1 Juny, 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 131 
Mr. T. ps M. Murray-Prior (Maroon): I would like to say a few words 
on this matter, for it is one I have always taken a deep interest in, and one 
from which I have severely suffered. From the first, the regulations and their 
administration by the Department have not been for the good of Queensland 
as a whole. Some have suffered for the benefit of others. I think it was Sir 
Horace Tozer who first instituted this business, and from that time the Govern- 
ment does not appear to have properly considered the people of Queensland, 
nor have the tick regulations been carried out as they should have been. There 
has been favouritism for some, and very hard usage for others. I do not 
intend to speak at length on this matter, for I do not wish to spoil the 
harmony of the splendid gathering that we have here, but I wish to point out 
a few facts that have come within my own knowledge. In the first instance 
the quarantine lines were struck, at the instigation of New South Wales, 
without regard to the distance of certain people from ticks. Through that, 
on my late father’s station we lost at least £8,000 or £9,000, which could have 
been saved without the stightest danger to the State, because that run is still 
quite clear of ticks, and the road from it to New South Wales is also quite 
clear. Jam only mentioning this case to show how hardly it bears on some. 
I have a run in Western Queensland, from which we are free to go to New 
South Wales, and only recently I made a good sale fora small quantity of stock 
fromitto goto that State. On that Western run we have lost, through drought 
and other causes, half our stock, and, unless we can get cattle across from our 
Northern run where we have the stock, we shail have to forfeit a good deal of the 
Westerneountry. Weare quite clear of ticks in either case, so you can see the 
hardship that is inflicted by not being allowed to take stock from one of the runs 
to the other, and thereby make use of land which otherwise would be idle. Mr. 
McPherson has shown that we can travel stock without any danger, by dipping. 
I have advocated that the Government have dips on the different main routes 
in which travelling stock could be dipped, and I maintain if stock are dipped 
carefully, say twice or perhaps three times, that they can travel throughont 
Queensland without danger of spreading the disease. From conversations I 
have had with Mr. Bruce, the Chief Inspector of Stock of New South Wales, 
IT think if he saw that our Government were carrying out such a measure 
properly and carefully, and there was little or no danger, that a great portion 
of our border, which 1s now closed, would be opened. If a dip were placed on 
the buffer urea, which has been so long established for the Darling Downs, and 
there were another near the border, stock could be allowed with safety to travel 
into New South Wales, and I think this meeting should give it as their opinion 
that stock should be allowed to travel throughout Queensland if a proper 
system of dipping were introduced. 
In reply to a question, Mr. Prior further stated: Sandy and limestone 
country is not adapted to ticks in my opinion. The run, which I referred to ag 
being quarantined in the early days of the tick trouble, was not then attacked 
by ticks, and it is still free from them. There is a run—namely, Oakleigh— 
next to the run I was reterriny to, to which ticks were brought by cattle 
coming from Lammermoor. They very soon, however, disappeared, thus 
showing clearly that the country there is not adapted to the tick. 
Mr. J. H. Maynanrp (Gympie): Both Mr. McPherson and Mr. Murray- 
Prior have spoken from the grazier’s point of view on this question of quarantine 
lines. J will give you an instance of the way it affects dairymen. Those who 
were down atthe late Brisbane Exhibition will remember that some very good 
dairy cattle were offered for sale, but that practically none were sold 
Of all the St. Helena cattle, only one bull and one heifer were disposed of. I 
myself had some bulls for sale, and I presume the shoe pinched me no more 
than it did a number of others. Mr. McLeod, of Fenwick and Co., told me there 
were plenty of buyers on the rails, but that a beast could not be taken to the 
south of the Brisbane River or to the Darling Downs on any condition what- 
ever. The market for pure-bred dairy cattle was evidently stocked for other 
parts, but there was a good demand on the Downs and on the Logan. Yet we 
