THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec. 1, 1902. 
warehousa charges for the paot two years stand as 
follows, viz :— 
Fieight. Warehouse Quantity 
charges. of tea. 
1901 .. £103 15 1 .. £112 16 1 .. 67,9301b. 
1900 ... Ill 17 3 .. 115 1 6 .. 67,547 1b. 
the number of packages being 803 (of which 150 
were boxes of 10 lb. net) and 639 full sized 
chests. 
If complaint is made to the warehouse proprietor 
that his charges are excessive, he will say he can 
make no reduction, by reason of the proportion he 
disburses to the dock companies. This may or may 
not be so ; hut it is impossible to get away from 
the fact tliat tb.e bondeil tea warehouse business 
is a protected one, inasmuch as there is reason 
to believe that the Customs authorities have re- 
fused to provitle officers for warehouses beyond those 
now existing ; further, there are directors and 
shareholders of tea companies holding interests in 
some of the existing warehouses ; so what they lose 
at the one f;ame they gain in the other. 
The>e united forces, opposed to the weak com- 
bination of the planter-importer, and the lack of 
unanimity existing in their ranks, result in the 
payment of practically the same charges to day as 
have obtained for years past, when the tea-planting 
industry was in a prosperous condition. — H, and 
C. Mail, Oct. 17. 
A CEYLON PLANTER IN QUEENSLAND. 
It was necessary to buckle too here and get an 
"agricultural billet." So Ave started work at 5s per 
day for an Australian 
M,I;.C. 
and did up his flower garden. After a week at 
gardening we had a few days' compulsory rest 
and got another job at 4s per day and omnibus 
fare 6d extra. When working in tliis way, an 
occasional cup of tea and sovne bread and butter 
were brought out and a short spell from hard 
labour was much appreciated. Our third gardening 
billet in Brisbane was a six weeks' job with a 
quiet family in South Brisbane, the other side of 
the beautiful new Victoria Bridge spanning the 
Brisbane Kiver. 
THE CITY OF BRISBANE 
is very much improved in twelve years and has 
become a very handsome looking town. There 
was great depression in business, of course, and 
wages were very low, indeed. Situations were very 
difScultto obtain, employees being dismissed instead 
of new engagements being made. Even the Queers- 
land Government is " dead broke '' or any way 
very "hard up" judging from their recent dis- 
missal of some old and valued public servants 
including Mr Wr-agge, the clerk of the weather, 
and Mr Bai'ey, the Government Botanist ; also the 
staff of the Botanical Gardens inchnling the 
"Ranger" and the "Propagator" and a host of 
tderks, in different departments of Government 
service left at the end of June, last, to save some 
thirty thousands of pounds per annum. It seems 
somewhat inconsistent to the writer's mind that 
useful men should be so roughly handled, and 
about the same time the tax was taken off tea 
and kerosine oil, making a dead loss to the 
Government of over £50,000. The labour party 
are said to have brought this about and it is 
likely there will be some more thinning out. 
To return to my own personal experience : 
}>0J9Ui binashiug my thumb ia 9, mowing 
machine I got on pretty well with my Iso. 3 
Agricultural employer. My last Brisbane boss 
had a line collection of French roses trained 
against the walls around the lawns and tennis 
court. On the other side was a very costly fowl 
run or rather four separate fowl runs for prize fowls. 
In addition to hatching naturally, we hatched 
artificially by an American Incubator and raised 
chickens at a temperature of 102°, so that my 
time was taken up pretty well both by day 
and night gardening and hatching chickens. 
The Climate of Brisbane during Jane, July, 
and August (the winter months) was simply de- 
lightful rather cold at 6 o'clock in the morning 
and after 6 p.m., but a perfect climate for a white 
man to work in. Now the scene is changed : 
the hot weather is beginning in September, and 
the Northern ports of Queensland are awful 
places for ticks and " scrub-itch," also small ticks 
that torment a man and prevent him from sleep- 
ing at night. The days are frightfully hot and 
unconcomtortable and the water is not particularly 
good in many places I have had to live in 
lately. Most of the private houses and hotels 
are roofed with iron, making them cold before 
sunrise and as hot as the place wdiere there is 
no snow at midday. After taking a great inter- 
est in my work and raising some splendid 
drum head, cabbages, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, 
water-cress and other vegetables, in spite of the 
drought, my boss told me he contemplated leaving 
Brisbane for a holiday with his family and that 
I had better find another job. I accordingly 
wrote to a " Coffee Planter " in Mackay and 
received a favourable reply : " A three months' 
job " at £1 per week and 
" TUCKER." 
The ss. " Aratnac" of the A U S N Company was 
leaving Brisbane for Northern potts. Our passage 
was delightful, smooth scii, bright moon-light nights 
and pleasant passengers. Mackay looked green and 
fresh three months ago, but is dried up now. 
Driving over the Bridge spanning the Pioneer 
liiver we came to an anchor at Cremorne Hotel 
surrounded by coconut palms. Mrs Keller made 
me comfortable at Cremorne, and the maid told 
me there was a goed bathing place in the Creek, 
so we took soap-dish and towel, the former was 
not required for it was salt water ! There was 
a great kick-up in the town of Port Mackay 
and big guns went off and broke the Hotel 
ivindoios. Everybody sang the National Anthem 
and the Band played " Sons of the Sea," it was 
a warm reception for me and celebrated Peace 
in South Africa. 
MACKAY. 
Mackay is a pretty little town with wide 
streets planted with shade trees in the centre 
of the main streets. Sydney and Victoria streets 
po.ssess some good buildings and comfortable 
Hotels. Trade was very slack. A drive in the 
mail coach to the Leap through a large number of 
abandoned sugar plantations and shut down mills 
made rather a sad impression. There must have 
been a big sugar boom, for no less than tiventy- 
five sugar mills have been shutdown. Sugar is 
still cultivated in a small way, but the price is 
very low both for cane and made sugar. There 
is a great fuss about white-grown sugar, but 
very little of it produced up to date, Indians, 
Japs, Chinamen and other Asiatics are still 
working the cane fields and factories, the white 
v,\m is a considerable discount mA it woulq 
