1 Jouny, 1901.) QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 29 
It is utterly useless to expect such men to co-operate with any hope of success, 
and the great evil of it is that the man so enthralled is dragging down his more 
fortunate fellow to his own Jow level. That some means should be found to prevent 
others from entering on the same downward course seems to be a fact so obvious 
as to be beyond the necessity of argument. It is undeniable that one of the greatest . 
drawbacks to the development of agriculture in this country has been the high rates 
of interest charged to those who have been compelled to borrow, the lender being in 
most cases, as before stated, the storekeeper— the gombeen man ’’—and the thee 
payable on demand. Money at a reasonable price and on long terms appears to be 
essential to the very existence of the agricultural industry in Queensland. 
The experience of older countries should guide and stimulate us in safeguarding 
those engaged in this avocation. An English paper after inquiry discovered that in 
thirteen years’ time 33,453 farmers in the State of Minnescta, United States, were 
driven out of their homes at the dictates of the man with the cash. State Assessor 
Wood, of New York, declared in 1889 that, in his opinion, in a few decades there 
would be none but tevant farmers in that State. In every quarter of the civilised 
world the necessity is recognised for progressive finance being brought to bear upon - 
the agricultural industry to protect those engaged in it. 
This paper, which must necessarily be of limited length, will not do more than 
merely touch upon some of the schemes for obtaining cheap money to the soil-tiller. 
All efforts in this direction, be it noted, should view with suspicion any and every 
scheme that would tend to debase the currency of the country, the effect of which has, 
as the world’s history teaches us, always been disastrous in the highest degree. It is 
the genuine article that is wanted, but at a price which undeniable security and collec- 
tive effort can command. Of course, every project for cheapening money has its warm 
supporters, who are positive that their theory is based on the very soundest principles, 
just as every crow is known to think its own eggs the whitest. © Their doxy is ortho- 
doxy, everyone else’s doxy being heterodoxy. 
The Governments of New Zealand, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, 
Tasmania, and West Australia have conferred immense benefits by advancing the 
sinews of war to their farming population ; the latter, West Australia, having passed 
an Act of Agricultural Credit before she was one year old as a constitutional colony. 
Savings banks deposits have been brought into requisition under a Board of Com- 
missioners to find the needful for their settlers at fair rates. The Victorian Govern- 
ment have in a measure adopted the ‘‘redit Foncier system, although in France, and 
England also, this system has by no ieans sustained the promise of its early years. 
In New Zealand the advances to settlers have proved so highly successful that 
Premier Seddon has declared his intention of going further, and giving advances on 
suburban and township properties. In South Australia their State Bank has realised 
substantial profits since its inception, and the 1 per cent. difference between the rate 
at which the money is borrowed and lent more than covers all expenses. In Queens- 
land we have men in power who uphold the grand maxim that the credit of the State 
should only be given where the whole of the people of the State are to be benefited ; 
but they do not invariably adhere to this, for they have instituted a system of cheap 
money to a certain class of cultivators of the soil under the control of and guaranteed 
by the State. ‘Their beneficent financial assistance, combined with cheap labour and 
the most fertile soil the world knows of, has made the Queensland sugar-grower what 
he is to-day. : i 
The Co-operative Land Banks of Germany have been in existence for generations, 
and are recognised as having been instrumental in promoting prosperity and happiness 
to the people of that great empire. The Landschaften of Prussia is a sort of com- 
munal combination to secure capital for graziers and farmers at a reasonable rate of 
interest. It is under Government supervision and audit, but is quite free from any 
taint of the grandmotherly guarantee legislation which is found necessary to bolster 
up our sugar-growers. 
It may be open to question, however, whether the scattered nature of our popu- 
lation would not militate against its success here. That which was introduced as 
suitable to the old settled population of Prussia 100 years ago is not necessarily 
the best adapted to meet the exigencies of the pioneer community of a new 
country at the present day. The Landschaften may be looked upon as more 
adapted to countries where the farmer is a cultivator of leased land, owned 
by big land proprietors, such as prevails in some of our sugar districts. In 
this country—excepting the sugar parts—we have a yeoman class with small 
areas. They are of manifold nationalities and creeds; their knowledge 
of each other is of comparatively recent date, and’ their knowledge of each other's 
antecedents is nil. It seems doubtful—even if they were freemen, which would be 
