Queensland
Parliamentary Debates [Hansard]
Legislative Assembly
FRIDAY 30 NOVEMBER 1906
Electronic reproduction of original hardcopy
Third Readings. [30 NovEMBER.] Supply. 1961
FRIDAY, 30 NOVEMBER, 1906. BRISBANE CRICKET GROUND BILL. THIRD READING. The HOME SECRETARY moved that the The SPEAKER (Hon. Sir A. S. Cowley, Herbe1·t) Bill be now read a third time. took the chair at half-past 3 o'clock. Mr. BARNES (Bulimba): I desire to enter my jJrotest against a measure of this kind being rushed through as it was during the early hours QUESTIO;\'S. of the mornilJg of to-day. TOTALIS.\TOH PERMITS. The SPEAKER: Order! The hon. member cannot do that. The only question before the Mr. COW AP (Fitzroy) asked the Attorney House io the third reading of the Bill. ·General- Mr. BARNES: My object is to protest 1. \Vhat is the total number of permits granted in :.gainst th•2 prmciple of the Bill in the direction each :rear to use the totalisator since the passmg of the Actf in which the trustees have allowed this particular 2. 1\~hat amount of tax has been vaid in e~lCh year for ground to be used. use of totalisator:.- The HmiE SECRETARY: That has nothing to do with the principle of the Bill. The ATTORNEY-GENEB.AL (Hon. J. W. l\lr.. J. LEAHY: Of course it has. You are Blair, Ipsv·ich) replied- approving of their action. 1. Total number of permits issued, 1349. (Of this number 175 pernuts have been cancelled.) Mr. BARNES : I think it has a. great deal to 2. Amount of tax paid to 23rd .\m.·ember, 19f16, do with the principle of the Bill. There are £98,030 l2s. 4d. (Amount collected prior to lst Sep certain things done by which the original inten tember, 1902, represents ~~ per cent. on the amount tions of the Government with regard to that invested, and since that date at the rate of 5 per cent.) ground ha,-e been fru.;trated altogether. I have no objection whatever to the ground being used for the original purposes for which it was ADDITIONAl. LICENSE FEE FOR CAmiEN. granted, but I wbb emphatically to protest Mr. NORMAN (Jliarpb01·ough), for Mr. agaimt the ground being used in a way which is Rein bold, aoked the Secretary for Rail ways- practically developing the gambling evil in this State, under conditions which are altogether 1. Is it a fact that licensed cab men must pay an against the good of the wmmunity. additional license fee of ls. per station per annum to enable them to stand at the various metropolitan rail The SPEAKER: Order ! I would remind way stations? the hon. member that t.hat has nothing to do 2. If so, and if this is only a relic of the times of the with the principle of the Bill, which is simply to old 11etropolitan Traffic Board, would Lhe l\finister give the trustets of the Brisbane Cricket Ground abolish this license fee now that the Government has the whole control? power to lease a certain portion of the said ground, and to mortgage the said ground, and for other incidental purposes-and nothing else The SECRETARY FOR RAILWAYS (Hon. D. ]'. Denham, Oxlcy), replied- can be discussed. 1. Yes; this small fee is necessary for the control of Mr. BARKE8 : I bold that if the trustee•, cabs ·within the station fences. under th,, conditions under which tbev have been 2. The Commissioner of Police does not control traffic working, llave been unable to vay the· rent which -within the railway station fences. has accrued, then it is only 'taving off the evil day ; and it seems to me that it would be very much better the t rather than that kind of thing should lDERAWAY LANDS. exist on that ground, steps should be taken to relieve the public of what I consider is a positive Mr. JONES (Burnett) asked the Secretary for Public Lands- nuisance in that cricket ground, apart from the purposes for which it was originally granted, 1. Is he a·ware that the Ideraway lands were open which wa~ for playing cricket. for selt;:\tion on 21st of this month, on which date a Land Court was held at Gayndah, at which court appli Mr. HAWTHORX (Enoggera.): I desire to -cations were accepted for eight portions under agri know whether the principle of allowing private ct:Jtural farm selection, and that the remaining portions Bills to be brought in under Government are still open? auspices is going to be adopted? 2. If ~o. will he correct his statement in I-IanscNl ,page 1876' , • The SPEAKER : Order, order ! The hon. Inentuer snou!u nave urscusseu tna-r; queRtion on The SECRETARY FOK PUBLIC LANJ>S the motion for the suspension of the Standing .(Hon. J-. T. Bell, DaliJy) replied- Orders. The House has given authority for l. Yes. these Bills to be brought in and treated as 2. The statement in question referred to the lands on public Bills, and it io not the time now to ques the Binjour Plateau, not Ideraway. tion the wisdom of the procedure. (~uestion-That the Bill be now read a second time-put and passed. HARBOUR BOARDS ACTS AMENDMENT On the motion of the HOME SECRETARY, the Bill was passed, and ordered to be trans BILL- ROCKHA:YIPTON HARBOUR mitted to the Legislative Council, by message in BOARD ACTS AMENDMENT BILL the usual form. IVARWICK SCHOOL OF ARTS LAND SALE BILL-CITY OF S0l'TH BRIS SUPPLY. BANE LOAN BILL-CAIRNS SCHOOL RESUMPTION OF Col\Iilf!TTEE. OF ARTS BILL. DEPAHTl\fENT OF AGRICL"LTCHE-CHIEJ>' OFFICE. THIRD READIXGS. * The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE These Bills were read a third time, passed, (Hon. D. F. Denham, Oxley) moved that and ordered to be transmitted to the I,egislati ve £H,87G be granted for "Chief Office." The Council, by message, in the usual form. ' amoun~ asked for was an increase of £1,140 Hon. D. F. Denkam.] 1962 Supply. CASSEMBLY.] Supply. on the vote of last year. Of this amount £870 Hon. R. PHILP : I think he has done good wao attributable to the increases for the staff in work. the head office, and £770 for contin!(enciei'. It Mr. PAGET: You should make the poultry would be noticed that the Under Secretary's pay the intervst on the national debt. salary had been increa'•ed by £100, the chief Hon. R. PHILP: Then Mr. Fern has done clerk by £50, and the accountant by £25. There more than Dr. Maxwell. were other increases in the salariPs-namely, one The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE of £30, two of £25, sewn of £20, seven of £10, was by no rneans averse to a continuance of and one of £6. There were also three new cadets Mr. Fern's services if he could see that any g-ood one a pupil to the botanist at £26, and two in the would accrue; but it was a remarkable thing chemical laboratory, one at £26, and another, that the uumber of poultry was less th,;n it was for a portion of the year, £18. Concerning the in last year. crea,;es to the Under Secretary, the chief clerk, and the accountant, he felt quite sure the Com Mr. HAW1'HORN: The prices were low last mittee would approve of these increa;;es. year, and people' did not go in for !eeding them so much. HoxouRABLE MEMBER~ : Hear, hear ! The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: TheSECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: Not for )Joultry. It was remarkable, seeing the \Vhen he first entered the ofl:ice the Department prices of meat were so high, that there was not of Stock was 'eparate from tbat of Ag-r·iculture, more interest taken in poultry-raising. \Vhen and at that t.ime they had sevrn chief officers the l~stimates were framed his intention was engaged in the officowbose total~, larieR amounted that Mr. Fern should go at the end of the year to £2,610. These duties were now c .rried out by -not that he was dissatisfied with his work; four officers wl1< se salaries amounted to £1 475. but it appeared that the people were not in The salaries of the Under Se~retarv, chief cJerk terested in the smaller products. That was not. accountant. and agricultnral inspector had all oDly true of poultry but ,it was largely true of been incre rsed, yet he was enabled-to conduct the other products. Whether it was that people work of the department effectively and efficiently were too well off to attend to smaller sources at a sum £1,135 les' than it was conducted of wealth or not he did not know. In the before. Concerning the minor increases, hon. United States poultry headed the list of their members would agree with him that the increase productions with a value of £58,000,000. There of £30 to :i'.Ir. Brhnnich was well deserved; even W>l' a reference in the annual report to thP fact now he was by no rneans overpaid. that two weeks' egg-production in the United States yielded sufficient to pay the annual J\Ir. PAG!c'T: He certainly IS not. interest. on thA national debt. Their production The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE· was l,G66,000,000 dozens of eggs per annum. Since last year the laboratory harl been removeci There was a big futur·• for poultry here, but, so from the unsuitable premises occupied in the far, there bad not been much interest taken in chief office to a more suitable building along the the matter. Mr. Fern',; services had been freely road formerly occupied by the Government An given, not only in the country districts b"t alyst. Mr. Bri\nnicb's duties had been increased in the suburbs of Brisbnne, but results had not b:;: reason of the gre tt deal of chemical analyses been as gratifying as he could wish. In the With regard to the dairying products and also in vote fnr" Contingencies," there was an increase of respect to wheat. He "as sure tbat hon. mem £250 for the Queensland Agrirultuml Journal. bers who had read JIIIr. Br\\nnicb's report which Last vear the opini<'n was freely expressed that was incurpor;;ted with that of the Under Secre the Journal should be issued monthly again. tary, would have discovered there the valuable That had been done, and he required a further sum work in which be had been engaged during the of £250 to enable it to be continued. A further past twelve mnnths. There was another increase sum of £70 wns required for the laboratory for which be was sure would give satisfaction to the the renewal of chemicals, bee~ use of the increi'Queensland Government He recognised how \·aluable it would be to enclea\'Oured to get the steamers brought on to Queensland to have a weekly service for the Brisbane. According to yesterday's Courier, conveyance of perishable products, but he Senator Higgs was asked about the matter, and thought the posi<.ion was well known in the he said- country. It had been promulgated in the Press that i.t was Q.ueensland's own fault, as that State had that the Government urged-and as far as they offered to pay a proportion of the cost if the service was could insisted-that the mail steamers >hould to be a purely maH service. call at Brisbane. A conference was held in Mr. Higgs admitted later on that the Queens this building of chambers of commerce and land Labour members held the balance of power agriculture and people concerned in shipping in the House of Representatives, but they did generally. The meeting was adjourned, and not use it. He wanted to know whether it was a subsequent meeting confirmed the expression the fault of the Government of Queensland or of of npit,iun that no contract would be satis Mr. Higge and his party that the mail steamers factory which did not include Brisbane as a port were not coming on to Brisbane. of call. That was commnniccLted to the Federal 'fhe SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: Of ]\fr. Government; and the Chief Se~retary, as far as Higgs and his party. he could, urged the point in as earnest a way HoN. R. PHILP thought it ought to be as possible. \Yhen he interjected just now-in known throughout the State whose fault it was. reply to an inquiry whether Mr. Higgs and his He thought the Government ought to make an friend., or the Government were responsible for explanation why it was the boats were not to the ste:cmers not calling here-that it was ]\fr. call here, They had heard what 1\:Ir. Higgs and Higgs and his friends, he meant to convey his party had to say-- that it was certainlv not the Government who were responsible. "If it were true that Mr. The CHAIRMAN: Order ! I should be Higgs and his friends could have secured the glad if the hon. gentleman would explain the steamers calling at Brisbane, and did not, then connection between his remarks and the vote the responsibility rested with them. The Go·· before the Committee. vernment could not command or control. They HoN. R. PHILP : He said some time ago could only urge, and back up their urging by that they were giving £26,000 a year to encourage reasons. They were told that the mail contract butter exportation, and if they were relieved of only provided for the steamers coming to Ade that expenditure the money might be devoted laide, and beyond that it was a matter of to other useful purposes. They ougbt to know negotiation hetween the shipping company and the reason why the new mail steamers were not the ports concerned. It had been said that the to come on to Brisbane, seeing that thA expendi mail company wer;, negotiatin,; with Sydney ture was borne by the whole of Australia. \Vas and Melbourne as to the terms of coming on it the fault of the Government, or of Mr. Higgs there, but up to the present, as far ''" his know and his friends? There was another matter in ledge went, r.here had been no negotiation. They which the Government wPre at fault in not doing were now within fourteen months of the cessa something to induce the Peninsular anrl Oriental tinn of the contract with the Orient Company. Company to come here. The Imperial Govern "Whether the Ro,·al Mail St8amers thought they ment paid the Peninsular and Oriental Com had a pull over Queensland or not, he could not pany for carrying mails to Australia, and that say; but his own feeling- was that if they had company only came to tlydney because the to subsidise a line of steamers at all, it should Orient Company came there. Now that the be a line going from Brisb•me up North and Orient Company came to Brisbane he believed through Torre~ Straits. (Hear, hear!) As to the the Government could induce the Peninsular and Peninsular and Oriental Company calling or not Oriental Company to come here. If that were calling here, he really had nothing to say .. done, Queensland butler exporters would then have a weekly service, and, besides, an additional Hon. R. PHILP: \Vould it not be worth service would mean a great deal to Queen•land. while trying ? He thought. the Government were to blame The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: for not having done something in the matter. Yes; it might be worth trying. Their cargo Hon. D. F. Denham.] 1964 Suppl,y. [At:lt:lEMHLY.] Supply. boats were calling here occasionally, and, had he would not pay the same price for cream as he it not been for the " Poona" supplying the would pay if he were netting 10d. per lb. That shortage of space in the "Ornba," they would was a business proposition ; and in saying that have been in a deplorable position a fortnight he was saying nothing derogatory to the business ago. "G p to the present all they had to export man. The man who handled produce was not bad been taken away, some of the butter being going to handle it n,t a loss to himself. tranship!"ed at Sydney into the PeninRular and JY1r. O'KEEFPE: The producer pays all costs. Oriental boats. That was no disadvantage, because the boat to which it was transhippPd ~Ir. P AG ET : Exactly, and also paid all actually reached London seven days before the taxes. \Vhat he wished to bring under the Orient boat. He did not want to import federal notice of the :Minister was that if this company, politics into the discu"sion, but he certainly which was paid £1,000 per trip to come t.o Bris must defend the Government against tbe sng· bane, put people-whether they were the pro gestion that it was through any fault of theirs ducers or the pers,ms who stood between the that the mail coil tract did not provide for the acoual producers and the market.-to extra ex boats coming on to Bri~bane, although it was pense, the company should pay that extra quite true that they did !lot offer a sum of expense. There 'was one thing in connection money. He noticed that another gentleman with the general admini,tration of the clepart speaking on the subject said he did 11is hest to ment which gave great plt>:a.sure, not only to secure that result. He certainly voted for ::Yir. hirno:;elf, but to a great rnany 1nen1bers of the Knox's motion that the boats should call at public, and that w~s that the department was Brisbane, but when the question was put to not a red-tape department. Any member of the confirm the contract he voted wit.h the Govern public who desired to obtain information or to ment. He thought that in the interest ,,f give information to the department could obtain Queensland he should rather h>< ve voted against or give that information without being swathed that motion. in the coils of red tape ; and that was one reason why the department was as successful as it was. Mr. PAGET (!.fackay): Two or three days But, in view of the fact that the department ago he had a conversation with a promi~;ent had charge of the greatest industry in the State member of the public service, in the course of -that was the agricultural industrv-he thought which reference was rnade to the A~:ricultural it was absolutely starved. Only £33,650 were Estimates, and he suggested that, if there nould down on the Estimates for the whole of this be no criticism launched at the department, the department, which had to carry out oper~tiun;, :Minister should not receive what he called in connection with the agricultural educatiOn of fulsome adulation. He must say straight out the people of the State. That was exactly one that he had very little criticiem to offer against tenth of the sum they would shortly be asked to the adn1inistration of this departmant. Speak vote for the education of the young people of ing generally, he was of opinion that the adminis Queensland. It would well repay the taxpayer if, tration of the Department of Agriculture was instead of spending £:~3,000 on a department such just about as good as it l"'ssibly could be. At as this they spent £70,000 ur £80,000, because the same time, he had nut the slightest intention every :nan who was taught to make his busi of offering any fulsome adulation to the Minister, ness in the raising nf produce profitable-and in because he thought the bon. gentleman was the term" produce" he included e;erything from doing his duty in the way that he should do it. wheat to cattle, or from turnips to sheop-con With regard to the shipping of butter by th~ tributed to the wealtl-· and prosperity nf the State. Orient boats and the Peninsular and Onental He would ask the .Minister whether it was not boats, the figures in connection with tbe last possible for him, in spite of his having asked shipment were certainly startling. On reference for this moderate amount this year, to squeeze to the Courier of the 19th of the present month, out of the Treasurer a further sum he found that the steamer for which they paid [4.30 p.m.] for some of his State farms or for £1,000 per trip to come to Brishane-that was the encouragement generally of agri the "Oruba" in this instanee- took away only cultural education. Only a miserable £250 had 2, 353 boxes. been voted tl1is year for the purpose of what was The SEOitETARY l<'OR AGRIOUL1TRE: The com called" agricultural education"; but that amount pany arranged for the "Poona" to take the would not stock one of the smallest farms in the balance. State. The Minister bad paid a well-deserved l\Ir. PAGET: The "Poona," which received tribute to the officers of the department, and he no subsidy, came along ou the 12th of :1\ ovember, thought very few members nf the Committee and took away 8,758 boxes of btotter. Must not would cavil at the increases in salary that had the fact that such a vast quantity of butter heen given, not only to the officers in the head was left he hind by the "Oruba" have been a departme,.t, but also to the subordin_ate officers. great inconvenience to would-be shir,pers? The The Under Secretary was now rece1vmg some steamers only stayed here about twenty-four what like the salary he should have been hours, and he presumed that all the preliminaries getting for the last two or three years. He -the grading and testing of buttt-'r, and the had been the most miserably under [laid Under preparing of papers under our own Act and Secretary in the State, sim[.>iy because be was under the ]'ederal Commerce Act-must be Under Secretary for Agriculture. completed and ready for the steamer on her Mr. O'KEEFFE: And he is still paid less than arrival. All these things had to be done in the others, although it is the mo't important connection with those 11,000 boxes of butter-, department. and the mere fact that the Orient Company Mr. P AG ET : In passing, he would like to made provision for the "Poona" to come along ask why the "G nder Secretary of a department and take away the butter which remained over such as this should be paid less than the Under from the" Oruba" did not do away with the Secretary of any other department? The Under disabilities which the shippers suffered. And if Secretary in the Chief Secretary's Department the shippers suffered disabilities, the producers got £()00 a year, and why should the Under must also have suffered, because the shippers Secretary of a department which controlled the would not incur extra expense w1thout passing producing interests of the State be paid £50 a it on to the producers. The middleman never year less than was paid in the Chief Secretary's suffered ; he took good care, if he was put to any or anv other department? With respect to expense, to make the producer pay it. If the other officers, he thought some of the increases middleman was netting 9~d. per lb. for butter, were exceedingly well deserved, but the increase [Hon. D. P. Denham. Suppl_y. LilO NovEMBER.] Supply. 