QUEENSLAND.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 46, 17 April 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

QUEENSLAND.

(From the Queensland Guardian, I\ nr. 26)

Some time since we adverted to the production of some tobacco grown in the neighborhood of Brisbane, by Mr John Doyle, with considerable profit to himself. We are glad to perceive that some other of our agriculturists are beginning to turn their attention to this article of produce. We were favored, the other day, with a very good sample of colonial tobacco, grown by Mr Fel«-ate near Brisbane. It is admirably prepared, of a superior description, and much resembles in appearance' the tobacco grown in Maryland, being ofa light color. It is of a mild flavor, but is not, of course, so fragrant and palatable as the American tobacco. It is, however, superior, to our taste, to much of the colonial tobacco grown in the Maitland district, which used to be sold so extensively on the diggings when the goldfields of New South Wales were in their palmy days.

On Monday, we had left at our office a good specimen of the banana fibre. It was prepared by Mr Thompson, Norman's Creek, in a very simple manner. The process is the following : — Let a pit be made, and the banana stalks cut into equal lengths, and then placed in the pit. Let them be there for about six weeks and then, in virtue of the natural process of decay, the fibre will come out minus the fleshy parts. The fibre is good and strong— the best of it capable of making admirable cordage, the inferior parts would make excellent paper. Trooper Cosgrove, of the mounted polipe, while proceeding on official duties to Sandgate, during tbe heavy flood, on Friday last, had a narrow escape for his life. The road was heavily flooded for a great part of his journey, but he thought he could succeed in reaching his destination. However, on arriving at a place called Humpy Bong Flat, his horse fell, and was swept along for some distance by the current, Cosgrove holding on by the bridle ; and as he was heavily clothed, it was only by great exertions, and after considerable risk, that he managed to extricate himself and his horse.

From the Peak Downs we have several items of interesting information. We were favored on Friday with an interview with the parties who have just come dowu from those parts. It is satisfactory to know that, however much we may have suffered here from a superabundance of rain, there they have not had more than is necessary. Indeed, they rather complain of a deficiency than a superabundance. Labor is in considerable demand, and the wages are good. The news regarding the gold mines is favorable. Our informant showed us very respectable nugget of about an ounce and a half of very pure gold, there being no admixture 'but a small proportion of quartz. The gold field is extending, as was anticipated by those who knew the country most accurately. The miners, it appears, have by sinking come on a red cement, an indication of the presence of good gold. They have also met with good specimens of platinum.

The wet weather has continued without cessation in Brisbane since the morning of St. Patricks-day. On Friday, in addition to the violent torrents of rain, it blew a perfect hurricane all dayj setting oilskins and umbrellas at defiance. The weather shows no signs of clearing, and we must be prepared again to have to record the devastation committed by floods, and disasters visiting our agriculturists.

The Rockhampton Bulletin ofthe l4th instant says : — "A clear up in the weather is ardently wished for, as the continuance of the present heavy rains I throughout the district has caused a complete suspension of our up-country : trade. During the past three or four months, transit to and from the stations bas been for the most part impracticable, and only a small portion of the season's clip has arrived in town for shipment ; on the other hand, orders innumerable for station supplies are lyinu unexecuted in the hands of the storekeepers, while the stations are suffering great inconvenience and discomfort from a deprivation of the necessaries of life. Reports have reached us from various sources Of losses of a serious character to stock from the heavy rains and the flooded state of the country.'' The Warwick Mail learns from a correspondent at Allora, that a child, the daughter of a shepherd on the Downs, had one of the most providential escapes on record from the bite of a deaf adder. It appears that she was playing on the bank of a creek with two others, when a quarrel eusued which ended in the little girl picking up a stick for the purpose of striking one of the other children with it, when unconsciously she grasped hold of this most venemous and hideous looking reptile ; upon finding out her mistake, the child, with admirable presence of mind, threw it from her with sufficient force to cause its instant death.

never heard of afterwards. Many a ship has similarly perished on the same route, of whi ch no such record will ever be producable. In , a few years, however, our north-eastern coast -will no longer be a terra incognita. There will be settlements at intervals all the way from Cape York * southwards, and mariners wrecked on the reefs will be able, without any long journey, to make for the abodes of civilised men. Morrill has been for seventeen years Waiting till settlement crept up to tbe neighborhood where he was wrecked. He does not seem to have been ever inspired with a desire to force his way on foot down to the settled districts. The blacks, probably, would not have allowed him to attempt it, and the risks of running the gauntlet of so many tribes would probably have proved fatal.

