SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
Tropical Agriculture: Cotton, Jute, Flax, Linseed, Castor. 
By DANIEL JONES. 
I would like to draw the attention of the Institute of Science and Industry to 
industries which I think might be carried on by utilizing certain raw materials 
which could profitably be raised in this country. 
With respect to cotton-growing in Queensland, a considerable amount of mis- 
conception has gained ground as to the amount of assistance this industry has 
obtained by bonus from the Public Treasury. It is frequently asserted that as 
soon as the bonus provisions lapsed the industry collapsed. Nothing of the kind 
occurred, for the very sound reason that the bonus provision of £5 per bale 
exported had ceased to operate long before cotton-growing was discontinued. We 
found that when the value of cotton was equal to what it has been during the past 
fifteen years, the profits accruing were satisfactory, but a drop to a penny per Ib. 
for raw eotton in seed was largely a non-paying proposition; hence farmers 
speedily left off growing the crop. ‘However, the bonus paid, being in the form of 
a land order to the producer of the cotton, had, indirectly, a beneficial effect on the 
close settlement of what are now the most prosperous farming districts of 
Southern Queensland. 
Evidence of this may be seen by any traveller through the Logan, Fassifern, 
and Rosewood farming centres. Here one realizes the value-of diversified farm- 
ing, and small holdings furnishing a large population with a profitable means of 
livelihood. 
Most of these areas were selected by farmers who, for their sons, utilized the 
bonus land order to take up homesteads of from 40 to 80 acres, and those districts 
are studded to-day with comfortable homes and farm plots, due largely to the 
impetus given to this—the best form of home-making—by the utility of the 
cotton plant as the factor in closer settlement. 
Hundreds of farmers grew cotton in that period after the lapse of the bonus, 
hence, much of what is surmised as to the effect of the bonus lapse is entirely 
mythical. 
When a revival of the industry occurred about the year 1890, due to the 
unselfish efforts of the farmers and mercantile community in Ipswich, whose 
ambition was to revive the industry, not only on growers’ account, but as relating 
to textile manufactures, a further honus was sought for, and after much delay 
and opposition, a proviso was made by the Legislature that on the manufacture 
of £5,000 worth of calico or other cotton fabrics, the money would be paid. This 
regulation prompted those who were interested in the industry to establish the 
Queensland Cotton Manufacturing Company, which, after much effort, was 
capitalized to a very insufficient amount, and started operations at East Ipswich. 
After a struggle for about five years, the company ceased operations, owing 
to insufficient capital, but primarily to the apathy displayed by the Govern: 
ment then in power in not safeguarding the interests of the company by carrying 
out Tariff regulations provided by the Customs Act. This can be best explained by 
a brief discursive statement of fact. The directors, after some inquiry and tests, 
discovered that a line of manufacture best and most profitable for the company’s 
activities related to the making of Turkish and honeycomb towels. The necessary 
machines were imported expressly from England to perform this work, the incen- 
tive being a duty of 15 per cent. on this class of goods, as against a free Tariff, 
or at most 5 per cent., on the other articles made in the factory, which, for the 
most part, comprised narrow calicoes, broad sheeting, twills, cellular cloth, 
butter and cheese cloths, all of superior excellence, which speedily caught the 
attention of the local trading houses. 
Our enterprise in making these towels was, for a period, eminently successful, 
until importers of cotton textile goods in the State found that, by importing towels 
in bolts, the selvedge being uncut, they were classed as piece goods, and admitted 
duty free. This proved the Waterloo of our textile manufacturing at Ipswich, and 
from that time the plant has been largely scrap iron. 
I have emphasized this feature of our manufacturing enterprise in order to 
correct a false impression that the cotton-growing and manufacturing industry 
failed by inherent economic conditions adverse to the enterprise rather than those 
which could, by a little business acumen and sympathetic treatment, have been 
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