CHAPTER IXQUEENSLAND, THE RICH UNPEOPLED STATE
Thenorthern territory of Australia constitutes the “grand problem” of the Commonwealth. How vast a problem that is no man can realise until he in person visits the north. There, in very truth, is the colour line, drawn, not by the caprice of man, but by the hand of Nature. And the grand question to settle is, Can the white man live and toil in the north as he does in the south? One party says “No,” the other party says “Yes.” When the question is finally settled, then a great era of prosperity may commence. The natural wealth and resources of the north are almost incredible. Yet they are largely untapped, and the bottom reason for this is the nebulous state of the colour question. Once demonstrate that the white man can live in these tropical regions, and then will come a great immigration and an abounding prosperity. But while the doctrine of a “white Australia” is proclaimed coincidently with the dogma that the white man cannot toil in the north, so long will the north remain a problem.
Queensland is at once the largest, the richest, and the most scantily populated of the States of the Australian Commonwealth. Its area is eight times thatof Victoria. It possesses no fewer than 429,120,000 acres, of which only 650,472 acres are under cultivation. And in all that vast territory there are but 760,000 people. It is amazing, almost appalling. Little wonder that the Government of Queensland is laying itself out to attract to this rich country a population from beyond the seas; for the authorities have the wit to perceive that a land so fruitful and promising cannot, in the nature of the case, remain uninhabited for long. Neighbouring peoples with overflowing populations are not unmindful of the fact that almost at their door there lies a promised land crying out for men to enter and possess it. The danger involved in this fact is one that thousands of Australians do not wish to recognise.
The vast majority of people in the Old Land are utterly ignorant of Australia, and particularly of Queensland and the north. Let me try to make the situation clear.
First of all, Queensland has a climate. In the extreme north it is tropical, in the south it is semi-tropical. The Government claims that it is the healthiest climate in the world. I hold no brief for Queensland, and therefore I merely pass on the official statement. But there is no question about the beautiful climate. In the winter-time thousands of persons from the south, from Tasmania and New Zealand, take the trip to Cairns and the north—the land of eternal summer. “Winter” is practically unknown in Queensland. What a Queenslander calls“winter” a Londoner would call early summer. In this particular Queensland stands in direct contrast to Canada, that land which hitherto has monopolised the British emigrants. Ice and snow are unknown. The soil is ever fertile, the sky is ever blue. The man who has no house in which to live need shed no tears; he will probably find it quite as comfortable to live in the open air. “Sleeping out” is as common as sleeping in. Even in the south we practised that. In Melbourne we abandoned our bedroom for the balcony. In Queensland we should not have a bedroom at all. A superb climate, then, is the first great asset of this northern State.
When we descend from sky and air to the earth, the prodigious natural wealth of the land staggers one. It is hardly believable that one single State can yield what Queensland does. Take, for example, the matter of fruits. In the Government Bureau at Brisbane there are cases containing models of the fruits of Queensland. And the list comprises such luxuries as the pineapple, giant banana, custard apple, cocoa pods, grenadilla, mangoes, persimmons, tamarinds, pomeloes, paw-paw, giant plums, grapes, oranges, lemons, apples, pears, peaches, cherries, figs, apricots, nectarines, quinces, strawberries, passion fruit, rosellas, blackberries, Cape gooseberries, melons, loquats, and guavas. Was there ever such a list for one State? These tropical fruits are simply wonderful—wonderful for variety and for magnificence. Think of peaches measuring eleven inches in circumference! The great problem is to find aworthy market for these fruits. Many of them cannot now be transported to England on account of the distance. But when an adequate population brings the demanded railway and the mono-rail, fast steamers and the Trans-Siberian Railway between them, together with a fast service of steamers in the Panama Canal, diminishing the distance between Queensland and London, reducing the time of transit to seventeen or eighteen days, then the Queensland fruits, so strange to Englishmen, may be found at Covent Garden.
From fruits let us turn to crops. Wheat, maize, oats, barley, rye, and the usual cereals are, of course, easily grown. Two crops of maize each year are possible in parts of the country. Besides these, cotton, tobacco, coffee, rubber, sugar, rice, and arrowroot are easily grown. Think of the possibilities of commerce when crops such as these can be produced. When American cotton-planters make their “corner,” and plunge Lancashire into distress, it might be worth the while of open-eyed spinners to turn their attention to a British colony where cotton can be easily cultivated. If persons at home only realised what Australia is capable of producing!
