1 Jury, 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 41 
Mr. W. D. Lams (Yangan): As regards Dr. Barnardo’s boys, I believe 
we have some very bright examples of them already here in Queensland; and, 
moreover, I think that, if these lads can go out to Canada and do well, there is 
no reason why they should not succeed here. As for Mr. Mau’s paper and his 
idea of three acres and a cow, I may say that, according to my experience, there 
are generally two classes of farm labourers. he first are the ne’er-do-well’s, 
and the other are the men who strive from the very jump to attain a decent 
position. You can give a man of the first class as many acres of lantl as you 
like, and will see no benefit result; but to put a man of the second class on a 
couple of acres of land for life savours too much of the old country. 
Mr. J. E. Dein (Maryborough) traversed at length the remarks for and 
against his advocacy of the introduction of Dr. Barnardo’s boys. If a boy 
cleared out from a farmer he would lose the wages that he had earned to date. 
A young man twenty-one years of age, with a not inconsiderable amount 
of money and seven years’ experience of farming, would be commencing life in 
a better position than a good many of the gentlemen here to-day did; 
and altogether he thought that the number of trained farmers in the country 
would, in time, be considerably augmented by such a supply of youths. 
Mr. C. P. Mav (Mackay): One gentleman stated that there was really 
nothing to stop the Government utilising a reserve in any manner it thought 
fit if it were so minded. That may be so, but if you ever apply for a reserve 
you can never get any reply but that the land in question is under the control 
of the divisional board or some other body. I do not think the Government 
will interfere with reserves which have been placed under the control of local 
authorities. In reply to Mr. Lamb’s criticisms, I must say that I think he has 
mistaken the purport of my paper. The object of that paper was solely for the 
benefit of labourers who are now wandering about clamouring for work, say, in 
towns like Mackay, and cannot get it. Why should these men, if they are 
willing to work, not get it? Why should we not assist them to get a bit of a 
garden, and when a slack season comes they can go on to that piece of land and 
make a bit of money? If they have a bit of a home of their own they can add 
a little to the earnings they may make elsewhere. We should do all we can to 
make labour reliable. At present we give a man a job, and when it is finished 
we pay him off and do not worry in the slighest about his future. In any 
event, such a bit of land as I have referred ¢o would not cost a labourer any 
more than ordinary house rent would. I think the Government ought to give 
the system a practical trial, and I am convinced that it would be successful, for 
I come from a country where it is successful. 
Mr. P. McLean (Agricultural Department): When Mr. Cowley was 
Secretary for Agriculture, he thought that the idea would be worth trying, of 
getting a number of boys and supplying farmers with them. The proposal was 
made public through the Press, and a considerable number of boys were collected 
and placed on farms. J am sorry to say that the scheme was not a success. I 
have known boys, however, taken from our orphanages and reformatory, who 
were placed with farmers with advantage to all papac With respect to 
settling people on small areas of land, it will perhaps be remembered that, 
fifteen or sixteen years ago, New Zealand was going through a crisis similar to 
what we are passing through now—that is, there was a large deficit in the 
Treasury, there was a large number of unemployed, and every person who could 
scrape up money was leaving the colony. New Zealand has long been the 
country of experiments, and the Government of the day tried the experiment of 
homestead settlements—that is, they cut up land into small blocks running from 
5 to 20 acres. Money was advanced for clearing, for laying the land down in 
grass, for building houses, &c. Several of these village settlements were 
established in both the North and South Islands of New Zealand; and the 
Queensland Government was so impressed with the idea of .the project that I 
was sent over to New Zealand to inquire into it. This I did in 1887. I 
remember at one of those settlements in New Zealand getting into conversation 
with some of the people who had been in the country before the village settle- 
