+ 
410 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Oor., 1899. 
have no choice but to follow the precedent already set in the case of Jamaica,” 
“ Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information,” No. 84, cccl., December, 1893.] It is 
understood that, under the regulations alluded to as relating to British Central 
Africa, action has. been taken in preventing the introduction of the seeds of 
shade trees from India. 
The case of Queensland, with regard to its coffee industry, is precisely that 
of the last-mentioned British territory, with the exception that with respect to 
this colony public opinion is less enlightened as to the desirability of upholding 
the law with regard to the prohibition under review, and, moreover, the oppor- 
tunity for evading it is greater. 
in the case of one fungus disease occurring within a circumscribed area in 
the Cairns district, there are grounds for concluding not only that 1t is identical 
with a malady of the coffee-plant occurring in India, but also that it has been 
imported on seeds from that country. 
As, however, the countriesin which the Hemileia vastatri« leat disease is more 
or less prevalent can provide us with new and commercially valuable economic 
plants, whose growthin Queensland might possibly contribute largely to develop 
its agricultural resources, their capabilities in this direction need not necessarily 
be disregarded. Hence the discretionary power yested in the Minister by the 
regulation under notice. But importations of the nature and sources contem- 
plated should alone be made under special safeguards. To this end it is 
recommended that the assistance of the Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, 
be invoked. This great establishment has, for some years past, paid continuous 
attention to the subject of leaf disease, and is fully alive to the importance of 
developing the tropical industries of the dependencies of the Crown, in which 
work it has in the past laboured so successfully. Moreover, owing to its 
important and numerous agencies throughout the world, it possesses exceptional 
facilities for meeting any demand that might be made upon its resources. 
THNACITY OF LIFE OF THE COFFEE PLANT. 
Mr. D. Bucwanan, late manager of the State Experiment Farm at Mackay, 
mentions the wonderful tenacity of life in the coffee plant. During the 
cyclone of February, 1898, the plants here (at the farm) were levelled by a 
cyclone from the south-east. Two-thirds of them were killed outright, but all 
those that had any roots left were hauled up and fastened to strong stakes. 
They were almost leafless and fruitless, for the ground was strewn with both 
leaves and green fruit. They appeared to be total wrecks. By January, 
1899, they had made young wood 13 to 14: inches long, with fine large dark- 
green foliage, and were fast filling up the south-east sides of the stems that 
had been stripped of branches. Then came the second cyclone at the end of 
last January. “This time from a point west of north. Although the bushes 
were tied to the post with strong tarred twine, the fury of the gale so chafed — 
the twine that most of them were blown down again, and this time the roots 
were broken on the opposite side. Several plants had all their roots broken off, 
and of course were taken away, but where it was seen that there was still a 
root intact they were pulled up again and secured to fresh stakes, and by the 
end of May they had ehaces 20 inches long, fine dark foliage, and what berries 
were left were plump and ripening well. No doubt what, saved them was the 
fact that they had made fresh roots on the south-east side, and these being 
flexible were not broken when the plants were blown down from the north-west. 
THE RUBBER INDUSTRY. 
As settlement progresses in the far North of Queensland and in New Guinea, 
there is little doubt that the attention of the new generation of settlers will 
be largely directed to rubber. Thanks to the indomitable energy of the 
late Lieutenant-Governor of the latter Possession (Sir William Macgregor), 
