1 Ava., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 205 
away from the cow as soon as born, but my opinion is that nature has provided 
the food for the calf, and if the calf is allowed to suck, it gets a start and its 
machinery is set going. As soon as the udder is properly cleaned take the calf 
away. 
Mr. T. S. Bearry, of Collaroy, St. Lawrence, then read the following 
paper :— 
A MINISTER FOR THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 
It is almost needless to preface my remarks under this head by saying that 
nothing in this paper reflects in any way on the present administration of the pastoral 
affairs, neither does it wish to detract from the value of the Agricultural Department, 
or its able and competent staff. But it is in order to show the necessity of separating 
the Agricultural Department from the pastoral industry that this paper is written. 
At the last Agricultural Conference held in Rockhampton the Minister quoted figures 
showing the enormous strides in the output of wheat, butter, cheese, &c., and the ever- 
increasing demand for land for closer settlement, and the Under Secretary, speakin 
of the work and progress of his department, said the work was increasing by leaps an 
bounds, often taxing his whole time and attention to keep pace with the daily require- 
ments and progressive demands. Now, this is a sufficient reason for the separation of 
the pastoral from the Agricultural Department. ‘The ever-increasing wants and large 
yolume of business connected with the agricultural industry are sufficient, without 
haying the great pastoral branch tacked on to it. The export trade of the pastoral 
industry represents £5,000,000 out of a total export trade of £9,000,000 of the whole 
colony, and yet it has no direct representation in the Cabinet; all the work has to filter 
through the Minister for Lands or the Minister for Agriculture. One would have 
thought that with all this expense, worry, and trouble over the ticks, with hosts of 
inspectors, quarantine laws, and regulations, that the first thing the Government would 
have done would be to appoint a special Minister to preside over so vast and important 
a branch of this revenue-earning industry, but all that was done was to form an Agri- 
cultural Department and tack the enormous business of the pastoral industry on to it. 
Now in point of wealth and importance to the revenue-carning power of the colony, 
the position of precedence should have been accorded to the pastoral industry. But 
we do not grudge the agricultural portion of our community the high and important 
position to which it has attained. We say the time is now opportune, and necessary, 
for the great stock-raising industry, with all its manifold ramifications and importance 
as a wealth-producing industry, to have a direct head in the Cabinet of the colony. 
The question of diseases in stock, regulation of our local meat consumption and 
export trade, the breeding of good horses, a tax on stallions used for hire or allowed 
to run loose, and the use of expert classers for wool and sheepbreeding, and how to 
breed the best paying stock—all these matters require and demand a qualified and 
experienced man to rule over the pastoral industry, to watch with zeal how to facilitate 
the rapid expansion of the Tweed graziers, who are now closing up the great gaps in the 
large runs of the interior. The time is not distant when the present system for 
assessing the rent of Crown lands will be abolished, and the rent be requested by the 
average results of profit from increase and sales. All these and many other matters 
pertaining to the welfare of the industry might well receive the earnest attention of 
the to-benew Minister, and we hope the session will not close without some provision 
has been made for the portfolio of a Minister for the Bureau of Animal Industry. 
With the advent of federation, it will be necessary to have uniformity in our laws and 
regulations for travelling stock, diseases in stock, and the more efficient control over 
the export trade and meat used for home consumption, and the vast interests at stake 
are too important and too serious to defer them. ‘The evolution of the so-styled 
squatter is gradually being developed by the advent of the grazing-farm system, and. 
with the increased value of sheep in Queensland, there will be double that number. 
The progressive policy of the present Government, as foreshadowed by the Premier, is 
a good augury for our trunk lines to be pushed into the interior. Add to this a system 
of providing artesian water to razing farms, then the vast extent of now waterless 
country will soon be dotted with houses, and a thriving community established. Many 
ey say that the grazing industry is the “fat man’s” portion, and is well represented. 
and cared for by the majority of the members of the House, also by the members of 
the Upper House, but if such has been the case in the past it is not so at present, and 
it is a well-known fact that what is everybody's business is nobody's. The business of 
stockraising is a speciality, and one of the earliest in history, and it requires a special 
and qualified head to supervise it and represent it in the Cabinet, Our worthy and 
efficient Chief Inspector of Stock, who has filled this office since its inception, can tell 
