1 Jury, 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, LO9 
hesitation in leaving it. I spent about nine years about Barcaldine and Clon- 
curry, and I can assure you [ would rather work there with a temperature at 
from 120 to 127 degrees than I would work in the Cairns climate when the glass 
is 96. Even this last season we had about thirty draught horses dying within 
a few days, which simply was due to the excessive humidity of the atmosphere. 
Ifit is so hard upon them, what must it be for a white man? I have had men 
working for me, and there were times when it was impossible to work either the 
men or the horses. I had good men, but had the weather been more favourable 
one man could have done what three of those men did. When we first 
started at the Mulgrave we had all sorts of labour. Some had whites, but 
the most whatever they could get. The first year it cost most of those 
settlers from 4s. 6d. to 5s. Gd. per ton to cut their cane. IJ myself cut 
things just as fine as any of them, and the first year I was £1,400 to 
the bad. It is only since we ‘got good and reliable labour that we have made 
up anything like leeway. This is not only a question for ourselves, but also 
a question of whether any more of these lands are to be opened up. We have 
75,000 more acres ayailable and fit for cane, and I believe that on the Johnston, 
the Bloomfield, and Mosman there are similar areas awaiting the pioueer’s axe, 
Another fact is that since we haye been growing cane, the imports into Cairns 
from the South have increased considerably, and we-take a good deal of our 
supplies from Southern Queensland. Nearly all our potatoes and butter come 
from the South. If there were three or four more central mills erected in the 
far North, the Southern people would soon know all about it and feel the benefit 
just as much as we would. 
Mr. J. Wrrson (Freestone Creek): I came here largely to pick up 
information, and have not disdained to get some of it from the islanders them- 
selves, with the result that I have found that they, at least, seem perfectly 
satisfied with the treatment accorded to them by the planters of Queensland. 
As for the necessity of this Polynesian labour, I know that when we grew 
wheat without machinery we could never rely on sufficient white labour to sow 
and harvest our crops, and I do not quite see how the sugar industry could 
keep white men idle for half a year in order to have them available during the 
other half. Wheat-growers have now got over that difficulty through the intro- 
duction of machinery, but mechanical invention does not yet appear to have 
come to the assistance of the canegrower, and, until that is done, it would seem 
that a more reliable and larger source of labour than our present white 
population is able to furnish, are necessary for the maintenance of the sugar 
industry in Queensland. 
Mr. J. Scantan (Helidon): Tam not an opponent of kanaka labour, because 
I believe it is necessary. In every tropical country of the world coloured 
labour is used. But I stand here to strongly object aga‘nst the introduction of 
Japanese labour, for although most of the talk at present is about kanaka 
labour, yet the danger of it is infinitesimal as compared with that of the possible 
unrestricted introduction into the State, of Japanese and other Eastern races. 
Mr. J. Davies (Rockhampton): Allow me first of all to thank the Messrs. 
Gibson Bros. and their partner, Mr. Howes, for the very kind welcome they 
tendered the delegates to-day. I may say that many of us were in great doubts 
about this kanaka labour when we arrived here on Saturday. We were wondering 
whether it should be abolished altogether or gradually. But I should say that 
all of us, after having scen the great outlay at Bingera, are now of the opinion 
that it should not be abolished at all, and that we should keep it for all time. 
J can assure the planters, on behalf of the delegates from the Central district, 
that we will give them all the assistance in our power to enable them to retain 
the labour. 
Mr. E. Swayne (Mackay): With regard to the figures afforded by the 
sugar industry, I may say, as a supplement to Mr. Peek’s remarks, that in one 
year, 1,600 tons of maize, 350 tons of potatoes and chaff were used in the 
Mackay district from South Quecnsland ports, and that does not include imports 
from New South Wales. I think an industry which affords such a market as 
