FRUITS OF QUEENSLAND. 



PREFACE. 



In the more thickly populated portions of the Old and New World, and, 

 to a certain extent, in the large cities of Australia, the question of how to 

 make a living has become one of vital importance to a large portion of the 

 population, and is the cause of considerable anxiety to fathers of families who 

 are endeavouring to find employment for their sons. 



This difficulty of obtaining employment is a very serious question, and 

 one demanding the most earnest consideration. It is probably the result of 

 many different causes, but, in the writer's opinion, it is due mainly to the 

 fact that for years past the trend of population has been from the country 

 districts to the towns, with the result that many of the great centres of 

 population are now very badly congested, and profitable employment of any 

 kind is often extremely difficult to obtain. The congested towns offer no 

 possible outlet for surplus labour, hence it is necessary that such labour must 

 find an outlet in the less thickly populated parts of the world where there is 

 still plenty of room for development and population is badly needed. Queens- 

 land is a country possessing these qualifications; but is, unfortunately, a 

 country that is little known to the general mass of home-seekers, and, further, 

 what little is known of it is usually so inaccurate that a very erroneous opinion 

 of the capabilities of this really fine country exists. The great flow of 

 emigration is naturally to those countries that are nearest to the Old World 

 viz., the United Slt'ates of America and Canada and little attention is given 

 to Australia, although we have many advantages not possessed by either the 

 United States or Canada, and are not subject to the disadvantage of an 

 intensely cold winter such as that experienced throughout the greater portion 

 of those countries for several months yearly. 



To those looking for homes the following pages are addressed, so that 

 before deciding to what part of the world they will go they may know what 

 sort of a country Queensland really is, what one of its industries is like, the 

 kind of life they may look forward to spending here, and the possibility of 

 their making a comfortable home amongst us. The life of a fruit-grower is 

 by no means a hard one in Queensland, the climate of the fruit-growing 



