124 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ave., 1899. 
. long distances after cane, past abandoned fields close to the mills, that it is high 
time, and indeed AUC i necessary, that a greater amount of sugar should be 
produced per acre than is being secured at the present time. (Applause.) 
The Conference then adjourned for lunch. 
SECOND SESSION. 
Monpay AFTERNOON, 2°15 p.a., 267TH Junr, 1899. 
There was again a full attendance durirg the afternoon, and business 
~vas commenced by Mr. H. B. Black reading the following paper on behalf of 
Captain Henry :— 
THE POSSIBILITIES AND DIFFICULTIES OF TROPICAL AGRI 
CULTURE IN QUEENSLAND, AND HOW IT WILL BE AFFECTED 
BY FEDERATION. 
How federation will affect the tropical agriculturist of Queensland is to us, 
perhaps, the most important question of the day. Of course no sane person can fail to 
perceive the many and great advantages of federation, provided always the interests of 
the several States are properly safeguarded. To Queensland the greatest boon that 
federation could bring would certainly be that of intercolonial freetrade, which would 
ractically give Queensland sugar-growers a monopoly of the Australian market. But 
it were folly for us to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a very possible danger to 
the tropical agriculturist in the Constitution which will shortly be submitted to the 
electors of Queensland. I need scarcely say that I allude to the question of Polynesian 
and Papuan labour, and I cannot better place before you the position in which the 
colony will be with regard to this question, should the Bill be accepted, than by quot- 
ing from Sir Samuel Griffith’s recent paper on the question of Federation. Sir Samuel 
Griffith says :—“ One of these subjects, Hewreer) deserves special reference. I refer 
to No. XXVI., described in these words, ‘The people of any race other than the 
aboriginal race in any State for whom it is deemed to make special laws.’ These 
words would empower the Federal Parliament to deal with the coloured labour 
‘question in any of the States. In the Bill framed by the Convention of 1891, it was 
roposed that this power should be vested in the Federal Parliament exclusively; but 
an the Bill now ueuae consideration, the Parliament of Queensland will, as will the 
Parliament of every other colony, so far as regards its own territory, retain power to 
deal with the subject until the Federal Parliament of the Commonwealth thinks fit to 
exercise its paramount authority. ‘The present Bill therefore gives a freer hand to the 
several colonies than that of 1891. It was admitted in both Conventions that the 
question of alien immigration must be left, in the last resort, to the Federal Parliament, 
but the Convention of 1897-8 has left the matter to be dealt with by the several States 
until the Federal Parliament thinks fit to interfere. The probability of the Federal 
Legislature interfering with the existing laws of Queensland with regard to Polynesians, 
may be gauged by the fact that, up to the present time, the Legislature of New South 
Wales has never attempted to touch the subject, although it largely affects the 
northern areas of that colony.” Any opinion expressed by Sir Samuel Griffith is 
worthy of yery weighty consideration, yet I cannot but think that in this matter he is 
inclined to take a very great deal for granted. It must be borne in mind that the 
employment of kanakas in New South Wales is not a matter recognised, controlled, 
or restricted by the State; their presence in that colony is an accident; the question 
is one of those er dogs that may at any moment be aroused; and, indeed, the 
education test, which has recently been imposed in New South Wales, already effectu- 
ally bars their further introduction. ‘lhe average Australian neither knows nor 
appreciates the ‘fact that the 7,090 or 8,000 kanakas in our midst give directly or 
indirectly employment to some 20,000 or 30,000 whites, who, but for them, would have 
to seek a ifvalihood elsewhere. J£ we cannot be sure of our own people—and we know 
too well that, in the heart of the sugar-producin districts, many who live solely by the 
sugar industry are prepared to let it perish, so long as the kanaka goes with it—ean 
we expect the democrats of New South Wales and Victoria, who have no knowledge 
of our climatic conditions, to be more forbearing? It must not be forgotten that the 
question as to whether an European race can perpetuate itself in the tropics has yet 
to be solyed. We are still in the first generation, and we cannot ignore the fact that 
very few natives of North Queensland are to be found in the ranks of the agricultural 
labourers; neither have we any right to expect that there will be a continuous overflow 
of white labour from colonies in which the conditions of field work are so much more 
healthy and pleasant. 