1965 of £30 to the Agricultural Chemist was certainly many ne;vspapers, but in those reports one got not sufficient. The Agricultural Chemist had to most valuable information from every corner of conduct the analyticill work for the whole of the the State. He thought the Minister should experts of the department. He had to take encourage the officers who were sending those everything th>ervices of .Mr. Briinnich. Of course when a This new fodder plant had practically taken man got settled down in a place, and the family possession of the island, and transformed its was growing up, he naturally did not like to fortunes. The theory was that it was intro sever his connection with the department and duced in the straw-stuffed mattrasses of a ship the State he was living in; but he thought if the wrecked crew. But by whatever m'ans it had present conditions preva1led it was extremely been introduced, the re,mlt to the island had been likely that we might lose that gentleman's marvellous. He would ask the Minister whether it services, and he certainly would not enter was not possible to get either seeds or roots of the another 'ervice at the salary of £380 a year. In plant and have them planted at the various State connection with the matter of the analysis of nurserieR, to see whether it would not be suitable wheats, he would like to ask the Minister as a fodder plant for Queensland. On page 20 whether it would not be possible, and extremely of the report there was a beading, " Special wise, at the next X ational Association's show to Agricultural Selections Act." That Act WM have a trophy of the different wheats and flours, administered by the ::\linister for Agriculture. and bread made therefrom, which would be an in On referring to the Auditor-General's report, structive exhibit not only to wheatgrowers but to page 126, he found that under "Advances to the bakers as well? He hoped the Minister would Settlers' :Fund," which he presumed referred to take the matter into consideration. It would advances under that particular Act, up to the be no expense to the department, and would be 30th ,June last only £4113s. 6d. bad been spent. most instructive for the purposes of comparison. The report of the Under Secretary gave a rather He noticed a paragraph on page 7 of the report, doleful account of the forming of the first group in which the Under Secretary recommended the sent out to Id eraway, and he would read a few establishment of an intelligence office, and he lines from the Under Secretary's conclusions-- thought that this was a most important recom The intention of th~:; Act is clearly to enable those n,endation. Of course, an intelligence office who wish to become farmers but have not the mrans could not bA started and manned in a proper to make a sta~·t : bnt the foregoing reasons do not way without some money, but it would be of show that the persous who made them have any real vast value to the producers, and especially to desire to become farmers or to take advantage of the assistance offered by Parliament, or to have tlte grit to the farmers of the State, if the de]>artment ovrlci)me obstacles. X one of the reasons given by the could at any time say, "If you have a Stlfplus of 50 per cent. of the twenty-three selected in the first butter, hay, maize, eggs, or poultry, we can tell instance would havf' deterred those who, in the days you which is the best market fur it." The before railways were so convenient, went out into the average farmer was not in a position to find out bush, liYerl hard, worked hard, and fought their way to for himself the best markets in foreign ]--arts; a good and comfortable living. all that he could do \\as to put the best cultiva They might e'Cpect that, when a new system such tion into his ground, reap the best crop he could, as that was stated. No doubt the Minister and place it in the best market he could find in h•>ped that his pet legislation wonld be the means the Commonwealth. His hands were practically of settling a large number of deserving men on tied up tn that, unless he could be helped the land who desired to go farming. by me~ns of information .through an intelli ::\Ir ..J O!S'EH: They are very deserving people gence department such as proposed. He ad who are there now. mitted that much had been done in the way of finding out markets for (lueensland produce :tt Mr. PAGET: He wa' referring to the people the present time, but the scope of that infor who did not go. That legislation was probably mation could be vastly enlarg-ed, and at no very a step in a very good direction-that of trying great expense. As the Under Secretary truly to as•Jist men to go on the land who showed some said, the port in the foreign country might be aptitude for farming, and who could not make a unusual and unknown to the Queensland trader, living otherwise. But although that trouble and some time might be lost, and an intelligence arose in the initio! group tha.t was formed he did department. should be in a position to give full not want the Minister to be downhearted on information on such "subject. If the Minister that account. He would ask the hon. gentleman was able to squeeze a little more money out of whether it would not be possible to start one or the Treasurer, first of all, for the State farm•< two groups in the ~ orth? There was a large and agricultural information, be might follow number of men working in the sugar industry this up and tell the Treasurer with no uncertain who could only get work for six months in the tone that he required more money in order to year. From those men a couple of groups might place the protlucers of the State on the very best well be formed in the Northern districts. One footing with regard tu export or over,ea markets. rrnght be f~rmed in the Jlilackay district, where He would like to say that the monthly reports there was a fine tableland 6 miles from the on the condition nf the stock and crops must be terminno of the railway, called the l'Jungella of very gre"t Ya]ue to those more particularly Tableland, and another place not far from the interested. They bad been issued now for about railway called Silent Grove. In view of the ten months, and no doubt as time went on the in JY1inister for Lands constructing a road, which spectors would be able to afford even more infor he believed he was ((Oing to do, to open up that mation than they were doing at the present time. tableland, the Minister who had charge of the It was not possible for any one man to take in Act might see whether it was not advisable tn Mr. Paget.] 1966 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply. settle a number of deserving men there under they should see if some of the owners of large that Act. Theu was another part of the sugar estates there would not be prepared to cut State where he thought one of those groups thern up into smaller areas, and lease them to could he settled-that was the Atherton di.,trict. men with wives and families. In that way the He would have something fun her tosay01uont that men would get a small farm, and with the by and by. In view of a vast amount ..,f work assistance of oue or two hands he could employ being available for at least six months in the them all the year round in weeding and other year on the Cairns coastal lands in the sugar cultivation, and practically get all the labour be fields, the Minister could not find a beet er place wanted. than the Atherton district for ;;tarting one J\:Ir. PAGET: That sy;tem prevails throughout of these groups. N m·thern Queensland. Mr.· MANN: Snme of the people there are growlin5 about land being ;et apart for groups Mr. MANN : ·when that system prevailed at Athe.rtnn. there would not be the dearth of labour there Mr. PAGET: He was really trying to help was at present in North Queensland. the hon. member. The objections to land being ::VIr. PAGET : But it does prevail. set aside for groups were against the groups from the southern St«tes. He (:Yir. Paget) wanted Mr. MANN: A number would like to get the groups to be composed of men who were at away from the hotter districts along the coast present living in Que,msland. Those were the and go to the Atherton district, so that when men he wanted settled at Atherton in permanent the cutting season came on they would have homes of their own. They would not then have recruited energies and be able to do a good day's to walk about for six months in the year, he work. cause it would be possible for them to get plenty Mr. BARNE:S : '\Vhat would they do with their of work to do there in that time. He could not farms in the interval? indicate any particular spot in the Atherton dis J\:Ir. MANN: The maize could he planted in trict where he thought these groups might be J an nary and harvested in May, and that could be settled as he was not so cognisant of that dis left to the wife and family to attend to. Then the trict, but hon. members who were would be able corn could be left in the barn after it was huoked to tell Lhe lVIiuister where one or two groups or tanked, and be disposed of after the cane should be settled down. It was possible that a cutting season waH over. The hon. member for group might also be settled inland from the Townsville blamed the Labour party for the Herbert River, because they would not then be fact that the mail boats did not come to Bris living at too great a distance from where they bane, but the Labour party might or might not could obtam work. He wanted the :Minister to have held the balance of power in the Federal take the matter into consideration and ask the Parliament.. Treasurer to see that the advance' to settlers at Mr. BARNE:S : ::\Ir. Higgs said they did. the end uf the current financial year certainly did not remain at the miserable sum of £4113s. Mr. 1\IANN: Then perhaps Senator Higgs 6d. If it remained at £41 13s. 6d. it was not was right. At any rate, it was well known that possible for deserving working men in the::"{ orth one vote would have turned the Hon. G. H. to be s"ttled down under the group system, Reid out of office, and one of the Queensland which w .s a system he thoroughly believed in. representatives supported him. If that Queens * Mr. MANN (Cairn$): The hon. member who land memher had heen so consumed with a had j nst spoken had been advocating the idea of burnin'; desire to help Queensland. why did settling sugar-wm·kers on the Atherton land. he not ask as the price of his vote that the mail He (Mr. Manu) had put that view of the case boats should call into Brisbane. before the :Minister last year, and urged that an 1\-Ir. BAHNES: A··suming what you say IS cor attempt should be made to establish a group in rect, it does not follow that two wrongs make a the Atherton district. The l\liniRter f<>r Agri right. cult.ure went so far as to consult the 1\iinister for Lands, but received the information that there Mr. MANN: \Vhen they d1d not know were no Jonds at that time available in the whether the sugar honus wR.s going to be con Atherton district for settlement. Since that tinued or not, why did not Mr. Ed wards, mem time a good deal of tbe land had been snrveyed ber for Oxley, get an a;,.,urance that it would be. and designed, or was in course of being designed It was the Labour party that got them the and surveyed now, and was now almost ready for extension of the sugar bonus. He would like settlement. A public meeting h>cd been held at 'ome information from the 1linister with regard Atherton protesting ag:tinst the amount of that to the instructor in tropical agriculture. He land being set aside for groups. As he had only believed that one part of this officer's duties was received an account of that meeting through the to inspect the various coffee plantations. He Press and by wire, he did not know if the people would like some information about the different there had any objection to local groups being plantations he visited, and what number of formed there, or if they only objected to people people were coming into the industry that re from the southern States and the Suuthern part quired instrnction. A man who was growing of Queensland forming groups there. He Wfls in coffee for five or six years should be able to carry favour of groups being formed wherever it was on without instruction, and the inbtructor could possible to do so, provided, of course, that there then give more of his time to the Kamerunga "as sufficient land for the local residents, if they N ur,ery. lJ nder this vote they had the admin wanted it. He was at present in negotiation with istration of the Shearers and Sugar Workers the Minister for Lands to allow a. local Cairns Accommodation Act. \Vhen the amending Bill group to take up land there, and he hoped the in connection with that Act wa' going through Minister would grant it. He agreed with the he was speaking about the want of inspection, member for Mackay that a certain amount of and the hon. member for North Brisbane, accord good would come of establishing men in the ing to the Daily ~Mail, took him up and, meta Atherton district to work in the canefields, phorically speaking, shook him like a grampus because they were in the vicinity of fonr or five shaking a fish. large sugar-mills. !VIr. PAGE:T: Mr. Newport is the instructor at Mr. PAGE:T: It is very fine country. Kamerunga. Mr. MANN: Yes; it was very fine country. Mr. MANN : He knew more about it than Before settling any people on the land there, the Daily lliail, the hon. member for North [J11 r. P aget. L:30 2\ OVEMBER.l Supp(y. 1967
