1 Sepr., 1902. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 175 
during the last eighteen months show that the elevator system has gained 
greatly during the last ten years. Not only are wheat, corn, and all kinds of 
grain now almost universally handled by this method, but even such unpro- 
mising materials as broken ore, coal, and road metal. All these are now elevated, 
graded, and delivered in a manner similar to grain. Coal is almost universally 
elevated, and stored at a height so as to be “on tap,” so to speak, for railway 
engines, delivery teams, and ships. Coal is usually elevated by ordinary traction 
in cars specially designed to unload instantaneously. To illustrate this phase of 
the elevator system, I have inserted a picture of the coal elevator at Tacoma, 
in the State of Washington. Ihave seen hundreds of similar elevators in the 
various parts of the United States ; in fact, they are now one of the common- 
places of the coal trade. I have collected material for a report on the superior 
mechanical methods used in constructing State roads in the United States. 
Among them is an elevator for mechanically producing, grading, and delivering 
road metal. Ore at mines is also raised, stored, and delivered in a similar way. 
“The coal elevators have set the grain men to thinking, and now grain engineers 
are considering the feasibility of raising cars of grain to such an altitude as to 
unload by gravity at the top of the grain elevator. 
Question of Ownership of the Elevators—State or Private. 
The building of elevators by the Government is not the only possible way 
of introducing them into this country. It is of course certain that the box-cars 
must be provided by the Government as represented by the Railway Commis- 
sioners. But it would be possible to encourage private enterprise to put up 
elevators by placing a lower freight charge on grain in bulk. 
We may suppose, for instance, the railways to offer to carry grain in bulk 
at a certain lower rate, provided it is delivered in certain quantity, and the cars 
loaded in a certain manner, and ata certain rate of speed, these provisos being 
such as to give the railways a reasonable chance to make a profit, and the rate 
such as torinduce private enterprise to put up elevators. 
State ownership of the elevators puts the State permanently in charge of 
the bulk of the grain food of the country. By certain persons such a proposi- 
tion may be regarded with fear. 
Most of the proposals hitherto made concerning the erection of elevators 
in this country seem to assume that the proper place to make a beginning is at 
the point of export. To begin in New South Wales by putting up a single 
large elevator at Sydney would, in my opinion, be but a poor object lesson. 
The benefit to be derived from the adoption of the system can only be secured 
by providing, simultaneously, elevators in the producing districts and at the 
important points of consumption and export, and at the same time providing 
railway facilities for transportation in bulk. If we do not do all this, and 
content ourselves with building a single elevator in Sydney, we shall repeat the 
mistake made in the Argentine Republic. Would it not be better to wait a 
little than to make such a false start ? 
We shall not have long to wait. Australians educate themselves quickly, 
and they will not be long in seeing the advantages which the elevator system 
offers in a country where labour is as well paid as it is with us. The problem 
confronting the Railway Commissioners is one of economies, and not one of the 
superiority of the elevator over the present system, and the Commissioners will 
not be long in finding a solution. Private enterprise has done much toward 
solving the question, and may be relied upon to continue to do so. Tf those 
who understand the benefits to be derived from the adoption of the elevator 
system only do their duty, and keep the question agitated, the discussion can 
end in only one way, and that speedily. : 
Before many years we shall be wondering how we ever managed to get 
along without elevators. 
