IMPRESSIONS OF QUEENSLAND

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 175, 23 January 1912, Page 7

IMPRESSIONS OF QUEENSLAND

AN EX-XEW ZEALAXDER'S OPINIONS

An ex-New Zealander, who is now 1 settled in Queensland, Mr. A. C. Thorn-' 5011, is at present on a visit to New Zealand. At the present time, Mr. liiomson is in Timaru, recovering from an illness. During the course of a con- • versation with a representative of the Timaru Herald, the visitor said that Australia was very prosperous just now. It was, lie believed, working up to a boom; it was in the position now that New Zealand was in ten years ago. It was a difficult thing to get houses built, or even timber with which to build them, and laibor of all classes .was very hard to get. A good many people said that it was a series of very prosperous years which had 'brought this about, but Australia had not had an exceptionally prosperous time during the past five years—the past five years had, in fact, scarcely been up to the.ordinary. The fact of the matter was that Australia had a set-back for a number of years, and was now recovering from it. \ THINGS BRISK IX QUEENSLAND. Queensland, said Mr. Thomson, was getting its full*share of \ the prosperity. Everything was very brisk there. They were getting an enormous number of immigrants from England, Scotland. Ireland, Russia, Holland and Germany, but chiefly from England and Scotland. All the available passenger ships were fully taxed, and intending immigrants fromEngland had to book, six months ahead to get a passage to Queensland. About three months ago one vessel took la°o immigrants to Queensland. The peoji, • were absorbed as fast as they w there, and there was no sign of un a: ployment. The Government carried o ' a vigorous and very good system of land settlement, and this attracted many hundreds of people to the country. LAND SETTLEMENT. Different classes of land were provided for the settlers. There was some bush land which has given them nothing; other better land could be bought at up to 10s per acre on terms extending over 40 years; and resumed estate could be bought at from £2 10s to £5 per acre on payment of 10 per cent, cash, nothing for the next four years, and the balance ,to be paid off in payments extending over twenty years. Last year the Queensland Government settled six million acres of land, and the year before, 5% millions, or 11% million acres in two years. Mr. Thomson said that his farm was part of a resumed estate; it was all flat, alongside the railway, all ploughable, and would grow cereal crops as \yell as lucerne to perfection. He intended to jput down another 200 acres in lucerne this year, and to keep on sowing until he had the whole farm in this kind of feed.

RAINFALL AND THE CROPS. Tlie rainfall*last year up to November was very light, with the result that a good many of the grain crops were failures; , but since November the country had taken on an entirely new appearance and feed was noiy very plentiful. It grew very quickly there after a rain. When he left home he had a mob of good store cattle on the farm, but since his arrival here he had received a cablegram from his son that the butchers had taken a-good many of them as fats, and a draft of fats had also been sent to the freezing works. He mentioned this to indicate how rapidly the feed grew and cattle fattened'after a good rain. NEW ZEALANDERS QUITE SATISFIED.

O-nf''--'V- 'AT" Thomson said the talk abont XSw Zealanders wanting to leave Australia was all nonsense. He was very satisfied with his holding, and if he wanted more land to-morrow he would buy in Queensland. He went in for a good deal of cropping now, but intended as soon as the wide farm was down in lucerne to make a grazing place of it. The, English Leicester sheep which he Woij|d .tfike back with him from New Zealand he' intended to cross with the Australian merino, arid thus get a good [Wool, and mutton sheep, and good fat Jarnbs. . . , In the merino to cross with the longwools, Mr.. Thomson considers the Australians have a great advantage over their fellow-farmers in New Zealand, and on this point he is in thorougfi agreement with Professor Lowrie, who lias had experience in both countries. THE FUTURE OF LAMB-RAISING. The best' ewe is a halfbred or threequarterbred, and using the English Leicester ram, with the advantage of the blood from the excellent merino sheep available in Australia, Mr. Thomson considers that lamb-raising in Australia should have a bright future. He qualified the remark with the statement that j the . necessary , works for treatment should be availple. In New the 'breeder fias the' advantage that if he does not like the price offered by the buyer he can deal direct with the works. That is not so in parts of Australia; and on parts of the Darling Downs, 'where he is settled at present. - Ori the wool Bide, Mr. Thomson gave his support to the English Leicester for crossing purposes. The Lincoln is regarded as the best of all lustre wools, but the two breeds are closely related. Mr. Thomson is enthusiastic over the wooj which results from the cross with the English Leicester ram. Mr. Thomson, before leaving Australia 1 on his present trip, made known his intention to import some English Leieesters, and the Sydney Mail said that "it will be interesting to observe the effect in the fairlv dry climate to which Mr, Thomson will take his little stud of Leicesters, as compared with the comparatively moist climate from which they will be brought in New Zealand. The chances are that the advantages claimed on the mutton side of this cross will repeat themselves on the wool side, for the breeder will not only be working on the large framed and healthy type of merino, but sheep with a tendency to produce superfine wool. It is difficult to say exactly at this stage what the effect will be, but there are good chances of success. Mr. Thomson has already experimented with some half-bred Lincolns', which were the only ones available; and although the season was very dry, he states that the result was splendid. It was partly this fact which determined him to go over to the Dominion and purchase a number of English Leicesters for stud purposes."