Brisbane, or the hon. member for :'\J:ackay the persons carrying out the work should be either. He would read an extrdct paid properly and, if the pay of officers bore [5 p.m.J of what appearPd in the Trinity some kind of relution to the salaries P'id to Times, a paper printed at Cairns, others doing the same work, there would be written by that paper's correspondent at Nelson, more encouragement to them to carry out their where the .Mulgrave mill was situated. It read work faithfully. If a f'nrn could not be placed as follows:- on the Supplementary Estimate,, he hoped that During the last session of tbc State Parliament a hnv the matter \VOuld receive attt:>ntion on next year's called the Shearers and Sugar "~vrkers :\c-(~ommodation Estimates. In addition to their duties as State Act was p:.tssed, and two inspectors were appointed for officer", the inspectors were now saddled with this district; bnt so far I have never seen or heard of them being in the district. I understand the Act certain duties in connection with the il1speution applies to all classes of sugar~workers, and I think of expOl't" under the Cnrmnonwealth Customs inspectors \Yould find plenty of scope for their energy Act. among tlle filthy auarters of the aliens in this district. The t-IEORETARY FOH o\GRICCLTL'Hl~: They are If that correspondent had neither seen nor heal d simply dischargin~ duties they had to perform of the insrJectors being there, he wonld like to before uiJder the St:tte GoveriJment. know where the hon. member got his informa Mr. HA \VTHORN : He called attention to tion from. The hon. member got up and made the matter, so that if they were called upon to statements in that Chamber that he knew had do incre>tsed work for the Commonwealth they not a scintilla of truth in them. should be paid for it. The CHAIRMAJ'\: Order! It is unparlia Mr. KEJ'\NA (B01Den) did not think it was mentary to say that an hon. member makes necessary to add his meed of praise to the de statements in this Chamber that he knows do partment, which was one of the most important not contain a scintilla of truth. departments in the State, as well as one of the most active. The matter which he wished to Mr. MANN: It might not be parliamentary, refer to was the growing competition of Chinese and, as he did not care abouL attacking an bon. with white farmers. Only the other day a member in his absence, he would withdraw the memorial was presented to the Government by remark until the hon. member was present; but fanr1ers in the Bo,ven district asking for some the hon. member got up and made statements protection against the competition of aliens. concerning things that he knew nothing about. ]!'or some years past there had been a feeling He would ask the Minister if he had any inten among the farmers that the reputation of the tion of altering the inspectors in Cairns? Mr. district suffered from the fruit and vegetables Connolly was also an inspector; but he had that were exported by Chinese as Bowen fruit never been called upon to act, ,1nd as J'vlr. and vegetables. The feeling was that, if the Newport had other work to attend to it was leasing of land to coloured aliens could not be advisable that wmeone should see that t,he pro entirely prevented, thn consumer at tl1<- one end visions of the ~"-et were complied with. It was of the scale and the white grower a>; the other no use for a man to go to a mill, dine with the could be protected by compelling Chinese-as manager, and then have a look round the mill. was done in the Y"ietorian'cabinet-making trade The mill might be all right ; but there were -to put a otamp on their goods. ontside camps and farms where it was neces"trY that the inspector should see that the men were Mr. PAGET: Stamp the pumpkins? provided with the accommodation prescribed by Mr. KENX A: X o. Mangoes must be shipped the Act. He had been bringing this matter in bags or cases. The cases could be stamped, before the J\'[inister for the last nine months, and or the bags tagged, so that the conoumer woulrl he would like to have some assurance that there know he was purchasing coloured alien pro was going to be something like rigid inspedion, ducts. That would be a considerable protection unless the Act was to remain a dead letter. In to the white farmer. Only the other day an connection with the Hambledon l\Iill, the dining absentee who owned 1, 000 acres of admirable room and the reading-room, and accommodation land, very near Bowen, made arrangements to of that sort was fairly good ; but provision lease a portion of it to Chinese. The local should be made for getting rid of the molasses Chinese had taken up a lot of the land, and and other refuse from the mill. Such stuff were bringing in a crowd of their friends to should be removed as far as possible. He take up the balance and grow fruit and vege admitted there was a good deal of difficulty in tables in competition with white farmers, When getting rid of it. They had tried to make a dam once tbe Chinese obtained a hold of an industry to hold it; but the dam was swept away, and it began to sink in the ,cale, and became a de for years the stuff had run into the creek. He graded industry. Take the banana industry. objected to the creek being polluted. The first Some years ago bananas were grown to a very consideration was the health nf the people in the large extent by white men, but the Chinamen locality, and whether it cost the Colonial Sugar gradually encroached on the industry, until Refining Company £1,000 or £2,000 the health to-day thR banana products of Queensland were of the community should be protected. grown exclusively almost by Chinese. They :iVIr. HA\YTHORN (Enoggera) considered grew them on the K01·thern rivers of Queens that the report oft he department was a very satis land, took them to the steamers in Chinese factory one, and that the department w:1s doim~ junks, and sent them to Sydney and Melbourne really good work. He looked upon this and the consigned to Chinese commisRion agentH, who Lands Department as the departments that could sold them to Chinese hawkers for retail do the best work in settling people on the land, distribution. The industry, almost from begin and showing them how to go about doing things ning to end, was in the hands of the Chinese. when they got on the land. He wished to It was not possible for white men to engage in it, speak particularly ahont the slaughter-house because they could not live at the same level as inspectors. In view of the recent meat scandals· the Chinese. The hon. member for Cairns had in America, it behaved them to see that their just told him that white men could not get the meat was properly inspected, so as to bring it same accommodation on the steamers for their well before the Briti•h public, and others who products as the Chinese could, and he could were likely to become customers. He would understand that the Chinaman, being the biggest point out that there appeared to be a differ producer, would receive the greatest considera entiation in the salaries paid to the inspectors. If tion. The year before htbt the Bowen Farmers' the inspection was to be properly carried out Association issued a circular to other farming Mr. Kenna.] 1968 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Suppl_y. associations on the subject of alien competition. had been exceedingly zealous in endeavouring to He had already read a nmn her of the replies induce agriculturist .. , and other persons who had they received, o,nd he had othera in his posses small areas of land at their disposal, to engage sion. A large number of the replies strongly in this particular industry, and because the sympathised with the movement to protect white Minister did not immediately see the fruits of farmers against the competition of coloured the zeal which had been manifested in the aliens. The competition of those people was matter, he was afraid that the hon. gentleman becorrling a very serious question. In regard to was apt to think that good wot'k was not being the land at Bow en which he had mentioned, the done in this line in Queensland. But a little Chinamen were able to give a higher price for it reflection would show that since the Poultry than white people, on account of their lower Instructor had been going through the Southern standard of civilisation, and they could thus portion of the State the quality of the birds make bigger protits. The~· did not want which had been raised had very much improved_ that sort of thing in Queensland. As far That was "" distinct gain to the State. Then as the sugar industry was concerned, he was they were told that the producing cap.;bilities of sorry to say there were still a number of coloured the poultry had increased to a very great extent, aliens growing cane for central mills conducted which was also a gain to the State. Under the by the Government, but they at least were circumstances, he thought the Poultry Instructor under the disadvantage of not receiving the had done very good work, and that it would be bonus. He huped the Minister would take the a mistake to dispense with his services just now. whole matter into very serious consideration. The amount paid to him was not a large sum, The year before last he went to considerable and if he were continued in his office for another trouble in consulting legal opinion on the matter, year, they might find that an export business in con and the result was that he had a Bill drafted nection with poultry would be established. As which he handed to the Premier, and which was had been pointed out by the ;'vlinister, the perused by the Attorney-General, but that was poultry industry was practically the largest in the last he had heard of it. If a Bill prohibiting dustry they had in the United States. He the leasing of land to coloured aliens were (1Ir. Tolmie) was told that the produce from passed, he ventured to say it would do a vast poultry in two years was sufficient to pay the amts small in He should like to know whether the dairy comparison with the w heatgrowing industry and expert was still in the service of the depart the wool.producing industry, but still it was of ment? He noticed that the salary of £410 was considerable importance. He understood that repeated this year. He understood thtr as his own calculation is taken. district was concerned, something like 25,000 or 1fr. PA ULL: He thought the calculation was 30,000 horses passed through the saleyards at the "ame in all the States. The result spoke Toowoomba annually, most of them going out of well for Queensland, and the figures should be the State, and that meant a very big industry. published in other parts of the world, as we He hoped the ;\linister would see his way to wished to bring settlers here. Of course, wheat import some stallions of a suitable type from the was not everything. Tl!e farmers in the old old country, which would tend to itnprove the land who mixed their products always got on quality of the breed that we had in Queensland, better than those who kept to one or two ctons. and there was no question that they would be He had f 1rmed in England for six or- se;en well patronised. \Ve wanted to breed the Htamp years, so he knew something of the work carried of horses eagerly sought for in India and else on in the old land. There was another thing he where for remount purposes. This was a matter wi.,;hed to speak about, which was one of the to which the department might well turn its flaws in connection with the department, and attention, and if it did as mnch in that direction was mentioned by the hon. member for Mackay. as it had in others they would have e.