The minerals and gems of Queensland are remarkable. Practically all the minerals are found in this Northern State: gold, silver, copper, iron, coal, tin, lead, bismuth, graphite, etc.; while the gems include diamonds, sapphires, rubies, topaz, opals, emeralds, agates, cornelian, amethyst, and rock crystal. Thetotal value of the output of gold from the mines of Queensland to the end of 1909 was over seventy million pounds sterling, while the total value of minerals, other than gold, was more than twenty-two million pounds sterling. There are about 250 varieties of minerals pertaining to the jewellers’ and lapidaries’ craft, and more than half of this number are found in Queensland. The great sapphire field of the State embraces an area of 400 square miles. One locality bears the suggestive name of “sapphire town.” Yet, with all this profusion of gems, the sapphire and the opal cannot be obtained in Queensland more cheaply than in London or in Paris. A “ring,” I suppose, keeps up the prices.
Industrially, this land is the working man’s paradise. Farm labourers obtain from fifteen to twenty-four shillings a week,plusboard and lodging. Ploughmen receive from fifteen to twenty-seven shillings a week,plusboard and lodging. Ordinary labourers—lowest paid of all workers—six to seven shillings per day. Navvies, seven to twelve shillings per day. Carpenters, ten to fourteen shillings per day. Blacksmiths, ten to fifteen shillings per day. “Useful lads,” from five to fifteen shillings per week,plusboard and lodging. Domestic servants (girls and women), from eight shillings to a pound per week. Cooks (women), anything from one to two pounds per week. What will ploughmen and farm labourers in England think of this scale of payment? Agricultural labourers and domestic servants are in great demand. Compared with the industrial conditionsin the Old Land and in Europe, Queensland offers a veritable paradise to the worker. The marvel is that more people from the Old Land do not come to Queensland, especially when it is remembered that approved emigrants can obtain a passage for £5. Fourteen thousand miles for £5—think of it! As I watched the procession of merry youths and maidens passing along Brisbane streets and heard from one or two of them the story of their coming out from slumdom in England, I could only wish that capable and willing people “at home” who find it difficult to live, and who know nothing of ample spaces and a sunny climate, might find their way to Queensland—that fair spot in God’s creation where poverty is unknown and where work ceases to be drudgery. But only the capable and willing should make the voyage. Queensland is no place for fools or idlers. What Queensland sorely needs is a population of able-bodied people—English people, who will bring with them the best traditions of the Old Land. Queensland alone can easily carry a population of fifty millions of people. At present she has only about one-hundredth part of that number. Young men and women of England, to whom life is a bitter struggle, why do you not think of Queensland? Men and women of sterling character coming out here would help to lay the foundations of a great and a glorious State....
One day we had a delirious motor ride through the bush, our objective being a seaside resort thirty or forty miles distant. When we left the city it wasfarewell to men. Mile after mile we travelled without encountering a single human being, or passing a single habitation. It was one solemn, vast solitude. A road, well made, traversed the forest. Around us and ahead of us lay the “bush,” an immense entanglement of “scrub,” dominated by the everlasting gum-tree. Strange birds flew here and there. Their plumage was often gorgeous to the last degree. Strange and uncouth animals crawled across the road from bush to bush. Once we surprised an iguana, a terrible-looking creature of most mild habits. The iguana, appearing upon the scene for the first time, sends a chill to the heart of the spectator. This glorified lizard has the visage of a demon and the courage of a rabbit. It scuttled away before our approach. In the heart of the bush we came upon a tragedy that must often be enacted amongst the animal dwellers of the great solitude—a kangaroo, a mother, unable to resist the pangs and pains thrust upon her by her destiny, lay dead upon the roadside. And above, on a branch of the tree, stood a pair of laughing jackasses, guffawing their loudest, as if life knew no tragedy and no pain. Another time we encountered a large snake, which stupidly raised its head against the motor. Kangaroos, snakes, macaws, parrots, “jackers”—these and their kind are in possession of the forest. Here and there man has settled down and commenced to cultivate the land. At once the soil has responded. We passed great patches of bananas and acres of pineapples. The ground awaits only the stimulus of the spade and theliving seed, and it responds immediately with a prodigal crop of fruit. Here is this fertile country, taken all in all richer than any other, calling out to man to come and endow himself with its treasures.