ABOUT QUEENSLAND

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 66, 11 December 1919, Page 11

ABOUT QUEENSLAND

DROUGHT AND LABOUR TROUBLES

THE PRICKLY PEAR CURSE

Sir. Robert Sanders, builder, of Wellington, lias just returned from a holiday, visit to Queensland, and ho brings back anything but an encouraging report of the State which is just now 60 much in the public eye. In Brisbane ho found trade in a stafo of utter stagnation, and no. ono would invest in any building operations unless absolutely compelled to do so. At a medium class hotel Ifr. and Jlrs. Sanders bad to pay Ills, a day, and judging from the prices of goods in tile shops living was very much dearer than in New Zealand. . ill'. Sanders said lluit possibly a good deal of the depression was being caused by tho drought, which was tho most terrible iti living memory in Queensland. 3:iven on the famous Darling Downs, which were supposed to bo unfailingly productive, tho crops were so stunted by tho draught that tho reaper and binder l'-'fliikl not touch thorn. Stock was perishing by tho hundred thousand all over Queensland and at the back of New Smith Wales. He heard of one very pitiful case, whoro a man died on his farm. Tho man's brother went up from Victoria to see what ho could do for the widow, but found that tho stock was too wpalc to bo moved—it simply had to be left to die. Mr. Sanders added; "I think I am right in saying that ono of tho Sydney papers estimated that the drought .in that Stato would niNin Ino death of IfliftO-O.OOfl shoep, and a financial loss of ,£53,000,000." "Then you hear talk of the wonderfully rco(1 seasons tliey have in 'Australia." said Mr. Sanders. "I suppose it ii? true of. certain parts, but it is certainly not roflecled in the country. There are the marvellous Darlin;; Downs, but the houses aro mere shacks—there are no residences such as you find in tho -Wairarajia, Manaivatu, Hawke's Baj, and Auckland districts, and ono must concliulc that if the prosperity was there b would ho reflected in some way." Tho drought was having a very serous effect or.'. Sydney, and it was an effect that v/ould he felt more severely a little later on. Tho wool could not bo brought to town, as the railways were fully employed pulling half-starved cattle down to tho coast belt, and taking water back to the droufrht-slricken lands to save life. .All along tho line in Queensland sheepskins could be seen hanging on the fences —the pelts of sheep which had had to be killed, or they would have died of starvation and thirst.

One effect of the drought was tho fact that it meant the death of millions of rnbbits. In Queensland one Bottler related tho story of nn astonishing migration of rabbit? past his place, all trekking northward. Nothing barred their progress. They trod flat by sheer force of numbers a strong rabbit-proof fence. "To make mailers worse, 'the prickly pear is steadily gaining a grip on the land. No drought is too severe for the prickly pear. A conservative estimate of its growth is that it covers a million acres every year, and turns the land into a young" and impenetrable forest, for tho prickly pea.? grows to a lic-iglit of ten to fourteen feet, and the pricklcs are horrible things. Neither cattle nor sheep can eat it in its native state, but when boiled the thorns soften, mul tho loaves become good food, readily eaten by rattle. It costs .£lB air acre to clear prickly pear, which is done by cutting it down nnd grubbing it. Th<?n tho land has to be kept closely cultivated or the pear will wan take charge again. It :'fi said that if a pieeo of prickly pear is kept in tho houso or suspended clear of tho earth under tho house, and then falls to the ground, it will at once take root, so tenacious of life is it." Mr. _ Sanchrs had occasion to stay for n while in Gladstone, 5{H) miles north o? Brisbane, and gives anyth'jig but a cheerful account of the social condition of tho people, and generally, he says, there was discontent throughout the Statu. IJ.ynn got out intf in time. The ra'."way service was packed with men who did next to nothing, and it was the worst servico in the world. At one time, ho was told, each Tailway man used to produco .£UO of work per annum; now, it wa.s-wid, each one produced only iMO worth a year; conseuuently there was a big deficit in tho railways account,