-ery reason He referred to the Special A~rricultural Selec to be satisfied with the result. tions Bill passed last year. le was brought in with a great flourish of trumpets. His Mr. P A ULL ( Charto·s Tmcers) congratulated impression was that the Minister believed it was the Minister on the prosperity of the depart going to do a great thing for the country, and ment under his charge. For 'ome years past what he said induced him (Mr. Paull) to think "the man on the land" had n long drawn face, so also. vVhen he went up North he spoke of and told doleful tales of shortage of water, losses the benefits which would accrue to working men of crops and stock, so that one would think it with large. families who had been unable to save was almost impossible for them to carry on. sufficient to get on the land but would be able This year there was a marked contrast. Now to do so under the Act. He was sorry to say there< was a smiling face and pleasant tones, that only £44 had been spent up to 30th June, record seasons, magnifi0ent rtins, plenty of food and he had some knowledge of the unavailing and water everywhere, on the rich lands near attempts which had been made by some of the coast and the rolling downsofCentral Queens the pe•)ple to come under the Act. Something land, and to a smaller degr8e in the far \Vest, and like six months ago a group was formed in all this in addition to the high prices of produce Charters Towers for the purpose of settling in meant bringing prosperity to "the man on the the North, and he noticed that areM on Inker land." But although these conditions prevailed man and at Atherton were designed for that this year they did not know that they would purpose; but the trouble seemed to be that last for ever; therefcre it behaved " the man on the department wanted extraordinary good land 1906-6Ei Mr. Paull.] l\!70 SuppT.Jt. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply. before they would settle anybody on it. With which in time would grow to thousands, of corn· the endless delays there was no wonder f<>rtable and happy homes in various parts of that some member~ of the groups had gone the country. away. .:\fen who wanted to go on the land under that Act cnuld not afford to stand waiting about Mr. .TONES (Burnett\ : The senior member week after week and month after month. If the for Mackay and junior member for Charters department wanted to get groups settled they Towers referred to the settlemen'. at Id era way, should be sharp about it. With regard to the under the Special Agri0nltural Selections Act, lderaway group the lTnder Secretary gave the and the member for Charters Towers led the reasons in nine cases why the men dropped out. Committee astray when he stated that a great One had other emplovment. In another case many reasons had been given by the Under the man's wife would not go with him and Secretary why the men left the settlement. leave her mother. Another man would not go That statement was not true, as not one man because his friend had not got on an adjoining who went to the settlement had left it. selection. Another had work for twel.-e months Mr. PAl.'LL: I did not '"Y anything of the ahead ; and so on. Often, when the Premier sort. was asked a queetinywhere and everywhere, Mr. .TONES: The Minister for Lands painted but the men in the group he spoke of were of a very glowing picture of the Burnett lands and opinion that the land at Inkerman, near Ayr, the flowing creek through this land, but it was was quite good enough. There was a butter a very different picture when they wanted to put factory there, and as a proof of its quality all a plough into it. They would find it was quite a the butter made there was purchased at Charters different picture to what had been painted if 'rowers by one grocer. After considering all they took up 160 acres on Iderway at £2 an those things the department still were either acm, as it was dry land. The Minister was looking for Pamdise or else they did not mean backed up by the senior member for Mary to settle groups on the land. If the latter "as borough, who said that he attended a certain the case the men should be told at once that the banquet and he never heard any complaints. department were not prepared to put another '\Vhoever heard any complaints being made at group on thil land at present. The delays were a banquet ? Only eulogistic speeches were unworthy of the department given at a banquet. He would like to know from the C.1inister whether anything was Mr. BAHTOK (Carna1·von): He had nothing being done in the matter of sinking wells? With but praise for the way the Agricultural Depart regard to the power given to the overseer, the ment had been carried on; it had brought about intention of the Legislature was to provide these vast improvements in every direction. (Hear, people with assistance to the extent uf £140, and hear !) As to alien labour, those who employed portion of that money was to go in the purchase it should pay a heavy tax. In some parts of the of stock. The overseer did the purchasing of the district he represented the employment of alien stock. That was not right. The Department labour had lessened the population by one-half. of Agriculture had taken some trouble to get the The fruit industry, he was pleased to say, was men good dairy stock. The settlers had beea developing at a rapid rate. At Stanthorpe given a very good class of cattle, and they were there was a granite formation 30 miles in length satisfied with them. But the overseer went to by 12 or 15 miles in width which was eminendy Toowoomba and purchaged draught horses at suitable for fruit cultivation, and the settlers from £33 to £39 per head, and they were aged there were exporting this season four times as horses at that. The peoplP at Ideraway could much fruit as they did two seasons ago. The have purchased horses locally at from £15 to £25 industry had taken root and was flourishing. per head-active farm horses, better and more He believed that with regard to another im suitable for the work than those obtained at portant industry in that district-the tobacco Toowoomba, and much younger. Considering industry-it would ultimately he worked by that the members of the group had to pay for the white ln.bour. But for the Chinese, who had stock, it would have been to their ad vantage usurped about three-parts of the industry, the if they had been permitted to purchase their white population would be twice what it was own stock. He had no complaints to make to-day. He did not exactly blame people for with regard to the cattle supplied, as the depart .employing that cheap sort of labour, but the ment wisely selected a very good dairy herd, Government should strike at the root of the which were paid for at a reasonable price. He evil and not allow them to be there. The agri thought the department shonld go in for fodder ·cultural industries of the State would prove conservation. There were grain-sheds on the more valuable than they had any idea of a few railway lines in the Darling Downs, but they years ago. Only a very few years since nobody did not get the same facilities on the railways in had any idea what a valuable asset the State the Burnett district or further north. That was would have in the butter industry. It had an argument in favour of State granaries. He .already planted on the soil many hundred, hoped the Government would go in for a good [Mr. Paull. Suppl,y. [30 N OVE~IRER.j Suppl_y. 1971 gystem of water and fodder conservation. They now an important factor to this State. 'Vhile all knew that when produce was cheap it was the departrnent, in the main, dirl good work, bought up by the city middleman, who had emergencies bad arisen when the department already been referred to in the Chamber to-day. had not shown that regard for the interests of When produce wag at a rea,onable price, the man their fruit.gro" ers that th~cy should have done. who was producing had nothing to sell, as it was That was particularly the case in connection all taken up by the middlemen. with exports. :Frequently their growers were Hon. R. PHILP: Is that a reflection on the placed in the position of having to play second Minister? fiddl,·· to the growers in other States, owing to the )Ir. JONES: No. He hoped the Mini,ter department failing- to put its foot dnwn. In this would enter into a proper svstem of State connection Queensland had shown a more truly ~mnaries. The leader of the Opposition made federal spirit than the southern Statee. Only ~eference to the statement of Senator Higgs in the other day, owing to the spinele.t reqmre Mr. BARNES: He ;;as a convert to any good land to grow sisal ht'.YlP; there was al "': thing that was sensible, They should place dant evidence to show that it would grow well before the growers and the commercial com· on very poor country. On page 47 of the report munity any information which would be of reference was made to experimf'nts w hicb had been service to them directly or indirectly, and he made in cnnnerotion with different grasses and wr.s certa,in it would be to the interest of the fodder. This was a work in which the depart State to carrv out the suggestions of the Under ment had done good Mrvice for Queensland. t:lecretary. The Minister stated during the One of the dangers to which many farmers were afternoon that, as far as he knew at present, it liable was that of thinking, when we had a good. [ivfr. Barnes. Supply. [30 NovEMBER.] Supply. 1973
