1 Jury, 1901.) QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 105 
first week all struck but three, saying that the pay was not enough. After some 
delay, the gang was again made up to its original strength of twelve, principally by the 
addition of local men, ploughmen, and others taken from their regular occupations. 
Even after this there was frequent trouble, strikes more than once only being averted 
by concessions not contained in the original agreement, as well as disagreements among 
the men. In spite of the many delays so occasioned, every man in the gang at the 
expiration of the season had cleared over all expenses 25s. per week for the whole 
time, and some, who joined when the gang was in good cane, £2. Yet it was clearly 
impossible to depend on such men to keep a large mill going, one that required 400 to 
500 tons of cane every day and a constant, even supply, loss on the one hand accruing 
if any stoppage through a short supply of the raw material occurred, while on the other 
the perishable character of the sugar-cane precluded any reserve being stored against 
contingencies. Again, a cane inspector in the Mackay districts, in his 1896 report to his 
principal, says there had been considerable trouble with European canecutters. At 
the start as many as 40 men were engaged within a few weeks to maintain one gang 
of 13 up to its strength. Eventually this gang had to be disbanded and replaced by 
Chinese. Only two gangs (or about 25 or 30 men out of the 250 or 300 required to 
keep this mill going) worked throughout the season; these averaged 25s. 6d. per week, 
including stoppages, after paying for rations. It must be borne in ail that, in 
the Mackay district, the climate is not so severe as further north, and the work was on 
flat land, where for the tropics, no more favourable conditions for white men to work 
under could be found (in some places the canefields are on the side of steep hills 
where it is impossible for a white man with his boots on to carry a load of cane like 
the barefooted islander), also that at that time referred to, there were no mining rushes, 
railways, or other public works to make labour scarce. 
In reference to the opinion often glibly expressed by men who themselves have 
never done a day’s work in the canefield—that the solution of the difficulty is in the 
working of canefields by the farmer’s own family—to hear them talk, one would think 
that such would be a happy arcadian sort of life for the canegrower. But what it 
really means is this: That a man until he could labour no longer would be tied to work 
in his canefield in a climate where old age comes on fast. It means that his children, 
if not his wife, as soon as able to wield hoe or cane knife, or pull the dry trash off the 
cane stalks, would have to take to the drudgery of the canefields—a drudgery that 
oecurs with no other of our staple crops. it means that their opportunities for 
education would be scant—in fact, as a canegrower’s children would of necessity be 
compelled to work at the same calling as their father, it means the introduction in our 
midst of the old caste system in India: ablacksmith’s or a carpenter’s family do not 
have to earn the family living at the forge or bench. Then why should the farmers ? 
And it also means that no one who could earn his living inany other way would take 
to canegrowing; and that everyone who could, would get out of it. 
The other great question connected with the industry is that of its organisation. 
The arguments we have heard during this Conference in favour of forming a Chamber 
of Agriculture—and they were so strong that there was no gainsaying them, and I, for 
one, would willingly stay after this Conference has terminated for the purpose of 
assisting to set that movement on foot—apply with tenfold force to the sugar 
producers. Under this heading I include both canegrowers and the makers of raw 
sugars. Before going any further, Mr. Chairman, I should like to remark that the 
fact of the sugar men forming an alliance for the advancement of their special interests 
can in no possible way militate against the formation of the chamber—in fact, rather 
assist it; the same men can be members of both, or the firstnamed could, on behalf of 
the latter, have special charge of the sugar section of the many branches of agriculture 
it will represent. I have already shown that we labour under special )climatic 
disabilities, and to them I may add the misfortune of having to compete with a rival 
State subsidised by the most powerful of European nations. If, through want of a 
little organisation on our part, we fail to place before the people in a concrete form the 
conditions rendered necessary by our unique position, we are guilty of a serious breach 
of trust, for we hold in keeping for them one of the greatest of the federal assets, the 
prosperity of the rich tropical lands situated on Australia’s north-east coast; and we 
certainly owe to them that we should be able to inform them in a fairly unanimous 
manner as to the best methods for their development. If, after this, harm is done, then 
most certainly we shall not be to blame for it. 
As far as district organisation goes, in Mackay, Cairns, Bundaberg, the Herbert, 
Burdekin, and Proserpine, growers’ associations exist. In the former, the Pioneer 
River Farmers’ Association has, for nine years, enabled the farmers to take united 
action. Under its management the great difficulty of distance apart has to a con- 
siderable degree been oyercome by rules that allow seven or more farmers to form one 
