776 



THE TROPICUS AGRTCTTLTURIST. 



[April i, 1885. 



wild apricot on that bare hill to the east." Fifteen 

 years went by ; the hill was pretty well covered. "Now," 

 said the good man, "I am growing old, and after me 

 you will perhaps not be able to get your doctoring gratis. 

 Let the village undertake to keep up this apricot- 

 orchard that has cost you nothing. The oil will not 

 only pay a doctor and buy as much medicine as you can 

 want, but it will also do a good deal towards supporting 

 your old men and your orphans." . . . Wax-trees and 

 tallow-trees are invaluable to the Buddhists, who, of course, 

 must burn no animal fat on their altars. There are half- 

 a-dozen trees and plants which make better paper than 

 the bamboo — what we call rice-paper, fo'r instance, comes 

 from the paper-mulberry. A Chinese nettle and a giant 

 hibiscus make excellent rope ; and the ramia has its 

 leaves covered with threads just in the right state for 

 spinning. When Virgil said, "The Seres comb from leaves 

 a slender fleece," one used to fancy he was speaking of 

 silk, confounding in fact the worm with the food it eats ; 

 but the latest idea is that some notion of the ramia and 

 its produce had travelled as far as the Greek natural- 

 ists on whom Virgil relied. If any of your friends are 

 homoeopaths you will have heard plenty about rhus ; one 

 of the many kinds, the rhus vernix, makes, along with 

 the elaeo-coeoa (added because its juice is fatal to insects!, 

 the famous lacquer. Great at dyeing, the Chinese have 

 managed to find out vegetable mordants. Hair-dyeing 

 they manage in a peculiar way ; they drink their eye. 

 A six mouths' course of some vegetable decoction is 

 said to be infallible ; and was regularly used, we are 

 told, by the Christians to darken the hair of their 

 European priests, that so they might escape detection. 

 Nearly all their dyes are vegetable, the imperial yellow 

 being got from the root of the curcuma ; saffron and 

 gardenia flowers, and mignonette, and all other yellow 

 dyes being held unworthy of this great object. And 

 now, to prove what has been said about their great skill 

 in landscape gardening, let us say a word about the 

 Pekin Summer l'alace Park. Sir. Swinnoe and Sir Hope 

 Grant both paint it in glowing colours— such a pleasure 

 garden as Kublai Khan planned round his "wondrous 

 dome, by Alp, the sacred river." "Twelve miles of pebbled 

 paths leading through groves of magnificent round lakes 

 into picturesque summer-houses ; as you wandered along 

 herds of deer would amble away from before you, toss- 

 ing their antlered heads. Here a solitary building would 

 rise fairy-like from a lake, reflected in the blue water 

 on which it seemed to float. There a slopiug path would 

 carry you into the heart of a mysterious cavern leading 

 out on to a grotto in the bossom of another lake. The 

 variety of the picturesque was endless, and charming 

 in the extreme. The resources of the designer appear- 

 to have been unending." And what the Emperor had 

 in its fully glory round his summer palace every China- 

 man who has made a little money tries to have on a 

 small scale round his house. It is the gardens which, 

 in the absence of many of our modes of sanitation, 

 keep the dense populations of Chinese cities tolerably 

 healthy, for trees are great absorbers of bad and 

 dilfusers of good gases. We have a great deal still to 

 learn from them in the way of gardening, and it is no 

 use crying down our climate — the climate of North China 

 is a very harsh, ungenial one, far worse fo/ both men 

 and plants than ours. It is not the climate that is in 

 faidt, but the gardeners ; ours do not put the heart. 

 and patience into their work that John Chinaman 

 does into his. — All the Year Round. 



QUEENSLAND SUGAI: INDUSTRY AND THE 

 LABOUR QUESTION. 