season like the present, that we should have being confine.d to the use of hon. members, it good seasons for ever, and the result was that should be distributed arn~ngst the producers of they made no provision for conserving what the State. It was so full of information that it had been grown in a good season so that they was a pity it did not get wider circulation. He might have ample in dry times. It would be a would suggest to the Minister that a copy of the go,rd thing if the department were to show report should be posted to the agricultural farrrH·rs, e:.::pecially thos~~ who were engaged in societies of th·· State, thP schools of art, and the datrying, the necet-;sity of n1aking such vrovision hearl master" of the State and provis'onal sch"ols. for dry RPa~ons. Our dairying herds hctd in If this were done it would be read by a much crt,1sed very consirlerably, and if ever we had larg"r number of llWll, especially in the fanning anuther dry time the destruction of this ,·atuable districts. In the fanuing districts they had now stock woulrl be J•roportionately larg8. lt we.s each got their local ~cbools of art. therefore desi:able thar; farmers and graziers Hon. H. PHILP : They like to rbad ;,,bout the should be urged t 1 1nake the Hece:_.;sary pro result of the J'IIelhournP Cup. vi~ ion for the drv 1 irne which 'va~ sure to come. Cotlling to the· Colle~e, the officer in charge Mr. GRA YSOK : The farme1s and their sons rnooted the quf'~tion of ra.ising the P~ge nf ad tnok 1nuch gn ,'tter interest in reilding- a report miq-ion to th« College. He pointed out that like thh than about the ff3sult of the :Melbourne even if .t scholar attended for three Cup. [7.30 p.m.] y.·ars, g.ner~lly speaking, at the Hon. R. PHILP: Send the weights of the Mel elo"; of that term, thev were too bourne Cup at the san1e tilllE'. young to aBS\1lll8 the responsibility Of going Oil Mr. GRAYSOX: He was ple::w·l tha; the their own or taking up work, and the result \'-'::tR Under Secretary had got an increase of £100, that a good deal of labour was lost. In view of which he thoroughly de~erved, as ];e was one of the st~tement of the Principal ,.f the College. the be-.t Under Secretaries we had in the State. had th» Minis! er any intention of nti•ing the age The chief clerk and deputv inspector of stock of admission to the im;;titntion with a view, not had got an incre"se of £.10, which he also well only of getting youug fello\vs to go in the deserved-in fact, the permanent heads of the Ooll·~qe,. Lut. at 1 he conclusion of their term to department all round, he was sur':', bad the ?Oil· eontinue in the industry in which they had had fidence of the officers and the public. He desued g,nne t.mining? Otherwi-e the result. would not to see the report more .widely circnlated, as. the be as cornpkte as was desirable. There was newspavers did not prmt all that was contamed another matter he would like to refer to. 'fhe in it, but picked out ports of it., and that was :1!1 Agricultural College too·< a keen interest in the that the urodncers saw. \Vhat could be more shows of the State, more particularly in the pleasant t~J the wheatgrnwers on the Downs than Southern part, and there was no doubt that the to know that in our own State we had the second produce exhibits of the different colleges and the largest average yield of wheat in the whole of stock were very fine, and q llite an erlucational the Commonwealth. In South Australia, the factor. In connect,ion with the exhibits of stock, average was ()·6 bushels to the acre; in Qnee~s did the :\linister think it was a f"ir thing for land 14·24 · in New South \Vales, 9·3; m V1C the stock from Government institutions to c ,m. tnri;, 0·2 ; in \Vestern Australia, 11·1 ; and in pete with that of private individuals? Tasmania, 18·4. Ta-;manm only had a larger Mr. O'KEEFFE : \Vhy not? yield than Queensland The report said- Mr. BARNES : The Government were in a Lpon an avernge of twenty years, in v;hich are in peculiar ~JORition. It was very easy for a Govern cluded the drou;:ht of 1902 and the dry year of 1905, the average for Queensland is 14·66 busl:els to the acre, and ment institution to get the money for the stock this figure surpass£'' the ave1·age of the United States, which they required, and this hac! a discouraging India, Russia, and the Argentine. infiuencP upon the private indi\'idual, who wa" not in such a favourable position. He believed That was useful informatinn for those who were the GTeyo): The hon. that if energv was not properly applied it was a member who had just resumed his seat very bad thin\!:. Could it be shown that under the pro[Jerly told them that this was an irn]Jortant aclminiotr:ation of the pre,ent Government the de[Jartruent. He agreed with that, but it was no settlers on the soil had heen better looked after more important than some of the other dep?.rt than they were before? He admitted that the ments of the State, and perhaps it was less department bad done some things-the officers im!-'ortant than some. 'fhe hon. member told of the department had done a great dedl. So the Committee some thing' with which he far as his experience of the present :Ministry agreed, and smne j)ther things with which he went, the les,theyinterfered with their officers the couid uot agree. SonH~ of the thinu::; that the better it would be for the country. He believed hon. member said irritated him (C.lr. Leahy), that if the l'rlinisters went away for a trip espemally whE'n he talked abont the immense the longer the better-this country would be vitality and energy of this department. 'l'he governed better than it was ;,t the present time. Minister in charge of the depurtment; was a well-meaning man ; he did his best, but he The CHAIR:YIAN : Order, order! did not think the 1\finister deserved any more Mr. P. LEAHY: What he wanted to kudos Lhan many other Ministers did for the J. cam ey w. '' that these departmentR had a re manner in which they administered thei,· depart markably good body of officers, and they could ments. There was no doubt the :\linister was run the whole show much hetter if the lY.1inisters a nice man to deal with. So far as he had been were away. But under tbe existing order of able to ob3erve, the ~linister had done three or things~so long as they had rpsponsible govern four things. He start.ed to revolutionise things ment and the party system-they mubt bave a by . exportin>; Cape gooseberries to pay off the Mini,ter in charge. He asked again, Had the· na.twnal debt. (Laughter.) The resl!lt was that settlers of this country, particularly the farmers, instead of paying off the national debt there benefited through the administration during was a deficit; it was a distinct loss. Then the the past two or three years? Had they been Mi!Jister gut a bad attack of sisal hemp. ::lome better treated than they were by the previous of 1t was gr,>wn, and be believed that in time it Government ? would become as great a menace as prickly pear. There was some sisal hemp growing at St. Mr. KENNA : Yes. [1).£ r. Gray son. Supply. [30 N OVE:\[BER.J Supply. 1975
Mr. P. J. LEAHY: If the people of Bowen only a few kinds of fruit that were not affected thought so, probably it was because they had by the fruit-fly, and amongst those fruits the received special treatment that others did not pineapple stood supreme, and the wise;t thing get. the der.artment could do was to encourage the ::\J:r. KEXNA: Very weak. production of fruit that could defy the attacks of the fly. Xow, what had they done towards ::\Ir. P. J. LEAHY: During the late Admini encournging the growth or export of those fruits? stration the l\Iinister for Agricultu"e, i\Ir. Dal Ahs'>lutely nothing. They had a very good man rymvle, was accused of negleeting the interests in the Instructor in Fruit Culture. No hon. of the farmers, but the Government of which member could contend that the tobacco industry that hon. gentleman was a member gave seed was anything like as important to the State as wheat to the farmers in a time of prolonged the fruit industry, and yet, while the Tobacco drought, when they were incapable of purchasing Expert got a salary of £500, the Instructor in rt themselves, and that was more than this Go Fruit Culture o11ly b'lt £450. He believed when vernment would do if it remained ten years in he first came to Queens!and he received £600, office. He did n'lt think an officer worked any wor"e The CHAIRMAN: Order! I hope the hon. because he did not get as much ealary as he was member will confine his remarks to the. present entitled to, but a man should be paid the value administration. His remarks are entirely irrele of his sen·ice·· to the Government. The services of vant to the question now before the Committee. a f~ompetent man as !n~tructor in J3'ruit Culture .i\Ir. P. J. LEAHY thought it was desirable should beofinc,1lculablead vantage to the country . to make comparisons-they were the only means He wished to draw attention to the fact that wbile tl·ere was an experimental farm at Roma of ascertaining the truth. there was no such institution at Charleville. The CHAIRMAN : I must ask the hon. There was very little difference between the member to discuss the question before the Com rainfall in the two districts, and yet there was a mittee. great differenC'o in soil and temperature. He Mr. P. ,J. LEAHY : They had heard a great maintained that if an experimental farm was deal about the wonderful administration of this established at Charleville the re,ults would department, but be asked hon. mem justify the expenditure, It was well known that [8 p.m.] hers to show him instances in which the date palm would flonritib in the \V estern the administration was what it was country. He knew of instances in which it bad claimed to be. \V as Gatton College so much grown and flourished luxuriantly, like a Labour better administered than it used to be? The membtr who had gained a portfolio. He did Principal did very well; but he did not think not know why the cla.irns of Charleville to an there bad been any distinct ad vancc. \V ere the experimental farm had been overlooked, and he experim,cntal farms much better managed than should like the ::\Iinister to teli them what his previously? There might have been a departure intention wa> in regard t-1 the matter. \Vheat in the case of Hermitage, where they were taking was grown within GO or 90 miles of that district. in a few lads to te-ccll them hrming. To judge Htny other things one would think they were taking in 500 ver that could be grown to test the producing powers annum. In a country with such large agricul of that ·part of the country. He trusted the tural areas as Southern Queensland, and with rPlnarks \V hich he had n1nde \Vould have a good such magnificent potentialitie,, he would like to effect on the J\Iinister, and that he would profit see them teaching 200 or 300 young fell'"'"; by them, and if next year it should so happen and if thP Minister did that he would be dning that they shonld both be in the House, he hoped "'mething to be proud of. \Vhat were the he would bnse lejs occasion tu criticise him. Government doing in the matter of export? A cmntry like Queensland produccl a great dccl ::\Ir. O'KEEFFE (Loc/.:ye7·) hod risen to deal more than it could consume. It was true that more particularly with one subject, and it was the Government had got the Orient boats to not necessary that hP- should w.1ste time by com come to Brisbane bv prr.ying the larc;e sum of lnending the officers of the departlnent, becaut:e £26,000 ver annum; but they should have got it seemed to b" underktood thorougblv wdl that those buats to come here without giving them they did excellent senice to the State. He that money at all. wanted to draw attention to the position of what might be a great industry if it was syste The CHAIRMAN : Order ! matic ,]ly cultivated and encouraged--namely, Mr. P .