OUT BACK IN QUEENSLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 42, 15 March 1909, Page 4

OUT BACK IN QUEENSLAND.

A NEW ZEALANDEK'S IMPRESSIONS Mr. A. Bennett, a member of the wellknown family of pastoralists of that namo in the Wairarapa, returned to Wellington by the Warrimoo on Wednesday, after having spent seven months on a Western Queensland station. As Queensland is just now attracting some attention from the farmers' point of view, Mr. Bennett was approached ior some views of farming in that country. He stated that the station he was on comprised a million and a-half acres of Hat land, but on the, western line—the border of Queensland and New South Wales, some 150 miles from Burke (50 hours' coach journey) in what is known as the Warrigo district, which takes its mime after the Warrigo river. This is sometimes a river, but was mostly a place where a river would be if there was a sufficient rainfall. The average rainfall—and men in Queensland grow old talking of the rainfall—was from 12 to 20 inches a year, but it sometimes happened that a quarter of that quantity may fall in a few hours, as happened shortly before Mr. Bennett left for the coast, when thunderstorms swept over the Warrigo district, and the river (which had not been, a river for two years) resumed its old occupation, and the country sighed like a thirsty traveller after slaking, his thirst. Wool, of course, was the primary consideration on the big run. They were too far away from the freezers to do much with fat sheep, which were, in any case, never up to the standard of prime mutton in New Zealand. Shortly before he left, the station had sold 10,000 "fats" for 7s. By the time they were driven to the railway—a long job—and trucked down to the works, over 300 miles, they would cost a bit more. Warrigo-was in wind was known as the black soil country, the plains consisting of black, chocolate, and a lighter-colored soil, which latter country was most favorable, to the growth of the mnlga scrub on which so much reliance was placed in drought times. PROSPECTS FOR SETTLERS. Asked about the chances the country offered settlers, Mr. Bennett said it was a country of big holdings necessarily. Whereas in fairly good country in New Zealand, one or two sheep could be carried to the acre, five or more acres were needed for one slice]) in Queensland, and there was always the risk of dry seasons. He understood that the rainfall improved farther to the north. It was his intention to go back, probably to take up Government 1 grazing leases, which could be obtained on very easy terms. High temperatures? Oh, yes, well up in the summer time. The candles in the. sticks are apt to cave in the middle, for which reason it did not do to let them stand upright in the daytime.