YEARS WITHOUT RAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 371, 4 June 1928, Page 1

YEARS WITHOUT RAIN

trials of farming in 1 QUEENSLAND

DOCTOR who made good

.1 the Government would leave thi man on the land alone, Queensand would be a great place. Dcapite long periods of drought farmers in Queensland could make good if they were not taxed so heavily.

These are the opinions of Dr. J. C. who is returning to England after spending 18 years in Queensland. The Government there is just realiaing that it is killing the goose which lays the golden egg,” he said this morning on the Aorangi. Dr. Sale has made good, but that was principally because he had sufficient capital when he came out from England and started farming. Dr. Sale threw up his medical practice 18 years ago and went to Australia. Now he has made sufficient poney to go Home again. “I could not have done that had I stayed in practice in England:’ he said. The doctor-farmer said that the principal cause of many of the farmers failing in Queensland was that the present Government had cut up the land into blocks which were too small. When a drought came the farmers found that they could not carry on. The last drought in 1926-27 had sent many men to the wall. “Th«r« has been no rain north of Longraach for the last four or five years/' said the doctor this morning. “Homesteads are deserted for miles. On one station which in ordinary times carries 100,000 sheep, there are now only ths manage;*, a boy and a horse. Three years ago there was not one head of stock on the place." The Government has now realised that the land must be in larger blocks and it has been decided that there are to be none under 20,000 acres in the areas which are affected by drought. Dr. Sale owned one property of 45.00 C acres and usually ran 20,000 sheep. At the end of one drought he found his flock reduced by half. The men who have saved money are the only ones who can recover, he said, although those \yho are lucky enough to start during good seasons are usually successful.

“Cartage is a great problem in Queensland.” continued the doctor. “I lived 50 miles from the railway and maize cost me £2O a ton to land on the place. Railway freights are a heavy item; last year they were raised another 10 per cent.” Queensland recovery marvellously n r u the droi ‘Sht, said the doctor, but an the same he is convinced that it « not the country for the small man without means.