•J. LEAHY had no objec:ion to the the ponltr .' industry. He wuuld not take up boats coming, but why should the people of the the same line as the hon. member for Bnlimba ;, Warn ~n have tn cnnt.ribntP their Rbare of the he wantod tn deal with thf' matter from a dif £2G,OOO? They did not get anything out of it. ferent pr.int of view. In 1H89 he was sent south They did not export rabbits, and the time was by the farmers of his district to report on the not within measurable distance when tlJey would dairy·in~ inn, besides perform· ment w~duce of inferior quality. At one time he storage for the use of fa.rr,1ers who desired to was in Sydney, and seeing some pineapples he export to .the old country, the farmers paying all inquired the price of them. He was told that cost. l\Itddlemen and merchants could unite the price was tron1 2s. to 4~. a case. On asking and provide cold stnragA for tLemseh·es and when they came from he was informed that do their own e::porting, Out farmers were ~ot in they were grown in Ta'3mania. He said to the ,.ar_ne ~dvantagequs position, aud they should the man, " I don't know whether you know be ~sststed by the Government. The poultry where they come from, or whether you take me bu~u1el':ls .would never expand unless it was for a fool, but they do not grow pineapples in &sststed m the way he had indic ,he 'qnestion they came from <-lueensland, and they were of proVldtug culd stores on the lines he had no credit to thR producr·rs. Some titne ago sugge&ted. the Agricultural Department nrried out an Mr. GRANT wished to know whether the experiment in the shipment of pineapples and Mmister h>1d taken into comideration the oranges, and other fruitB, to oversea rnarkets. ~dvisab\iity of s~arting a State farm on the coast He would like to know what was the result of m the Central dJStrict. those experiments, and whether it wa:< the in ten· tion of the department to continue An HONOUUABLE :;\fE~IBER : \Vhere? [8.:10 p.m.J them. Heference had been made by Mr. GHANT: Anywhere about Rockhamp some members about the farmers all ton. (Laughter.) Rockhampton was the nearest wanting to come to the Government for asstst export tow'?, and the condition> there were fairly tance. He thought they would show more representattvR of the nverage conditions on the stability and much more Anterprise if they would coast in the C ntral riistrict. They bad " State co-opera.\e amonqst themselves, and thus work farm out \Vest at Gmdie, bnt the conditions more eff• ctively, instead of wanting to be spoon theJre were vtery drfferent from whac. they were fed so much by the Government. In reference on the coast. At Gindie the lllinister wao to the State farm which the junior member for exyerimenti~Ig \Cith Campbell's dry hrming Rockhampton had 'poken of, there was t1 place scneme, w}u~h had been a ~Succr -,s in An1erica, in the lO·mile reserve in North Hockhalllpton but whether rt w >ulcl be a succ ss at Gindie he which would be a splendirl place for the purpose. did not _know. That place had been very unfor. Some time ago he b~d put the following ques· tunate, w 'smuchas,rncetiJeystarted they had had tions to the Minister on this subject, and received a drought w;erly AVcry time they bad plrtnted a the anewers given below- crop. He tbou~ht that the Government might 1. \Yill he consider the ad\'isrtbility of establishing a very well constder the advisability of starting a State farm on the coast side of the Jiain R.ange in the Stctte farm on. the cmtsc in Central Queensland, Central district: 2. If such ::t farm is established will it be of such an so t_hat ~he tarr:1ers round about there might area as to permit the breeding of draught and light recer ve mstrnctwn as to what they should horse;.,, dairy and other stock, of the best breeds, so that [..Yir. O'Keeffe. Supply. [30 N OVE~IBER.] Supply. 1977 the farmers in the Central district may have the op Darling Downs farmer. (Laughter.) The prin· portunity of improving their stock on reasonable con ditions? ciple should be applied all round, and if the :Minister was sincere in his efforts to promote Answer- socialism he would do something to place the 1. The question of establishing a State farm in the poultry industry on "settled footing. They had coastal di.strict, Central Queensla.nd, has been nnder to look at the reports of the Agent General to dis con~irt.eration, but until a decision ls arrived at regard co' er the opportunities that exi,ted with respect ~ing the Oindie :State Farm no as-surances ot' a definite nature can be given. to shipment' ;Jf poultry from Queemland to the 2. See answer to Xo. 1. old country, end the excellent pric~s ohtainable; and an export trade in that line could be taken ThLre was a number of grazing fanners and up with considerable profit. He drew attention others in the di.strict who would be only too glad to that not !Jf'cause he \Val'l an authority, but to get any H:--'~Istance frmn the Governn1ent by bPcanse it struck him a' singubr that the Darling way of a State farm. Dnt what he would a,k Do\-vns representative~ for whom this institution was wbet!Jer, in the event of the Government wJs practic1lly established, and whn got so not seeing their way to establish " Stnte farm in much enconragem.-nt in the nati nalisation of the district, in the C.>Se of farmers and others the farming industry, objected to 81 ate assist -co-nperating, thf-l Go\'ernment would as~·:.ist them ance being granted in other dirc-ctionR where tn get stud stnck-dairy cattle rwd horses especi they were not. pecuniarily benefited. Look ally, and pigs, poultry, and other things 1night at tlle offic;fb appointed for their benefit. follow afterwards? That would be a step in th~ There vvat~ an Pnlornologist anrl lJU.thologist, an right direction. If the Government purchased a agricnltural chemist, an a~sistant analytical s~ud hull or a stallion of the class wanted, chemist., "ln instructor in fruit culture, an at{ri arrangement.:; n1ight be mac1e for them to be ·cultural journal run for their ben• fit, an ar': looked afcer by one 0f the fanners in the district, phot('grapher engaged to produce J;icrures for and it could be kept there for tbe use of the the journal, r.,n in:-.tructor in tropical ngriculture, surrounding neighbours, and the result would be a tobar,·~o expH·t, an agrkultural 1nspecror, benefimal to the people there. He could cnrlorse several Government dairy inspectors, and experts the opinions which had been expressed of the in poultry anrl disea.aralysing influence of ~tatP help. 0ne ll1Am It would be most advantageous to the producers ber had spok~~nahont ent;:mraging men to stand up as well a:;; to the custmners and consumers. and \Vork in hnnest, n1anly self-reRpc~ct, and not to Mr. LESIN A ( Clermont) : With the compli be eternally leaning ngair'Ist the Treasury wailing mentary remarb made by most hon. mem for assistance, and pointed out that the effect of bers with respect to the Agricultural De· giving assistance to promote settlement in the partment, fron, an official point of dew, he Burnett would paralyse men d their enter found himself in entire agreement, As a m,;tter prise and undermine their manliness. The of fact, this had alwavs been a good department. hon. member for Stanthorpe lately had a It had been bound up at one time; it had not highly - paid expert to bxamine the scale always been let loose, but since it had been let on an apple-tree in his district, and a volumin loose in recent ye ""'• and allowed to act upon its ous report was <·ent clown. \Vas this not nwn initiative to some exteut-- socialisrn in our time with a vengeance. If something affecte<1 the tobacco in that district, Hon. R. PHILP: It ·has run wild. an expert at £450 a year was sent to discover Mr. LEt\INA: It had not run wild, but was what it was. 'l'hen if there was anything on the ·do in[( good work to. day, and there '·'as a possi Darling Downs, another expert at a big salary bility of better work. The ofHcers of the depart was sent to write a report. Yet the representa ment were capable of doing the very best work tives of these men got up to.nizht and expressed that they, as practical and experienced men a fear that the morale of the Queensland worker c•mld do, if they were let alone. It was only was being undern1ined becausr, he was being when some faddish Minister got hold of the assisted on an agricultural sdection. They could department and wanted to air his own little fads not beat that for pure unadulterated cast-iron thar. the department went to rack and ruin and its selfishness, coming as it did from men who were usefulnees \'as impaired if notdestroyerl. Refer constantly going cap in hand to the Treasu.rer ence had been made to the necebsity for more hunting ror a,·,istance. They were socrahsts ge~r~rous encoura!l'emen~ being given to poultry only as far as they themselves were concerned. ra.rsmg. He beheved rt should be done, but when they proposed anything at all thev were The OHAIR:VIAN: Order! I hope the hon. told that there was a differer.ce between· lmtter member will leave State s.1cialism alone for the and poultry. They were told it was right to present, and confine himself to the question be nationahse the butter indnstrv, but it was a fore the Committee. different thing to nationalise the poultry indus Mr. LESI:i'\A: Refereuce had been made to try ; but, to his mind, there was no difference the establishment of an exrJPrimental farm at between the two. If the principle was g•Jod for North Rockhampton. HR believed that would butter it was good to apply it to poultry. That be a good idea, especially if they went in for was a fundamental principle of socialism which breeding a better cl>tss t•f dairy cattle from which the Parliamentary Labour party had advocated the settlers could improv'" their herds. That for years, but which the Minister had publicly was a.nother form of State socialism which, no denounced on hundreds of ,platforms. The last doubt, the hon. member fur Rockhampton North :Minister in this department became notorious and others would approve of. 'rhe other day he in connection with barndoor fowlc. (Lqugh visitec] the experirnentai farm just outside Roma, ter.) He did not kuow whether it was the and noticed tha.t a.ll the machinery had been intention of hon. members by these devious bought from the big Yankee harn>.ter monopoly, me,.ns to plant on the shoulders of this Minister which the Lab<.nr party were fighting their best the poultry horror which the late Minister for to destroy. The department had deliberately Agnculture had to carry about, but if socialism passed by an in~titution as near as Too\voomba, was good for the butter industry it was good where they were turning out agricultural b1ple for the poultry trade. There was no reason why ments that were warranted to last for years, the Brahmapootra rooster should not be nation and do the roughest work. That was a socialistic alised by public expenditure just as well as the State farm, and he hoped the Minister would Mr. Lesina.1 1978 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply. tell the Committee why the money was not every year in missing de:tls through being head spent in patronising one of Queensland's strug of this department the membero of tho Com gling industrie~, instead of helping to swell the mittee should strongly advise him to take over prutits of one of the biggest monopolies in Aus sotHe other department. It would be a bad tralia. He noticed an item of £GOO to carry out advertisement for Queensland if it went abroad the Shearers and Sugar \Vorkers Accommodation that in order to run a socialistic agricultural Act. He hoped that, in course of time, when it department their :\Iinister had to lose £4,000 a was found neces~.:uy to carry on a rrwre rigid year. They would say in England. "\V hat kind inspection, more money would be voted for that of a State is this." It was the kind ofpatriotism purpose. 