210 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ave., 1899. 
her people going to do for beef? We have a market in London and caw 
ienere them altogether. This is a weapon in our hands quite equal to any in 
theirs. 
Mr. A. C. Warker (Knockroe): I am quite in accord with what: 
Mr. Gibson says about the 12 months’ agreements for kanakas. Many are in 
favour of the longer term, and many against it, but we in the South are 
suffering a good deal from “ walk-about”’ boys, and at present you cannot get 
them to engage until just before crushing. 1 do not blame the boys, but a good 
deal of the trouble is brought about by some growers keeping their labour as 
short as possible and thinking they are saving money. ‘They may be saving, 
but I do not think they are, for it is a poor farm that cannot keep its labour all 
the year through. I do not speak for myself, for I do not engage boys much 
except when there is a rush, but still tenant farmers are often to blame. One 
man gets his labour for 12 months for very little more than another does for 
6 months, and he gets his work done much better. In other respects there is: 
not the slightest doubt that the 12 months’ agreements are better tor both boys. 
and employers. 
Mr. W. Tuompson (Childers): At present the boys will not engage until 
crushing time, when they know you cannot do without them, unless you try 
Hindoos, and the former are better than the latter. The boys do nothing but 
play cricket on the side of the road month after month, and if you ask them to 
go and engage they will tell you “by-and-by.” ‘This thing goes right on until 
the time when the growers want them, and then the boys do not know what 
they want. You make a verbal arrangement with them, but when you come to 
the point of engaging them somebody has seen them in the interval, and they 
demand something else.- The storekeepers tell them to ask for 16s. or 17s. a 
week, and matters have now come to such a pass that you might just as well 
give them a white man’s wage of £1. I think the kanakas ought to be made 
to go home or else re-engage. They go about the streets, sometimes getting 
trusted for their board and sometimes not, and I would like to see some 
regulation providing for a fixed amount of wages, say, 8s. or 9s.a week. I 
recently asked 3 of my boys if they would engage again, but they told me, 
as usual, they would see me about it “ by-and-by.” 
Mr. R. Greson (Ayr): One of the principal requirements of the sugar 
industry in Queensland is more intense cultivation and also better methods, 
coupled with the assistance of a chemist; and as for federation, I believe that 
if we do enter into union with the other colonies that they will deal liberally 
with sugar. 
Mr. C. J. Booker (Woolooga): The trouble among sugar-planters in 
connection with federation appears to be the fear of the probable loss of black 
labour, but Queensland has probably less to fear in this respect from the Federal 
Parliament than from her own. Where, but from the south, came the bulk of 
the capital that established the sugar industry in Queensland? The southerm 
men are not going to lose their capital by interfering with our labour conditions. 
You can take a guide from the election of the federal delegates as to the 
future representatives and senators of the federation. The delegates were the 
big men of the south, and the future Australian legislators will be big men, 
many of them the financial directors of companies whose capital is now in the 
sugar industry. 
Mr. J. HE. Leasx (Bundaberg) : The object to be arrived at is the cheapest 
way of producing sugar, and when we look at the average production of Queens- 
land sugar as compared with that of other countries we find Queensland lowest 
on the list. It is certainly not because of the poorness of the land, but the 
cause is probably that we do not put it to such a high state of cultivation. 
This can only be done by securing highly competent chemists, and having 
our soils thoroughly analysed to see what is wanted to bring them to the 
highest state of efficiency, and I have much pleasure in supporting the 
arguments that have been brought forward in advocating the engagement 
of such chemists. 
