liY ,). B. HENDERSON, F.l.C. IX. 



and herbs has repeatedly been pointed out, but the 

 temptation to overstock pastures in good seasons is always 

 present, and the danger is one which it is difficult to over- 

 oome, either by legislation or administration. The annual 

 loss of animal life from poisonous weeds is very heavy 

 and in some cases might be avoided. The loss of pastures, 

 through overgrowth of weeds, is almost invariably easily 

 prevented, as in the case of prickly pear, but when lost, 

 the cost of recovery of the pasture is exceedingly heavy. 

 It has been pointed out repeatedly that the spread of cattle 

 ticks, which have wasted millions of money, might have 

 been ' prevented when first noticed in Northern Queens- 

 land ; now they are evidentty here to stay, and they demand 

 an annual toll running into many thousands of pounds. 

 It probably costs Queensland much more every year for 

 feeding the ticks with cattle than for all the secondary 

 And University education combined. 



Another of our great Industries is the production of 

 «ugar. In 1910 we produced 210,756 tons of sugar 

 (Government Statistician). Now each ton of sugar means 

 the production of about 35 gallons of molasses, so that 

 7,376,000 gallons of molasses were produced. Nearly 

 all of that was wasted ; so far as I can learn only a very 

 small proportion was made into cattle feed and not much 

 converted into alcohol. Each gallon of molasses yields 

 about 0.4 gallon of alcohol so that molasses sufficient to 

 make nearly 3,000,000 gallons of alcohol was thrown away 

 to become a nuisance to whole neighbourhoods. The 

 importation of petrol to Queensland in 1911 Avas 765,139 

 gallons which, at Is. 4d. per gallon, gives £51 ,000. Evidently 

 most of the money sent from here to America for petrol 

 might have been kept in Queensland. I understand that 

 alcohol cannot be bought in Queensland at less than Is. 5d. 

 per gallon. Three million gallons at Is. 5d. represents 

 £212,500, a considerable annual loss to the state. It is 

 possible even now to sell industrial alcohol at Is. 3d. per 

 gallon in Queensland. Unfortunately the stringent Excise 

 Laws add materially to the cost and trouble of using 

 industrial alcohol, owing to the fear that some of our 

 decadent and debased fellow citizens might drink alcohol 

 which had paid no duty. But for that fear, industrial 



