70 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Jury, 1801. 
Tn all fairness also he, as the original occupier or pioneer, or his representative, 
should be granted fair sized areas round his homestead that he could look upon as his 
own to sell or retain as he desired. 
This principle was recognised in the 1869 Act, for it contained a clause allowing 
the station-owner to take up 2,500 acres at a moderate price, provided his improvements 
amounted to the value of £1,250. This was only justice, and as an axiom, liberality 
with justice should be the motto of all Governments. 
: Hoping I have not wearied you, 1 must now touch shortly on two more very 
important questions connected with land settlement—that is, roads and reserves 
Numbers of divisional boards in agricultural districts have had experience of the 
difficulty of giving access to backblocks, also of the great and unnecessary length of 
roads caused by angles unrequired and unnecessary. 
It is generally believed that often the surveyor of a road has made these 
unnecessary angles for his own profit through a system of the Government giving 
additional pay for every turn. Again, in surveying a farm, it is impossible for a — 
surveyor to tell for certain the future need for roads or the routes they should take, 
so I should recommend that in every farm sufficient land should be included over 
and above the area the selectur pays for, so that when required a road could be 
surveyed through his land. 
As regards reserves, I would recommend that, at certain distances apart, about 
8 miles or a day’s stage for travelling stock, certain areas should be reserved and 
placed under the control of the divisional boards, who should be obliged to have 
them fenced and kept free of stray stock, for which trouble or expense the boards 
might be allowed to compensate themselves by charging the drovers of each mob of 
stock or teams a moderate fee; then travelling stock would be insured good camps. 
In Queensland there has never been any proper system of reserves or of con- 
trolling those that have been proclaimed, so a general Penge has become the custom 
—namely, for grass pirates to overrun these reserves with stock. Conse vent yee uaa 
travellers seldom find any grass on them for their hungry, weary animals. 
Before closing, I should like to say a few words regarding the Sa of estates 
for the promotion of settlement, and suggest that the divisional boards should be the bodies 
requested to recommend repurchases, and to be trusted with the negotiation of the 
business, subject always to valuation by the Government inspector and approval b 
the Government. Divisional boards in farming districts are generally acquainted with 
the capabilities of land in their neighbourhood—its commercial value, and the desire 
of the community to repurchase and settle on the said land. Again, it is to their 
interest that settlement be promoted, and for that reason they are the more likely 
to be unbiassed agents. This system also, if instituted, would take the onus of 
fayouritism out of the hands of the Government, and deprive the Opposition of a 
handle by which they very often cause abuse to be heaped on innocent heads. 
In discussing what I have written, I should like to get the opinion of this 
Conference as to the principles I have enunciated in this paper, namely :—Homestead 
settlement being adopted as the only safe way of preventing fraud and monopoly ; 
also the justest mode of settlement to the present occupier and the people generally 
settled throughout Queenstand. Secondly: Reserves being proclaimed in main roads 
at suitable distances, and given into the control of divisional boards, who are bound 
to have them fenced and kept free of stray stock. Thirdly: That the repurchase of 
estates for the purpose of settlement only be made after _the recommendation of 
divisional boards, subject, of course, to the approval of the Land Board and Goyern- 
ment of the day. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. E. Rozerr (Cairns): Iam against allowing the selection of 1,280- 
acre blocks for agricultural purposes. This was the cause of much of our 
Northern land being monopolised by speculators and capitalists, and it was 
through them that our Russell Mill was thrown out. At the present moment 
there are two Chinamen on the Mulgrave River renting 1,500 acres from 
syndicates. Most of land in the North pays no rent, as we can see from the 
register. It is merely being kept from the bond fide settler, and all through the 
fault of the Land Acts allowing such big areas to be taken up. Twenty years 
ago, when the Cairns district was first opened, Freshwater Creek was all under 
cultivation. It is now a waste and lying idle, the Chinamen having thrown it all 
up. It will be the same with the rest of our land if this system of monopoly is 
not stopped. We want another clause in the Land Act to prevent selectors, 
whether conditional or unconditional, leasing or letting their lands to aliens. If 
