SETTLING IN (,)UEENSLANr) AND THE REASONS 



FOR DOING SO— WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 



TO DROUGHTS. 



By the Hon. A. NORTON, M.L.C. 



(Head before the Boi/al Societij of Qtteensland , 25th Oct., 1902.) 



When in September, 1857, I left New England and the many- 

 friends I had made there, my thoughts often turned to the sunny- 

 North, where so many New Englanders, young and old, had 

 already located themselves. The descriptions of life in what 

 soon afterwards became Queensland were upon the whole 

 favourable, and some of my former companions urged me to 

 follow their example and escape from the snows and frosts of 

 the South to the warm tropical districts of the North, where 

 beautiful flowering plants grew in abundance in forest and 

 scrub ; where bananas, pineapples, and many other luscious 

 fruits from oversea were as plentiful as peaches about Sydney ;, 

 and where splendid pasturage for sheep and cattle insured the 

 early success of those who took up country and settled down to 

 steady work. Upon the whole the picture was beguiling ; but 

 already I had learnt a little of the optimism which paints things 

 in such lovely colours ; and I knew something from the illus- 

 trations with which I was acquainted of the failure of hopes 

 that had once looked so promising. I had other thoughts 

 running in my mind, too, and would decide nothing hurrriedly. 

 I went to Sydney, therefore, riding the first day of my journey 

 through patches of unmelted snow, and picking my way through 

 the numerous fallen branches which a recent storm had brought 

 to the ground ; retracing my steps along the Port Stevens track 

 by which I had first made my way to New England ; scrambling 

 down the steeps and roughnesses of Hungry Hill ; following the 

 river valleys and crossing many pebbly river-beds ; putting up 



