1 Ave., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 213 
southern colonies, as our principal productions are maize, hay, chaff, potatoes, 
wheat, butter, cheese, and bacon. The dairying industry, which is only young yet, 
comparatively speaking, is ever expanding by leaps and bounds, and is going to be a 
very important industry to the farmer of Southern Queensland, as our climate is such 
that we can grow fodder all the year round in the shape of greenstuff, which is so 
necessary in the dairying industry. ‘Then we have pig-breeding, another 
industry in the South of this colony, the products of which we now export 
largely in the shape of bacon and hams to the southern colonies. It is 
feared by some that if we have federation and intercolonial freetrade the 
farmers of Southern Queensland will be utterly annihilated; but I do not think 
that such will be the case. I admit that in times of drought they will be able to take 
adyantage of our free ports. But with anything like favourable seasons the farmers 
of Southern Queensland will have the markets of New South Wales and Victoria for 
their surplus maize, which is often almost a drug in our local markets. With regard 
to wheat, our local production is not nearly equal to home requirements as yet, but I 
believe that Queensland in the near future will be the greatest wheat- producing 
colony in Australia. We have not only got the Darling Downs, generally called the 
garden of Queensland, for the production of wheat, but the Burnett district also will 
eventually be a large producer of this cereal, and I am confident that a great portion 
of our Central district and those rich plains of our Western country are well adapted 
for the growth of wheat, as wheat does not require any great rainfall to bring it to 
perfection. 
I believe thatwith sucha beautiful supply of artesian water as we possess, and with 
a country naturally adapted for irrigation, wheat could be produced independent of 
any extra rainfall. Furthermore, I think that at no very distant period, instead of 
importing so much of this cereal as we do at present, we shall become exporters to a 
very large extent. 
The sum of nearly all the arguments against federation is that the farmers of 
Queensland, as a body, are going to suffer, but I do not hold with this view of the 
cease. With intercolonial freetrade and protection against the world, I think the 
farmers of Queensland will be quite able to hold their own. T believe that, with 
federation, trade and the various industries will be developed. Queensland is rich in 
all sorts of minerals—such as gold, copper, iron, and coal—and with protection 
against the world, capitalists will be induced to start the iron trade, which has done 
so much to enrich other parts of the world. 
All our railway material, and machinery of all. descriptions imported from the 
outside world, should, and will be, at no distant period, manufactured within our own 
borders ; and, as a sequence, population will flock to our shores. Population means 
consumption, and consumption means a market for farmers. So that I think that, 
with federation on fair and reasonable lines, the farmers of Queensland, as a whole, 
have nothing to fear. It is argued by some that Queensland is too young for federa- 
tion ; but the same argument would hold good 20 years hence. It is also argued that 
New South Wales and Victoria will have too great a preponderance in the Federal 
Parliament according to the Commonwealth Bill, but we must remember that the 
Federal Parliament is not going to legislate for any one State more than another. 
That Parliament will be the Parliament of Australasia, and will legislate equitabl 
for the benefit of the whole of the States. As a farmer of Southern Queensland, 
I would like to see the adoption of the Commonwealth Bill by the people, and 
federation consummated; to the end that we may become one people, and that 
Australasia may become an important factor in that great Empire of which we 
are all so proud to be a part, and on which we, as Britons, may well boast, the sun 
never sets. 
Mr. W. D. Lamp (Yangan): When the Commonwealth Bill becomes law, 
I believe we shall be independant of southern competition, and, as an illustra- 
tion of my meaning, I may mention the butter industry, which has now reached 
such a stage as to enable us to export as well as to supply our own require- 
ments. As for wheat, our production will soon be overtaking our home 
demand, and the necessity for a duty on that product will be gone, At the 
same time, I think the imposition of duties to protect young industries is 
advantageous, and if the sugar industry had not had originally a protective 
duty of £5 per ton, I doubt whether it would have attained its present 
dimensions in Queensland. As a farmer I have not the slightest fear of 
federation, but I should like to see it held over for a few years until we are 
. 
