Page 1 Advertisements Column 6

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2001, 9 February 1907, Page 1

BEAUTY v. WEALTH. NEW ZEALAND AND QUEENSLAND COMPARED. Mr. Angus Gibson, M.L.C., Queensland, who is now on a pleasure four of New Zealand, accompanied by bis daughters, is a colonist who firmly believes in his adopted country. “I have been through New Zealand before,” he remarked to an Evening Post reporter. “It was in 1897, and both then and now I find it a country of great attractions. Rotorua and its hot springs, the Wanganui River and its rapids, the many scenes of interest of the overland route, are attractions for the tourist, and in their way all that one could desiro, but I must go somewhere else to make money. I can’t get away from the impression that as a money-mak-ing concern New Zealand is not to bo compared with Queensland. Our Darling Downs and our coastal lands are better than anything I havo yet seon in Now Zealand.” As qualification to this last statement it should bo said that Mr. Angus has not yet been in the South Island). “And we havo scenery too,” ho continued; “places worth going to see. Our Government is doing a good deal to popularise these resorts with tourists, and increased popularity for them is only a matter of a little while. We can provide a climate to order at a few hours’ notice. On the coast you have the tropics, and by travelling on a semi-vertical railway for five hours you can get a temperature as cool as New Zealand’s. No doubt about it Queensland is a highly favored country; in its southern portions you can get everything that is grown in New Zealand, and in the Northern territory everything that is grown in India. Coal, silver, tin, lead, wolfram, —all manner of minerals nameable are there, and considering that I have been a colonist for forty-four years I think I am capable to say what the land is like. Wo can get from the surface of the land nearly everything that the world produces, and there, is hardly a mineral nameable that we can’t dig up. The Government is now pushing along a railway from Richmond to the Gulf of Carpentaria, through a vast territory prolific of mineral wealth, and it is confidently estimated that as a result of this enterprise Queensland will be supporting a huge population within ten years from now!” A question as to the condition of Queensland' sugar plantations drew from our visitor an expression of opinion—an expression the more deserving of weight) because Mr. Gibson is principal in a long-established firm of sugar planters. He recalled that when the Commonwealth Government decided to abolish importation of black labor to Queensland from the South Sea Islands, a grant of £6 per ton on all sugar produced was made t'o the manufacturers to enable them to carry on successfully with white labor. Out of this there is an excise duty of £3 per ton to be paid, but part of that money is redistributed in varying proportions according to the districts (three) into which Queensland and the northern part of New South Wales have oeen 'i'Jod. while a part has been retained by the Commonwealth Government. In this way the districts have gone on for five years, and cane has been grown both by black and white labor. But on 31st December last all South Sea Island labor agreements expired, and it is now illegal t’o employ South Sea Island laborers on plantations. So at present the planters are faced with the question how to carry on the industry. Ten thousand islandors havo been deported or taken off the land, and there is urgent need for white immigration to the colony to enable their places to be filled. Where that labor is to come from is one of the questions that is disturbing the minds of the planters. It has been said that people from Southern Europe would be eminently suitable for work on the sugar plantations, and enquiries are now being made in Northern Italy, the South of Franco, and contiguous places to ascertain the likelihood of any largo number of immigrants making the venture. It is also proposed to bring out Scandinavians. But it is just possible, by reason of the Commonwealth laws against the importation of foreigners, that difficulties may arise. A scheme was submitted to the Deakin Ministry some time ago by the people of Northern Queensland, but by reason of the general election campaign which recently terminated no consideration has so far been given to the proposals. All over Queensland there has been a determination to work out the problem. Plantations have been divided into small lots of 30, 70, or 150 acres, according to size of prospective occupants, and let on terms to persons willing to undertake the work of cane-growing. It is hoped to save the situation in the southern portion of the State by this means.

Mr. Gibson’s interests are largely in the Bundataery district, and there his firm (a limited liability company) has been working out a scheme for the last twelve years. For all that time the firm lias leased out its lands, and has had forty tenants supplying cane to the factory from holdings 22 miles distant. To' facilitate the work the firm has put down rails, and on these the cane is run in by locomotives. On another estate (Watawa) the cane is hauled for 25 miles. At Bingora the firm in the past employed over 300 South Sea Islanders and 70 white men in the fields, besides 250 white men in the factory. It was in anticipation of the prohibition of black labor that the firm divided its lands in this vicinity into small holdings during the last eighteen months, and let them out to white men, as a result of which the prohibition of black labor will not materially affect operations, though the area which the firm will itself cultivate in future will be only 700 acres, as against 3500 acres under the mixed labor system. As illustrative of the extent of a sugar plantation’s business, Mr. Gibson mentioned that on his firm’s estate at Bingera there wore 40 miles of tramlines, four locomotives, and machinery worth about £120,000. Oil the same estate is a pumping plant which throws water (from the Burnett River) 250 feet high, and at the rate of ten million gallons in twenty-four hours. The season now over lias been a fairly prosperous one for Queensland (Mr. Gibson considers), the output of cane totalling 85,000 tons. As to the future of the industry, he is hopeful as regards the southern districts, but doubtful in respect of the tropical noith from Mossman to Mackay. There must, he says be very grave difficulty in growing cane there by white labor, and ho fears for its future. The white population that is there is nomadic, and there is a risk that the planter will be left without sufficient labor at a critical period. Under the best conditions in the south—and so far as cultivation of the land is concerned, the best conditions obtain—thero is sound reason for hope. The chief question is whether the promised labor from Europe will be introduced.

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