40 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Juny, 1902, 
The Government are now purchasing estates when offered on reasonable terms, | 
which are subsequently cut up into farms, then offered to farmers on a time payment 
extending over a number of years—an experiment which has proved to be a great 
success. | 
Would it not be very simple to so extend the Land Purchase Act that an estate — 
could be cut up (when purchased) into small blocks, say, of 3 to 5acres in a convenient 
locality near to some centre where employment 1s plentiful during harvest time. 
Offer these small blocks of land to labourers to make homes for themselves op | 
terms similar to those now offered to farmers. Thus the labourers would be enabled to 
acquire homes of their own for their families with the money they must now pay in 
house rent. Moreover, in slack times, there would be employment at home in ] 
improving their holdings in various ways. As to the eventual success of the scheme — 
of establishing labourers’. homes on the lines here indicated, no doubt exists in my — 
mind from the mere fact that it is so obviously practical. | 
To bear out my contention, I may say that a similar system is now in vogue on — 
the Continent of Europe, where extra labour in harvest time is practically looked for — 
from the Hausmann, as he is styled. 
What is more, employers will have more reliable labour, whilst, at the same time, — 
the labourers will be able to have a little more than a bare house to depend on in the — 
slack season, in the shape of a bit of land (which wil! be his own) fora garden. 4 
few fowls can be maintained on the land, and a cow can be kept as well as a pig or 
two. What will that mean to a labouring man with a family to tide them over slack _ 
times, instead of wandering into some town, looking for a catch job and spending | 
every penny that might have been saved in harvest time? I must leave that problem — 
to our wise legislators to think out. | 
I hope and trust this Conference will take this matter into serious consideration, — 
and urge the Government to do something on the lines above indicated. I am sure it 
will be a great benefit to all concerned, as by doing so we shall take a number of | 
unemployed off the labour market, which will be a very desirable thing to do, | 
considering that the Government is now forced by circumstances to expend money every — 
_year in rations to serve out to poor people in order to prevent starvation when out | 
of employment, thereby perhaps encouraging idleness instead of thrift. Anything | 
more that I can say will. not make my contention any clearer or more practical; so [ _ 
will conclude my paper, thanking you for the attentive hearing you have afforded me © 
during its reading. | 
Mr. W. G. Wiyyerr (Logan): It is well known that boys are much — 
sought after by farmers, and this suggestion that boys be obtained from Dr, | 
Barnardo’s Homes in England will no doubt excite considerable interest. We 
must recollect that the boys who have been sent to Canada by Dr. Barnardo | 
have had three or four years’ previous training, and before they are sent out — 
they must prove themselves useful boys. The majority of those lads that go — 
to Canada ultimately prove valuable citizens, and if 100 of them were brought — 
out here I am sure employment could be found for the lot. 
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Mr. J. W. Lex (Zillmere) : When I was growing cotton I had a number | 
of boys out from Dr. Barnardo’s Home, and I must say that the idea of getting — 
them out does not turn out in practice as well as Mr. Dean thinks it would. J 
found that these boys were very much like the majority of men who come from | 
the old country. When they get here they are naturally liable to change their | 
minds ; and, if they think there is some other part of the colony or some other 
business which they will like better, they go there and leave you, and, in 
practice, you are powerless to stop them. ° 
Mr. F. W. Perk (Loganholme) gave his experience of the boys sent to 
Canada from Dr. Barnardo’s Home, and generally fayoured Mr. Dean’s views 
on the subject. 
Mr. F. J. Srevens (Mackay): I wrote to Dr. Barnardo some years ago, 
and he told me he objected to sending his boys anywhere where they would 
not be under the supervision of his own officers. In Canada they are under 
supervision for years after they leave England. I think Mr. Mau’s scheme of 
rovision being made, when repurchased estates are being cut up, for land for 
Fetes for farm labourers, is quite feasible, and that it is one that deserves the 
earnest consideration of the Government, 