The kindness with which the shipwrecked party was received by the natives is a parallel to the similar kindness with which Burke and Wills were treated at Cooper's Creek. Perhaps in both cases the very helplessness of the white men was their best protection. Cruelty and oppression mostly proceed from fear.

That cannibalism does exist to some extent among the natives Mr Morrill's testimony proves, but it is not a common or a favorite practice, and some superstitious ideas are connected with it. This same superstitious element seems to be connected with the practice among the South Sea islanders, and may have its origin in some tradition common to both races. On this point, Dr Semann in his late work on Pijiisays: — " Fijians always regarded eating a man as the very acme of revenge, and to this day the greatest insult one can offer is to say to a person, 'I will eat you.' In any transaction where the national honor had to be avenged, it was incumbent upon the king and principal chiefs ; in fact, a duty they owed to their exalted station, to avenge the insult offered to the country by eating the perpetrators of it. I am convinced, however, that there was a religious as well as a political aspect of this custom, which awaits future investigation. Count Streletzki, whose powers of observation have given him an insight into savage life few travellers have attained in so eminent a degree, fully agreed with me when some , time ago this subject was the topic of conversation between us. There ia a certain degree of religious awe associated with cannibalism where a national institution, a mysterious hallow akin to a sacrifice to a supreme being, with which only the select few, the tabu class, the priests, chiefs, and higher orders, were deemed fit to be connected. The cannibal forks obtained at Nattiosi tended to confirm this belief. There was the greatest reluctance to part with them, even for a handsome equivalent, and when parted with, displaying them was objected to. This I thought at first very natural, as the}' - were said to be heirlooms, and the owners did not like to expose themselves to the odium of having trafficked in things like them. But when, afterwards, they were shown to parties who could know nothing of the transactions, their faces always assumed a serious aspect, and they were most anxious that I should put the forks out of sight, es*pecially that of children. My handling them seemed to give as much pain as if I had gone into a Christian church, and used the chalice for drinking water."

The account given by Morrill of the gradual diminution of the shipwrecked party is Very affecting. As long as even four of them remained alone, they could at least comfort each other with hope and mutual sympathy, and hear the pleasant accents of their own language. But when he was left alone the sense of solitude must have been intense. That the only boy in the party lived for nearly two years, and that the only female should have Hv<°d for nearly three, is a proof that the natives did not grudge what food was available. Indeed it seems probable that they died less from Starvation than from sickness of the heart and hope deferred. The mind was scarcely braCed to endure so prolonged a trial. The absence of clotliing and exposure to the weather were, no donbr, trying; but it would be possible to get acclimatised to this, if there were no mental depressing influence, constantly sapping the vigor of the constitution. Had the coast been uninhabited, the whole party would probably have soon died. During the first fourteen days they spent on shore, and until the natives discovered them, tbey subsisted solely on shell fish. The natives, however, have other resources, which they opened out to the party, and which in that district, so fertile'alike in animal and vegetable life, there seems generally to have been a sufficiency.

That Morrill should have lived on the Burdekin for seventeen years under unfavorable circumstances as to food and shelter, and have suffered no permanent injury to bis constitution, may be accepted as a favorable indication of the adaptability of the climate to the European constitution, and as rebutting the fears of those who thought that Port Denison would prove too tropical to be healthy to the white man.

The relations between tbe frontier settlers and the natives have always been unsatisfactory, and no one seems yet to have found out the secret of thoroughly conciliating and utilising the aboriginal race. That they have been very frequently guilty of outrages on persons and property, is undeniable, but too often the outrage has been a retaliation for injury or insult received. If they could be protected from illtreatment, and could understand how that protection would be afForded them, there would be less toapprfiherid. The mere disarming of their fears and suspicions would go a long way towards reconciling them to the intrusion of the white fellow. James Morrill will form

a useful interpreter of the beneficent

views of the Government, and will be able, perhaps, to make the. natives comprehend that the strong" ar-tri 6f the law will be exercised to protect them whei wantonly injured by settlers or their servants, , as well &s4. to punish them when they commit depredations or acts of violence. He .could not put to better purpose his knowledge of the native language and native modes of thought, than becoming an interpreter to his late companions of the views of the Government towards them, and an interpreter to the Ciovernment of their wishes and complaints, and the service he would thus render would be a real act of gratitude for the kindness that has been shown to him. Queensland it fortunate ; in unexpectedly. obtaining what may prove so useful an instrument in dealing with the native question, and bis agency wisely employed may prove far more effective in maintaining the peace than the native police has beeu, or ever could be.