EXTENT OF THE SUCAT1 INDUSTBY IN MACKAY, 



From a gentleman who was one of the pioneers in 

 sugar-planting in the Mackay district, and who is thoroughly 

 conversant with the values of the plantation properties 

 in this district, I have been informed that he would estimate 

 the total value of the sugar estates, with the plants, buildings, 

 and other accessories necessary to carrying on the business, 

 together with the capital required to work them, at about 

 £2,350,000. In addition to this there would be the money 

 invested by small growers, who have their cane crushed 



at the central mills, and when to this is further added 

 the capital invested in businesses in the town consequent 

 upon the wants created by the establishment of the sugar 

 industry in the neighbourhood, some idea may be gleaned 

 of the very large monetary interest which is involved in. 

 the welfare and success of sugar-growing in Mackay. 



With regard to the small growers in this district I may 

 mention that in each case where I made inquiry coloured 

 labour was employed by the farmer, the number of boys 

 of course differing according to the extent of land under 

 cultivation. 



At a meeting of planters held in Mackay about the 

 middle of July, it was stated that on the plantations alone 

 the proportion of white to- black labour was one white 

 man to four kanakas; but if the whole population of the 

 district dependent directly and indirectly upon the sugar 

 industry were taken into consideration, then the proportions 

 would be reversed in the ratio of two white men to every 

 black man. 



At this meeting the following resolutions, which express 

 the views of the planters on the labour question, were 

 passed: — 



"That the sugar industry is one of great value to the 

 country, affording, as it does, employment to many thousands 

 of persons skilled in the agricultural, chemical, and mechanical 

 arts ; and that the character of our climate and coast land 

 is peculiarly favourable to the prosecution and extension 

 of the industry." 



"That after undergoing the many privations and trials 

 incidental to establishing any new industry, in addition to 

 those inseparable from the settlement of a new country, 

 the sugar-makers of Northern Queensland have, after many 

 failures aud vicissitudes extending over 20 yeaTs, succeeded 

 in perfecting the production of cane sugar in this colony, 

 and in acquiring in the hard school of experience a knowledge 

 of the industry which will, if properly applied, be found 

 valuable to themselves aud to the colony." 



"That owing to the extensive production of beet sugar, 

 caused principally by the low price of wheat, which is almost 

 certain to continue, the price of cane sugar has been 

 so lowered that it can only be produced profitably in those 

 countries commanding a sufficient and reliable supply of 

 low-priced labour," 



" That such a supply of low-priced labour is procurable 

 in this country only from British India, the supply from 

 Polynesian labour having failed to meet the requirements 

 of the industry, and offering no possibility of extension." 



"That the whole material interests of the population 

 of the Queensland coast, north of Cape Palmerston are 

 bound up with, and dependent on the successful pro- 

 secuting of the sugar industry ; and that, should that 

 industry fail, an almost general exodus from Queensland 

 may be expected to take place of all persons skilled in 

 the sugar industry and its allied trades to those neighbour- 

 ing colonies which have wisely made a proper provision 

 for the supply of labour necessary for the successful pro- 

 secution of the industry. 



"That to enable the sugar industry in Queensland to 

 continue to exist, it is necessary that the governing bodies 

 of the colony should make such laws and regulations as 

 will at once admit of the immigration of natives of India 

 toserve as indentured labourers for the cultivation of tropical 

 products and the preparation of same for market only. 



"That the danger of Chinese settlement unless met by 

 competition with other law-priced labor be pointed out." 



As the argument on the other side, I will quote from 

 the speech of a settler in the district who was opposed 

 in view to those who represented the planters' interest. 

 He said the question was whether they wanted coolies or 

 white men in the colony. At the present time there were 

 hundreds of white men walking through the country who 

 could not get work, and it was proposed to add to this 

 difficulty by importing coolie labour. He would like to see 

 capital more generally diffused than it was. It was at 

 present only in the hands of the few. If this capital wire 

 more diffused through the country, a greater number of 

 white people would be enabled to obtain a livelihood. His 

 own idea was that sugar could be raised in that district 

 by white labour alone. He himself had helped with Mr. 

 Spiller to put in the first cane planted in the district. 

 At that time it was said sugar could not lie grown by 

 white men in tropical Queensland, but Mr. Spiller had 



