QUEENSLAND POLITICIAN

Evening Star, Issue 19783, 6 February 1928, Page 6

QUEENSLAND POLITICIAN

VISIT OF DEPUTY PREMIER "TREMENDOUSLY INTERESTED 1H H.Z" Freely mentioned as the next Premier of Queensland is tho Hon. William Forgan Smith, Deputy-Premier of that State, who is at present visiting Dunedin, accompanied by Mrs Smith, their two sons, and Mr T. G. Hope (private secretary). The Hon. Mr Smith, Deputy-Premier and Minister for Agriculture and Stock, of Queensland, was born in 1887 at Mylnefield House, near Invergowric, Perth, Scotland. Ho was educated at the Dunoon '‘Grammar School, and came to Queensland as a very young man.. He made his home at Maekay, the centre of the sugar industry in Central Queensland, and became actively associated with the Labor Party, bringing to it a very keen mentality and capacity for organisation. He was elected to the Queensland Legislature in 1915, and in 1920 became Chairman of Committees. Later in the same year he was elected to the Theodore Cabinet, with the portfolio of Minister for Works. In 1925 he became Minister for Agriculture and Stock and Deputy-Premier. , Under Mr Forgan Smith’s administration agriculture in Queensland has made a remarkable advance on tho economic and scientific sides, as well as culturally. A Faculty of Agriculture within the Queensland University has been established and endowed, travelling scholarships provided, a Director of Marketing appointed, and tho general services organised and co-ordinated in such a way as to be of very great value to rural industry. He is president of the Queensland Producers’ Association and chairman of the Queensland Board of Agriculture. Ho has been an outstaning figure at a number of interstate Cabinet conferences, and in conferences with the Commonwealth Government on financial and other important questions. He is a recognised authority on the economics of the sugar industry. As a member of the Queensland Central Executive his lias been a sound mod-/ crating influence in the counsels of the Labor Party. Mr Forgan Smith possesses in a marked degree the earnestness of purpose and canny pertinacity of the Scot. No man in Queensland has made a deeper study of the problem of child endowment, ami many thoughtful pamphlets on this, and unemployment insurance and kindred subjects have come from ins vigorous pen. With a keen analytical mind lie has a passion for facts and for clear thinking. In tho absence of the Premier, Mr W.M’Cormack, Air and Mrs Forgan Smith had the honor of receiving the Duke and Duchess of York as guests of the State Inst year, hi no other corner of tho Empire were the Royal visitors given a more .spontaneous and enthusiastic welcome. “The railway position as affecting every State in'Australia is causing all Governments irrespective ol party much concern,” said Mr Smith, in an interview this morning. “The development of motor transport both, ior private purposes and for commercial uses has deprived the railway departments of much remunerative revenue, consequently branch lines which might have been sound enough propositions twenty years ago when they were constructed are in an entirely different category to-day. In Queensland branch lines were responsible lor 77 per cent, of the railway deficiency in 1920-27. Railway transport, however, is of such vital importance to tho nation as a whole, affecting as it does settlement, facilities for marketing, and the general economic welfare ol the State, that the position must be reviewed in the light of new developments. In dealing with railway finances as disclosed by the working accounts and balance-sheets, it should he remembered that the railwav service is only one branch of Government activity, and that immense indirect, advantages accnro to the State through the Agricultural Department, the Lands Department, the Mines Department, the Taxation Department, and other departments, as the result of the railway service. “The wealth production of Queensland in the two years ended June, 192(5, exceeded the immense sum-tor the size of onr population —of £130,000,000. In the past ten years it exceeded, in the aggregate, the stupendous sum of £500,000,000. I bis enormous wealth was made possible, largely because of Queensland’s railway service, which .made production, settlement, and marketing possible. The railway deficit is small compared with this Inigo production. This great result is not shown in the railway balance-sheet, but it should not bo overlooked. This aspect of railway service was emphasised by the Lnme Minister of Australia (Rt. Hon. S. M. Bruce) recently in England, when addressing representatives of the Australian banks in London, be stated, inter alia;— “Australia’s railways, as Government institutions, have enabled development to precede and pave the way for settlement, instead of tho slow, wasteful, and often socially unfortunate method of allowing settlement to precede development. Tho railways have proved to be tremendous effective agencies for developing our latent national assets and lor opening up avenues for private investment and enterprise, thus making a very great indirect as well as a a direct contribution to the national wealth. “Every effort is being made by the Queensland Government to keep railway costs down to the minimum, and the following figures indicate that from the point of view of management the position in Queensland compares lavorahlv with that existing in other Australian States: —Working expenses per train mile: Queensland, 10s lid; New South Wales, 10s 5Jd; Victoria, lis South Australia, 16s Hid; West Australia, 9s 9£d (all for year ended 30/6/27); New Zealand, 11s 5Jd (for year ended 31/3/27).” Speaking of the influx of Latin Euro peans into Queensland, Mr Smith said not so many were coming in now. Australia was 97 per cent. British stock, a fairly large proportion of the population having been born in Australia. The treaty between Britain and Italy bad to bo observed, but there was an embargo on Chinese and other Asiatics. It was not correct that parts of Queensland could only be worked successfully by Asiatics. The sugar industry in Queensland was the only industry of its kind in the world carried out by white people. Queensland produced more tons of sugar per tons of cane than any other sugar-producing country. That illustrated how successfully Queensland could be worked by the whites. “ The White Australia policy is no longer within the scope of controversy so far as Australia itself is concerned,” said Mr Smith. “ It is the definite policy of the Australian people as a whole. Closer settlement of land was being encouraged in every possible way, said Mr Smith. Large areas of land previously held by pastoral companies would be cut up when the leases expired, and very favorable opportunities would be offered for' sheep rearing under close settlement.

Yesteday afternoon the visitors were motored round Dunedin by the mayor (Mr W. B. Taverner) and other citizens. This afternoon the party will be shown round Otago University by Mr T. K. Sidey, M.P., the Chancellor, and tomorrow a trip will bo blade to the Taieri and Waipori. Accompanied by Mr R. B. Tennent, Mr Smith will visit some of the stud stock farms in the district, and the afternoon will be spent at the Roslyn Woollen Mills. On 'Thursday the party leaves for Christchurch, where two days will be spent, the tourists then going on to

ton to join the boat leaving for Australia on February 17. “ I have been tremendously interested in what 1 have seen of New Zealand, its resources, and its people,” said Mr Smith, who is seeing as much as _is humanly possible of the manner of living of the people, the ‘ industries, the education, and the agriculture of the dominion.