1 Ava., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 117 
most critical time, to loaf his way to the next district and repeat the foregomg. We 
also obtain the refuse of the southern cities, wrecks of humanity who, tempted by the 
rospect of good wages work their passage to the Northern ports, and endeavour to 
; ca their vitiated bodies to perform work for which they are utterly unsuited, and 
ask for increased pay, by reason of the injurious effect of the climate upon their decayed 
constitutions. It is for the sake of these men, and others like them, that southern 
politicans would cripple an industry that enables thousands of energetic hard-workin: 
men to better themselves by settling on the land with their wives and families, ana 
peopling this great colony with a prosperous agricultural population, so essential to 
the prosperity of a young country like ours. Why, I ask, should the sugar industry 
be asked to pay wages nearly 50 per cent. higher than those paid by any other 
agricultural industry to a class of labourers inferior to those Siig in any other 
industry ? Is sugar-growing’so eet ? Ask the farmer who works from daylight 
to dark, year in and year out, and is contented to make a fair living and eventually to 
urchase the freehold of his farm, if such is the case. Sugar-growing is not more 
profitable than other branches of agriculture, neither is the work done by its labourers 
any more laborious or requiring more skill than any other industries. Rather, indeed, 
the reverse, when we consider that for the greater part of the year the work done by 
kanakas merely consists of hoeing and planting cane and general light farm work, 
and I speak from experience when I say that the labour involved in harvesting cane is 
lighter than that of any other agricultural product. That white labour can be profitably 
employed by the sugar industry, provided it be of a reliable kind, and can: be obtained 
at the wage at present paid by our farmers in other branches of agriculture further 
South, I firmly believe Where, then, are we to look for white labour suitable for our 
requirements, and at a wage which, although necessarily higher than that paid to 
kanakas, will still be lower than the present price of white labour ? 
It is in pate that we shall find the labour we require. In Great Britain, 
Germany, Denmark, and other European countries we can find a class of farm 
labourers, thrifty, sober, industrious, accustomed to long hours of steady toil and paid 
at arate of wages in many cases below that paid by us to kanakas. ‘The conditions 
under which these men work prevent them from raising themsélyes from their 
miserable situations as farm labourers, and the position of independent settlers, within 
reach of every white man in Queensland, can never be theirs. Let the Government 
assist these men to pay their passages out to the colony, and let their wages be fixed 
by us at a rate that our industry could profitably pay, and they will eagerly make use 
of the opportunity vouchsafed them of obtaining a wage greatly in excess of that 
which they have been accustomed to, with the prospect of ultimately making a home 
for themselves and becoming eventually independent. That the necessarily increased 
rate of wages, caused by such substitution of labour, will render sugar-growing less 
rofitable than at present is, I admit, probable, should such a change take place 
immediately; but signs are not wanting which point to a complete revolution in the 
conditions of sugar-growing, caused by the introduction of labour-saving machinery, 
similar to the effect produced upon other agricultural industries by the use of — 
machinery. The ere aon of mechanical means to the planting, cultivation, ‘and 
harvesting of cereals and other products (amongst them the sugar-cane’s great rival— 
beet) has so completely revolutionised these industries, that in spite of the tremendous 
fall in prices during the last ten years, these can still be profitably produced. We 
hear of the impossibility of machines being used in the harvesting of cane, but what 
seemed more improbable twenty years ago than the idea that a machine drawn by two 
horses and driven by one man, could do the work and take the place of twenty or 
more labourers in the wheat field ? Who could have foreseen at that time the 
possibility of shearing sheep by steam power? History will repeat itself in the case of 
our industry. Already we have a machine for planting cane which, when perfected, 
will enable one white man to do the work of half a dozen kanakas, and the day is not 
far distant when a machine will be produced to take the place of the large gangs of 
coloured labour at present required in the fields in the crushing season. By these 
means the farmer, by reducing the number of his employees, will be. enabled to pay 
ood wages to whatever white labour he requires, and our industry will no longer be 
ependent for its existence upon a supply of cheap labour so distasteful to the white 
population of Australia. 
On the motion of Mr. Perx, Mr. Pott’s paper was also referred to the 
Resolutions Committee. 
GREEN MANURING. 
Mr. P. McLrxan (Under Secretary for Agriculture) said: This subject of 
green manuring is on the programme for discussion, and I may say it is one of 
the deepest interest to those engaged in the sugar industry. Neeing also that a 
