132 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Ava., 1899. 
Mr. F. W. Peex (Loganholme): When this matter was brought up at 
Rockhampton last year, Mr. Bromiley laid great stress upon the importance of 
cheap labour. Dr. Thomatis, however, denies that it requires any labour. It 
appears to be more a question of family than of labour. Mr. Parke said he 
thought it best to sacrifice his coffee than his children’s education, and I asked 
Mr. Bromiley about the same matter last year. He denied, however, that the 
children’s education was affected, and said that in his district the coffee was 
principally picked during the children’s holidays. Of course that gave Mr. 
Bromiley the best end of the argument, but I can hardly follow Dr. Thomatis 
when he says coffee requires very little labour. J understand that coffee cannot 
be successfully cultivated, if labour is paid for, unless 10d. per Ib. is received 
for the berry. Of course, if Dr. Thomatis has no labour to pay for, that 
reduces the cost of production, but still I think the labour question enters as 
much into coffee as into sugar. 
Mr. E. Denmay (Mackay): Many people think they will get children to 
do the work of picking coffee during the school holidays, but in South Aus- 
tralia this was tried in connection with the picking of olives, and failed. Before 
the emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies, most of the plantations 
there grew coffee and sugar. After emancipation, it became a question of 
labour —something had to go, and without exception they abandoned the coffee. 
In British Guiana to-day, the output of coffee is only a thousandth part of 
what it was before emancipation. Coffee required more labour than sugar, and 
it consequently had to go. 0 
Mr. R. J. Buaxe (Blenheim): If Dr. Thomatis is able to make £30 per 
acre from his coffee, I am surprised at him asking the Government for a £70 
drying-kiln. An industry of that kind, or any industry, if it once gets a start 
and is not able to carry itself on its own legs, ought, I think, to be let go. 
Mr. B. O. Brooxes (Johnstone River): We have heard a very glowing 
account of coffee and of the profits to be derived from it, but very little about 
the drawbacks. I have heard that blight has appeared on the coffee-trees, and 
Dr. Thomatis forgot to tell us anything about that. According to him, it is all 
profit, and requires very little labour; but I want to know, is there any blight, 
or is there any other disease that will destroy the trees? We are told no 
cultivation is necessary, and in most cases where there is no cultivation, 
very little is got in return. Is there any disease likely to follow the want of 
cultivation ? , 
Mr. 8S. E. Toorn (Pialba): My. Bromiley, who last year gave the address 
on coffee at Rockhampton, does all his labour with his own family. His 
children do the picking, and he tells me they can do far more than an equal 
number of men, also that the picking comes on during the children’s holidays. 
He is busy with his plantation at the present time, and that is the reason why 
he is not here at this meeting. 
Mr. G. Munrz (Mosman): When J was in Cairns I had the pleasure of 
meeting Mr. Lewis, who is one of the most successful coffee-growers in Queens- 
land. Mr. Lewis has just come back from Europe replete with the latest 
information about coffee, and he tells me the whole question is one of labour. 
I myself had grave thoughts of going into coffee. I had communicated with the 
Agricultural Department on the subject, and had got many particulars, but I was 
advised that it was largely a matter of labour. The reason why Mr. Lewis has 
been so successful is that he has had aborigines. They work for him, and it is 
by that means that he has made coffee so profitable. Aborigines are not ayail- 
able for everybody, and I was warned on no account to undertake coffee without 
seeing prospects of a good supply of labour. I would suggest that the matter 
is not yet fully developed, and that coffee has not yet reached the stage of an 
industry. It has not yet been shown what can be made from growing coffee, 
and my opinion is that everybody should go cautiously into it untilits prospects 
are more definite. 
Mr. P. McLean: The question of the profitableness or otherwise of 
coffee-growing depends largely in the quality of the article that is produced. I 
have samples of coffee in my office that brought in the English market 110s., 
