1 Ave., 1899. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 211 
Mr. E. Deyatan (Mackay): Great stress has been laid on the protection 
that would be given to the sugar industry by federation. At the present time 
sugar is protected in Queensland to the extent of £5 per ton, but this does not 
benefit the canegrower owing to the fact that we have to export, although if 
our production were only equal to our consumption, it would be a different 
matter. We shall very shortly have to export our sugar beyond Australia, and 
then the Australian protection would only affect us to the amount of sugar we are 
now making. As for the benefits of joining a powerful federation, the case of 
Canada might be instanced. Overtures were made over and over again to 
Canada to federate with the United States, and heavy tariffs were put on 
Canadian produce by the States in retaliation for her declining to join the 
Union. That did not injure Canada in any way, but compelled her, instead of 
sending her produce across the border to the States, to send it to England and 
elsewhere, and that is one of the chief secrets of the prosperity of the Dominion 
to-day. For myself, I do not think we are likely to be much benefited by 
federation. i 
.Captain Henry (Lucinda Point): Before dealing with the matter of 
federation, I wish to enter my emphatic protest against the treatment accorded 
to the resolution at the conclusion of my paper. The Chairman said such 
resolutions were unusual at these conferences; but they are usual, and improper 
my resolution could not possibly be. It seems to me to be fatuous to prepare 
papers and read them, and have discussion invited, unless a consensus of 
opinion can be arrived at. That can only be done through the Resolutions 
Committee, which I respectfully submit is Mr. McLean’s committee. Mr. 
McLean gets up at the commencement of every conference, and proposes that 
So-and-so and So-and-so shall constitute a Resolutions Committee. It is 
immediately put to the vote, andis carried unanimously. I maintain that such 
a committee is not representative of this Conference or of any other, nor do 
I see why the appointment of such a committee is necessary. If it is 
necessary, I cannot see why the committee should not be appointed by the 
Conference. I think if men are called together, invited to read papers and 
discuss them, that they must be surely empowered to move such 
resolutions as they may think fit, to be ‘rejected or affirmed by the 
Conference as it thinks right. You were kind enough to listen very 
patiently to the short paper Mr. Black was good enough to read for me, 
and I shall not bother you with any recapitulation. I simply put it to you 
on behalf of the people who sent me here. Although the kanaka is a dis- 
appearing factor in cane cultivation in tropical Queensland, it is impossible, 
for the present at any rate, for the industry to be carried on without the 
assistance of black labour. I ask you to consider whether there is oris not a 
possible danger of black labour being taken away from us in the event of 
federation. If there is danger, it behoves us to consider whether the main- 
tenance of a great industry, such as that of sugar, is not worth while con- 
sidering before we take what is really, after all, a leap in the dark. TI fully 
admit all the advantages of federation that have been so ably laid before you, 
so long as the sacrifices we are called upon to make, or risk making, are not 
too great. With regard to Mr. Booker’s argument that we run a greater risk 
at the hands of our Queensland Parliament than at the hands of the Australian, 
I would like to remind him that the power of interference with our black 
labour lies, and will lie, under the Commonwealth Bill, with the Parliament in 
Brisbane. Whether that Parliament will be so constituted after federation as 
to be more favourable to the maintenance of the sugar ind ustry than at present 
is an open question. J, myself, am inclined to be of the opinion of gentlemen 
who have spoken to me, and who know more about these matters than I do. 
In the event of federation a very large percentage of our leading men will go 
from the Parliament of Queensland into the Parliament of Australia, and, as a 
matter of necessity almost, I fear that the conduct of our locai affairs may 
peeatly, fall into the hands ofless able legislatorsthan we have at present. Ithere- 
ore ask you to consider where thereis a possible danger of ourlabourbeing taken 
