118 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. {1 Jury, 1901. 
of raising the pro luct would to a certain extent act as a deterrent. However, that is 
a point somewhat outside the scope of this piper. 
In concluding my remarks. I would like to say that I think if any revival takes 
place in the cotton industry it will not take the form of a profitable speculation for 
the capitalist, but will probably take a place amongst the mixed farming of the man 
who tills his own land, and who can command sutlicient labour for picking from his 
own family and the families of the few hands he may employ. 
I hope that I have made my paper sufficiently plain to those who take an interest 
in cotton, and if any amongst you sould decide to take the improvement of cotton in 
hand, I shall be sufficiently rewarded. 
DISCUSSION. 1 
Mr. J. W. Lew (Zillmere): When I first came out to Queensland I took 
up, along with a number of others, a piece of land on the Pimpama River to be 
worked as a communal settlement for the production of cotton in a British 
colony, and I may say that I do not think better cotton has been grown in the 
world than the staple we then produced. We grew Nea Island; and although 
the kinds illustrated in Mr. Grimley’s article are very fair, I consider that we 
beat them hollow on the Pimpama River in those early days. I do not know 
Mr. Grimley; but I have some interest in this question, and have often 
advocated the production of cotton—for it can be grown in Queensland. We 
sent six bales of our cotton home to Lancashire, where we came from, and with 
them a letter stating how they had been produced. This letter, I may say, was 
published in the Manchester Guardian. That cotton, however, when it got to 
London, sold for 5s. 1d. per lb. That is a fact. Sixty-one pence per Ib. was 
the return we had back through our agent, Mr. George Bourne. The Man, 
chester people made the remark in their paper that they had never seen a finer 
sample of cottom from any country in the world. That was an opinion from a 
cotton manufacturing district, and it was cotton that brought me out here, for 
at that time, owing to the American war, there were thousands of idle men 
walking the streets of the town of Lancashire. Not that [ was a factory 
operator myself, being an engineer by trade. I came out here, however, with a 
number of others, took up land, and the first vear we put in 10 acres of cotton — 
with spade labour. We did not use a plough even, and it was from those 10 
acres that we got the cotton which returned 5s. 1d. per lb. in London. JI know 
they did grow cotton in Ipswich. It was not the Sea Island, however, 
but the short-stapled variety, or the Uplands cotton. That can be grown 
here, too, and I have in my possession to-day, cotton grown in Zillmere quite — 
equal, if not superior, to anything that is illustrated in the paper. I have 
grown good cotton within the last four years. The difficulty with us at 
Pimpama was that we were a communal settlement, like many others that the 
Lincashire people were fond of getting up in those days. ‘The Government 
helped us; everybody helped us; but the people themselves could not work 
together under that scheme, and hence it fell to the ground. TI lost £400 in 
wages alone. Each of us agreed to work for two years and draw no wages, 
although of course we had our food and clothing. We planted our cotton, but 
finally all the people cleared out and left me with it. I believe that under 
proper management, Queensland is not only capable of growing cotton, but of 
manufacturing it, too. The climate is good for spinning operations, and every- 
thing else is in its favour. They sent for me from Ipswich when they com- 
menced the factory there, but I told them then that as sure as they started it 
on the lines they were proposing it would end in failure. If you go in for 
manufacturing cotton you must go in for it on a large scale, otherwise you 
are wasting your time and money. You want men with capital to start a 
factory to produce as much cotton goods as the whole of Australia requires. — 
When that is done there willbe an opening for the grower. There is one difficulty — 
with cotton culture just as there is with sugar: When the cotton is ready to be 
picked, the work must then be done. I think I see the bushes on the 60 acres 
we had as if snow had been blown thickly over them all. That is when the 
cotton must be gathered ; for, if the operation is postponed and rain comes, 
your crop isruined. The only way out of the difficulty I see is for a man to limit 
himself to a small area, such as 20 acres, and let his children pick the cotton. 
