722 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
continued until prices, at the great sources of supply, are reached 
which are insufficient to cosher the cost of production with reasonable 
profit to the producer added. 
Man’s inherent dislike of labour, where the incitement of gain is 
wanting, and the numerous channels in which human energies may, 
under modern conditions, be profitably directed, should be counted on to 
ultimately check the over-production which brings loss to the producer. 
My own impression is that the great market supplies of grain, meat, 
and cotton have, at least until very lately, taking things by and large, 
given a profit to the grower, and that wool has not. Bad farming, in 
common with vicious methods in general, cannot be a permanent 
condition. The best soils sooner or later refuse to yield a profitable 
return to scourging methods, and the richest of natural pastures are 
ultimately “trod out” in a system which recognises no operation but 
that of harvesting. If we were certain that no undiscovered Argentina# 
or Dakotahs were in store for us, we might safely assume the temporary 
character of the existing low prices. Natural law is self-enforcing, 
and here, as elsewhere, is certain ultimately to prevail despite the 
trumpery efforts of human legislation. In the great industrial strife 
reflected in the world’s markets, the most resourceful people will win. 
The battle here is always to the strong, and the race to the swift. 
What the chances of Queensland producers are in this “ great impend- 
ing conflict,” for Queensland can hardly he said to have yet entered 
it, is the practical question proposed for discussion in this paper. A 
sufficient explanation of it s scope is given when I say that the plan is 
to touch not so much upon the natural as the artificial and remediable 
conditions that surround production in Queensland. 
The natural resources of the colony, as related to soil products, 
can with difficulty he overstated. Unmeasured tracts of fertile soil, 
inland and coastwise, an equable climate that knows no winter in the 
European or American sense of the word, and products that vary in 
all degrees between those normal to the temperate and tropical 
regions of the earth are the prominent features of this natural wealth. 
There is nothing more impressive in the agriculture of Quaensland 
than the variety of field and orchard crops that flourish in particular 
localities. I have myself counted twenty-six different fruits, em- 
bracing apples, plums, bananas, and mangoes, growing and apparently 
thriving in a single fruit garden. In this strife of industrial competi- 
tion the Queensland cultivator has small cause for complaint of lack 
of opportunity, either in suiting his own taste or the requirements of 
the market. How are these resources utilised, and what are the 
reforms in practice, if any, needed to lift our cultivators to the level 
of their opportunities ? 
The history of modern industrial enterprise is a record of success 
founded on temporary disaster. In the commercial world, no less 
than in the physical, strength and beauty spring from pain and decay. 
Death, in the realm of business as in animal existence, is as much a 
part of the scheme of nature as life. Grreat commercial companies 
arise from the ashes of dead ventures and fatten where they have 
failed. Old ships rot in every port that newer and better ones may 
do the carrying trade of the world. Every modern farmstead has its 
“ scrap-heap” of obsolete stock, tools, and ideas that have been forced 
into retirement by modern improvements. It is the effort to compete 
