1 Juny, 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 41. 
Gibson’s remarks, and, in fact, the only thing good in them was the Gaelic 
accent. He said some farmers have neither pigs nor potatoes, but might just 
as well have said that they had no sense. The men he was talking about were 
not farmers at all. There is no danger in cheap money. The only dangerous 
cheap money is where the Government send out bad money—paper money— 
because if you make the money itself cheap, you make labour and the products 
of labour dear, In this way you may have money too cheap by debasing the 
currency of the country, so that people who have the money will send it to where 
products are cheaper. But this does not apply to the arguments contained in 
my paper, for no man can have a labour-saving machine too cheap. Mr. 
Robinson has talked about security, but does Mr. Robinson know, that in the 
Western Australian scheme there is no security? A man says, ‘ I am going to 
take up a piece of land and have £50, will you give me another £50?” The 
system, I am told, works well. This subject of cheap money is not an original 
one. There is not a civilised country in the world, except Queensland, that has 
not its system of cheap money. In conclusion, I may say 1 liked to listen to 
Mr. Burgess, as he kept all along to the point, and every word he said dealt 
with the principle of my paper. 
The Hon. D. H. Datrympne: The reader of the paper has not only dealt 
with the question before us, but has brought in currency, the distribution of 
wealth, and a great many other matters, which would, each of them, take a 
lafetime to master. Cheap money isa phrase which means, I presume, some- 
thing under the market rate. We know very well that money is one of those 
things which rise and fall: sometimes it is dear and sometimes it is cheap. 
Jt isa matter of supply anddemand. But! understand that what is meant is, that, 
under certain circumstances, farmers desire to obtain money on what they believe 
to be fairly good security at less rates than they could obtain it at im the open 
market. ‘They do so partly on the circumstance that some precedents have 
been set in connection with the Sugar Works Guarantee Act, the Drainage, and 
other Acts, and partly on the circumstance that the security is good, and that 
the result of the investment of capital in the land is beneficial to the whole of 
the community. The difficulty in satisfying the aspirations of many farmers 
is, that whereas the public would sanction only such a scheme by which undeni- 
able security would be obtained, many farmers are not able to give that security. 
However much people in necessitous positions are to be sympathised with, there 
are certain lines only upon which money can be lent if the interests of the 
individual or of the community that lends it are to be considered. I think it is 
therefore hopeless to imagine that if anyone is overwhelmed with debt he is to 
be singled. out for relief. . If a State does it for a farmer, it must do it also for 
the miner, for the pastoralist, for the business man, who is performing probably 
some useful function. he first thing is that the security should be good. A. 
Bill was introduced into our Parliament last session by my predecessor. Mr. 
Chataway had made a study of the question, but he recognised that it was 
necessary not to depart from certain lines, and those lines were first of all 
security to the State. That Bill was thrown out by the Council, doubtless for 
reasons satisfactory to that body, and, although I may differ from it in its 
wisdom in throwing it out, I cannot quarrel with it for doing what it deemed 
to be right, and the only result is a little more deliberation. Very often there 
is more danger incurred by hasty legislation than by allowing a matter to 
stand over. A similar measure will undoubtedly be introduced into Parliament 
next session. The State cannot, however, take upon itself the rd/e of universal 
philanthropist to relieve everybody from his debts. That would be too great a 
task to undertake. It may act as money-lender where the security is good, and 
assist every person who perhaps may be beginning a career advantageous to the 
State. Money might be advanced, too, for the effecting of certain improve- 
ments. Those improvements will be a factor of the soil. Under the principle 
of the Sugar Works Guarantee Act, the person who desires an advance shall 
first of all provide security estimated to more than cover the advance. But 
the great advantage to the State is, that the money which is advanced will then 
