Queensland.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2372, 23 October 1880, Page 3 (Supplement)

Queensland.

Turn we now into another court—into the land of the palm, and the date, and the olive. The land so vast in its proportions, so great in its resources, that the foremost of our colonists predict for it the greatest future of all the particles of an unfortunately disunited nation. You, our visitor, shall see here much to at once convince you that you are on the threshold of a court which flows, if not with milk and honey like that promised land of old, at least with auriferous and stanniferous wealth, the power of which may, in the time that is to come, make Queensland the most prosperous colony in Australia. Eor the first exhibit which will meet the visitor’s eye will be a great glittering mass, which represents the yield of gold from the Palmer River gold field from November, 1873, to July, 1879, 946,716 oz., or a value of £3,948,500. But this is nothing as compared with the gold returns from the colony itself, which is also represented by a massive structure, of octagon shape, representing 3,477,679 ozs. of gold. Not so bad that for a small (?) place, that a few years ago many regarded with profound contempt. The latest news from the Gympie, where it would seem the slate and sandstone formation of Bendigo has at last been found, should show how far that contempt was justified. But Queensland is rich in other resources besides her gold. She sends to the Exhibition specimens of tin discovered at various places over an area of 1500 miles. The head quarters of this wealth is at Stanthorpe, at which place both stream and rock tin has been found in abundance. Outside her mineral resources, Queensland shows in her court what she can do in the production of sugar, arrowroot, coffee, tea and rice. In the latter product she will, in the years to come, it is more than likely, prove particularly prolific. To the north of Brisbane one large plantation has turned out no less than 68 bushels of “paddy” to the acre, while in Java, 30 to 40 bushels of “paddy” is considered an excellent yield. To the uninitiated , it may be mentioned that paddy is the technical term for rice in its earliest or field stage. Of sugar, there are thousands and thousands of acres laid down in sugar canes, and the specimens sent down here from the neighbourhood of Port Mackay are most encouraging samples of the capacity of the colony for the rearing of this product. Where there is sugar there must be rum, and Queensland rum, there can be no doubt, will one of these days be as famous as that of Jamaica. One large sugar-planter has the proceeds of a distillation ten years old, which he says he will back against any of the rums in ordinary use now-a-days, but which he intends to keep another ten years before he puts it on the market. Queensland is one of the richest countries this side of the line for indigenous grasses, and numerous magnificent specimens are exhibited. The Queensland gallery contains a very beautiful series of pictures illustrative of life in the bush, by Mr. Daintree, once Agent-General of Queensland. One of the most noticeable of these is a simple sketch of a piece of uncleared land with the plain words beneath it, “ 10s. per acre.” As amatter of fact, much of the best land from Brisbane to Maryborough has been taken up at that price.