1 Jury, 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 39 
would have received as pocket money. The employer would have found him 
suitable board and lodgings during the whole seven years. The amount of 
the first three years is £2 12s. in excess of the amount charged under the 
orphanage system. The mother of the late Miss Francis Willard once said 
that ‘while heredity counts for much, environment is akin to destiny.’ I 
haye already pointed out the sins of city life, and I believe that if 100 orphan 
boys were brought here from .England and lived here for seven years 
in the cities, and then came into possession of this amount of money, 
fully 90 per cent. would go to the bad. On the other hand, being 
placed in the country for seven years, with the pure influence of 
country life, the result would be quite different. The fact of seven years’ 
apprenticeship to the work, and friendships formed in the district, and perhaps 
affections centered there, would all be in favour of remaining there and having 
money to begin with. I have no doubt that from these 100 young men would 
come many farmers and dairymen trained for their life’s work. One hundred 
of these young men would be worth from the Savings Bank deposits alone the 
sum of, say, £11,400. If 100 young men were to come to Queensland having 
a full knowledge of local conditions, and possessed of this sum of money, the 
newspapers would speak in a hopeful strain of the benefits likely to accrue, yet 
this is quite within our reach and power to bring about. Some people will 
wonder what the cost will be to the country to indent these boys. I believe 
the sum of £1,500 would cover every expense incurred in bringing 100 of these 
boys here, and delivering them into the charge of those who want them; 
perhaps a smaller sum than is spent on immigration at the present time. Will 
the person getting a lad pay anything as security to the Government as against 
failure to meet the quarter's wage? is a question some will ask. I would 
charge every master £5 before taking the boy. This would give the Government 
£500, or 33 per cent., of their money back again. Provision would have to be 
made for sickness if a long one. A light weekly charge of 2d. would more 
than cover this, and, in the event of a boy dying, the Savings Bank deposit 
would cover it, without charging the farmer if unwilling to bear the cost 
himself. In conclusion, I will ask the delegates of this Conference to weigh 
the matter over well, and tell us where they are going to get their labour in the 
future. Let us try and get these boys who will become the backbone and 
mainstay of the country in the days to come. 
This was followed by an address on— 
ESTABLISHMENT OF LABOURERS’ HOMES BY PRACTICAL 
METHODS. 
[By C. P. Mav, Mackay.] 
Mr. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN,—In introducing my paper for this Conference, 
I shall endeavour to show that its object is of vital importance to the State as well as 
to the employer and labourer. 
It is evident, with respect to the relation between employed and employer, that 
some thing is needed in order to secure for the employer reliable labour, but at the 
same time secure for the labourer something to occupy himself with when out of 
employment. 
aes can we bring this about P 
As we all know, more labour is required at harvest time than at any other time 
of the year. 
At the same time, it is out of the question for a farmer or a manufacturer to 
employ the same number of labourers in the off season as he does in harvest or other 
busy time ; hence labour becomes unreliable more or less for the simple reason that 
employment is not constant. As arule, labourers in this country have no homes of 
their own where they can occupy themselves when out of employment. Some years 
ago a movement was started by the workers in the Mackay district to petition the 
Government to cut up some of the reserves into 5-acre blocks for labourers’ homes. 
Our association took the matter up, and advised the Government to that effect. The 
reply was, that the divisional board had the reserves under their control. That body, 
however, being adverse to the scheme, the matter dropped. Now, it seems to me that 
the scheme can be carried out in a practical way very simply and easily. 
