

 wanted of certain quality, with the necessary facilities for 

 for working the industry to proper advantage, it is valued 

 so highly by the present owners that to acquire a freehold 

 nf sufficient extent necessitates the disbursement of a large 

 sum of money, the fair interest on which is somethiug con- 

 siderable. Under these changed aspects, therefore, it is by 

 no means surprising that capital is not forthcoming for the 

 extension of the industry, and that the banks have closed 

 their coffers against would-be borrowers on such property. 

 It is strange that so rapid a change should have taken 

 place in a business which only a few short months ago was 

 so full of promise ; but the fact confronts the observer at 

 the present time who moves among those interested in any 

 way in the sugar industry in the North ; for it is a topic al- 

 most always on the surface and works its own convictions in 

 every way and through the medium of every sense. Sugaro- 

 polis — as Mackay is so frequently called — is at the present 

 time the embodiment of dulness and depression. The town 

 wears the appearance of having outgrown requirements, and 

 of being very much overdone ; but a careful inspection of 

 the immense industry which surrounds it on every hand, 

 and which proved the lever to move it into its present ad- 

 vanced stage of growth, is ample to warrant all that the 

 town can show. But although history thus read appears 

 strange it is not inexplicable. Queensland sugar-growers 

 are coming more and more into competition with those of the 

 same craft elsewhere, who have in every way the advantage 

 of them, and will naturally fight hard to maintain it. This 

 is telling upon the value of the manufactured article in the 

 first place, and the unsettled state of the labour market is 

 indirectly playing into our rivals' hands. 



The pressing difficulty, and that which most seriously 

 affects the industry, is the present aspect of the labour 

 question. The fact that a sufficient supply of suitable labour 

 is not, under existing circumstances, obtainable is having a 



most depressing effect upon all engaged in the industry. It 

 is crushing all the bright hopes that were so recently en- 

 tertained as to the future of Northern Queensland, and it i s 

 destroying the enterprise which has up to the present time 

 been displayed in developing our northern agricultural lands. 

 Tidings reach us from time to time from various sources of 

 a determination in all the principal sugar centres, not only 

 to stay the extension of the industry but to reduce it within 

 narrower limits. The South Sea Island labour now avail- 

 able is in many ways un.ritisfactory. It is anything but 

 cheap: the boys cost per head to introduce £25, and the 

 expense of housing, feeding, and overseeing them is estimated 

 to average little if anything short of £1 per week each. 

 In many instances the recruits are mere hoys, and uusuited 

 for doing n man's work ; in many others they are diseased 

 and have to lie by a good deal of their time and receive 

 medical attention and nursing; and frequently, with all 

 the care possible, they die wholesale on the planter's hands, 

 thus incurring a heavy loss to the employer. Kanaka labour, 

 it will thus be seen, is not cheap labour ; its only redeeming 

 quality is its reliability. No other labour as yet tried 

 is nearly so reliable. The " boys " work cheerfully and 

 well under European oversight ; anything they may be put 

 to is all the same to them ; and when the stress of labour 

 comes upon them they sprve their masters without 

 worrying them by perpetual strikes and foolish agitation. 

 This labour has not been prohibited, but it is not adequate 

 for the purpose, and, moreover, it has been put under 

 restraints which will in operation prove inimical to 

 the interests of the kanakas themselves. In every batch of 

 boys which go on to any plantation there are weakly ones 

 who are unfitted for ordinary field work. It has been the 

 practice to set these apart for pottering jobs about the house 

 and the like, where there health and consequent services 

 could be the better secured ; but now that this is 

 made illegal they must, go into the field, and very likely 

 die under the hardships to which the changed laws' of the 

 colony expose them. Then, again, the "boys" available 

 now are proving inferior to former importations and in every 

 way are disappointing the expectations of the planters. No 

 one at all familiar with plantation work and requirements 

 will for a moment entertain the thought that European 

 labour will ever serve for the purpose. Its cost will not debar 

 it, but its unreliable character will effectually close the purses 

 of capitalists ; and, besides, the day is very distant when 

 European labourers will contentedly settle down to field work 

 on the plantations of tropical Queensland. "When they do 

 so they will be the slaves of circumstances which they can 

 neither resist nor control, and such a prospect we may safely 

 say is not immediate nor in any sense desirable. All those 

 interested in sugar growing, as well as those who, from 

 observation, are qualified to form an opinion on the subject, 

 think that the only satisfactory solution of the present 

 difficulties lies in the introduction of coolies under proper 

 restriction. Tamil coolies can be had in any quantity, and 

 of certain quality, from a near portion of the British 

 dominions, and they seem to be the very thing to answer 

 every purpose. If this is the only efficient remedy for 

 the failing of the great sugar industry, what reasonable 

 objection can be urged against carrying it out? This is 

 tho question occupying many thoughtful minds at the 

 present time in the 6ugar centres of the North ; and it is 

 a question which concerns people of all classes in the South 

 very closely, as they will discover when too late should the 

 sugar indutry be allowed to collapse. — Queenslander. 



FARM MEMORANDA. 

 (From the Leader.) 



Professor Stewart celebrates the cow as " the most 

 remarkable producer among animals." She gives at her 

 best seven times her own weight per annum in milk: of 

 food value twice as great as the beef creature of equal 

 size gains during the same time. 



To hreak up sitting hens do not drench them in water 

 nor put them in a barrel with an inch or two of water 

 in the bottom, nor tie them up by one leg to a tree, nor 

 any of these cruel practices; but take them from the nest, 

 but them in a large coop in the open air, under a 6hade 

 tree if the weather is warm, and feed them largely with 

 everything, including baked hones, that you give to your 

 | laying hens. In many cases the fowl commences to sit 



