OUT BACK IN QUEENSLAND.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 454, 12 March 1909, Page 2

OUT BACK IN QUEENSLAND.

A NEW ZEALANDER'S IMPRESSIONS. Mr. A. Bennett, a member of tho well-known family of pastoralists of that name in the Wairarapa, returned to Wellington by the Warrimoo on Wednesday, after having spent seven months oil a Western Queensland station. As Queensland is just now attracting some attention from the .farmers' point of view, Mr. Bennett was approached for sonic views of fanning in that cpuntry, n .njf,e statedfithat (the station he was: on -..-comprised' a- ihillion ami a" 'half acres of flat lancf, out on the western line—tho 'border .of Queensland and New South Wales, some 150 milesc fronj.; Burke (50 hours' coach journey) in,what is known as the Warrigo district, which takes its name after the Warrigo Rivor. Tliis, is , sometimes a river, .but was mostly a place where a river would be if there was a sufficient rainfall. The average rainfall —and men in Queensland grow talking of the rainfall—was from 12 to 20 inches a year, but it sometimes happened that a-.quarter of that quantity may fall in a few hours, as happened shortly before Mr. Bennett left for the coast, when thunderstorms swept over tho Warrigo district, and the river (wnich had not been a river for two years) resumed its old occupation, and the country sighed like a' thirtsy traveller after slaking his thirst. Wool of course, was the primary consideration on the big run. They were too far away from tho freezers to do much with fat sheep, which were, in any case, never up to the standard of prime mutton in New Zealand. 1 Shortly before lie left, tho station had sold IG.OOO "fats" for 7s. By the time they were driven to the railway—a long job—and trucked down to the works, over 300 miles, they would cost a bit more. Warrigo was in wha{ was known as tho black soil country, the nlains consisting of black, chocolate, and a lighter-coloured soil, which latter country was most favourable to the growth of the mulga scrub on which so much reliance was placed in drought times. Prospects, for Settlers. Asked about the chances the country offered settlers, Mr. Bennett said it was a country of big holdings necessarily. Whereas in fairly good country in New Zealand one to two sheep could be carried to the acre, five or more acrcs were needed for one sheep in Queensland, and there was always the risk of dry seasons. He understood that the rainfall improved farther to the north. It was his intention to go back, probably to take up Government grazing leases, which could bo obtained on very easy terms. High temperatures? Oh, yes, well up in the summer time. The candles in the sticks are apt to cave in tho middle, for which reason it did not do to let them stand upright in tho daytime.