'fhere was one place-he did not know that did not pay. He objected to the iYiinister whether the Act would empower the :\iinister occupying his present position because of his to apply it to that place, but if it did he hoped business associations. He wnuld not object to he would take advantage of it-that was the him taking over the Home Secretary's Depart State coaln1ine just outside Hockha1npton) \vhere ment, or some other department, but from the fifteen rnen Vv ere housed in corrugated iron very nature of his business he was brought into shanties, hardly good enough to put a dog in. close touch with the Agricultuml Department. If the Minister could not apply the Act in that Years ago the late Right Hon. \V. E. Glarlo;tone case he hoped he would "'certain tbe facts and made it a rule, which he rigidly insisted on, that introduce an amending Bill next session to in no man would enter his Cabinet if he was a clude it. directclt of any company n.t all. He always The CHAIR:\IAN: Order! I fail to see insisted on them resigning, a.nd there were no what connection that has with the vote before "guinea pigs" in his Cabinet at all. Another" the Committee. English Premier did the bame thing for years, although the principle had been departed from Mr. LESINA: There wete one or two other in recent years. The same principle should little points to which he would like to make apply in the Queensland Government. :::\o man reference. He understood that some of the connected with a business which was iu c]o,e inspectors of slaughter-honRes were not too well relationship to the department over which he rmnunerated. The insvection of ITIR<\.t supplied presided should occupy that position, and eopeci to the country was one of the mmt h1port rigidly out of any illwill to the 1\Iinister, because he supervised. The feli rlisease of cancer was had no illwill toward"" him. But it was in aRcribed by son1e authorities to the c mRurnption decent. Jt did not wear a decent look. of cancerous beef. If the department could secure that the meat slau~htered for hnrwtn fond Mr. O'KEEFFE: The people who are engaged in in Queensland v"as abs;llutely free from that agriculture are very pleased to have him there. disease they would have done a vt•ry good work. Mr. LESI:'{ A : PoF1ibly the hon. gentleman Then there was the AqricHit~al of the poultry industry. He believed the :\Iinis and the 1liining .Journal. ter was the head of the Agricultural Bank. It :VIr. PAGET: He would be very foolish if he was a well-known fact that the A:Iinister was did. also a prominent membe"r of the firm of John Mr. LESIX A: Evidently he had been con Reid and Co. verted to the belief that "that journal was a ~Ir" P. J. LEAHY: Is there any such firm? valuable institution, for the vote for it was in :Yir. LESI:'-f A: It was the firm of which .T ohn· creased a~ain this year. He never saw any hon. Reid and the Minister were partners. He had members reading- th• Agriculturcd .Journal, and in his hand two or three volumes of the Silt·er he had never see'n any people outside reading it. tvood Gazette, which was devoted to agriculture," He had been in a few farmers' homes in the picrwralsing,0 antl similarindustriPs in QuE-entt,n>·al .J o1lrnal there. There Company. This particular journal was owned was another little matter to which he ehould hy the firm of which the ::\Imister for Agricul like to make a passing reference. \Vhilet he had ture was practically the head. Tbis journal no objection to the staff of the Agrioulturai contained a big advertisement about the Agri Department., as he l.. elieved it was a good staff, cultural Bank. He had n,,t oeen the advertfee he had an objection to the present :\Iinister pre ment anywhere e],~, but here it was in this siding over that department. He did not say journal. Aud the 1linist,o:r was the arlministra that the Mini; ter was not qualified to fulfil that tor of that bank. How did the advertisement office in the Ministry. He was just as well get into thi;; journal? By whr ee authority was qu:clified to fulfil his position as any of his it put thrre? coiieagues, perhaps more so ; but becanse of his ::\Ir. P. J. LEAHY: Perhaps it is not paid business associations the 11Iinister should not con for? tinue to occupy the po~i.tion be" did :tS the head of Mr. LESIK A: He took thi;; pn.per and read the AgriculturalDep"rtmPnt. They noticed in the it religiously, and he noticed that it denounceC. Press recently a notification thrrt the ::\finister's the principle of co-operation. which w,,, the administration of the Agricultural Department essr>ntial principle of socialism. }~or years p'tst they had vracticaiiy left him in a worse positi•m harl been attt•mpting to eRtablisb in Queeneland financially than when he firsi. came into oHice. co-operative enterprise. They had taught the" They were also assured that on one case alone, farmer to co-O[Jerate in pig-raising and in dairy through not being able to carefully attend to his farming; they had spoken about it in the Houoe own business, which he would have done if he and published it through their offieial publica had not been :Minister for Agriculture, h lost tions; they had appoiuted experts whose hmi no less than £4,000. They did not desire to scee ness it was to tell the farmers these things-and the hon. gentleman lose money. \Yhy should yet they had a Minister nt the head of a depart they call on him to patriotically sacrifice himself ment which was suppmed to believe in co-opera in looking after the affairs of Queensland when tion amongst farmers, 'Otnd at the sarne time he he lost £4,000 in once instance through doing so. was the head oi a paper which opposed co-opera If the hon. gentleman were going to lose £4,000 tion in every instance. No hon. member who. [Mr. Lesina. Suppl_1j; [30 NOVEMBER.] Suppl,y. 1979 believed in co-operation could justly defend the Mr. LESii\ A had no desire to impute mothes. :Minister in his dual capacity. He was in charge He said thP :\Iinister might hav<·' done it uncon of a department which he had taken his oath sciously. One htbout ttmt sale, and he was not ,,atisfied who are bt>,t able to express an opinion upon cannot umler..;tand. Indeed. the trend of co-operation in Xew with the answers he h>td got about it. He would South 'fales in working bacon factories has been to read an extract out of the paper to show how it depres~ and s:eriously red nee the price of pi8.s. Infor attacked co-operation. matiO!l is just to hand that certain bacon from a large 'rhe CHAIRMAN : Order! The hon. mem co-operative factory is being sold in Syduoy at 4~d. per ber's remarks are not relevant to the vote before lb.~a price which ·will not admit of the farmer bmng paid more than 2~d. Xow, the co-operative companies the Committee. He seema to me to be discuss there have been directlY re:;pon~:-.ible for breaking the ing the action of the Minister outside this price of bacon, and, as eVery break in the price of bacon House altogether. must, of conr:->e, necessitate one in the priee of pigs, we Mr. LESINA: I am discussing him as are di.spos:etl to Rsk how far co-operative companies Minister. wonlrt go H they had it thCir own way. I.Jast year the eo ope ati\''~ bacon factories broke the price ofbae·Jn in The CHAIRMAN: The htny panies for the time being, and they held off the market, action of the Ministe;· in his private capacity. with the resnlt that pi~s immediately- dropped to 2~d. :Ylr. LESINA: HA did not desire to discuss per lb. (dre'-'~Nl weight1. and continued at this tig~re the :\Iinister in his private capacity at all. But 1 in the administration there were certain things ~~~~~~~C~1 ~e~~~he (o~~~~t ~~~~~n~t~n~~: ~~~~~::~To~~~~: Xew Sonth Wales (and. of eonrse, in Queensland that ought to have been done, andconlcl have been throngb the snme cause) no les~ a sum than £3.000 per clone, and should have been done, if the l\Iiniater week, whieb would have been paid them had so dis was sympathetic; but he could not be sympa turbing an element as tllis co-operative company not thetic in the encouragement of co-operation existe-d. This vcar the same tactics have been observed, bec-;,use his interests as a private citizen were in making it mo~t ditficnlt-anrl. indeed impossible-to direct op[Josition to the princivle of co-operation. pay auything hkH decent price:.; t~l the farmer for his pigs. If an~·one has oceasion to pray that he should be That was one of the reasons why he thought saved from his friends (and ;:>spec tally his co-operative the :Minister should not occupy his present posi friend~' 1 it is the farmer, for, instead of holding the tion. It was the case of Jekyl and Hyde. He markets. 'vbich would enable the farmer to &ecure the was Jekyl in the Agricultural Department and highe~t price for his stock, the~e <·o-operative com Hyde in the other instance. panies deliberate!.\ break them for the nmnuf<.wtured product, and, or eoursc, establish low figures for the The CHAIRMAN : I must ask the hon. farmer's pigs. member to confine himself to the 11inister's ad 'rhese are the facts whether the fanner believes thmn ministrative actions in connection with the de or not. partment. That was a paper that \V~JS doing- its best to con iVIr. LESINA: It was an administrative action denm cu·operative production and distribution, that he was complaining of. 'l'he hon. gentle on w hi eh 1 he very salvation of the producers man said that this officer would be depended. Of course, a paper run by middlen1en L9 p.m.] busily engaged for several months, beli··ved in the principle of cut-throat compe and yet this 1nan had tirne to go tition. He believed in co-operation, and tbe shooting for three days. 'rhat showed that Departrnen0 of Agriculture ;;:;hould encourage the Minister was unv. illing t•1 let the officer co-operation to th<' very utmo,t. Instead of go down because he might encourage the e,,ta that, here '.vas this capitalistic middleman's blishment of a co-operative dairy factory by paper dr>nouncing co-operation and co-o1Jerators. his advice. The hon. gentleman was the head If the i\1inister could defend that paper, then of a firm which believed in privately-owned fac they knew th"t he had no dEsire to bring ,,b,mt tories, and naturally enough-perhaps uncon co-operation. There was another· little matter sciously-he told his (Mr. Lesina's) triend-an that he wished to ventilate. \Vhen theY were ex-member of Parliament, by the way-that the discussing the q uestinn of Supply on 11th man was too busy. September l ,t, he expressed the hupe that ~he The CHAIRMAN : Order ! I would point :Mini,ter would be able to make some explanatwn out that the hon. member is imputing motives ou the Financial Statemeot, or on the Agri to the Minister, and that is not parliamentary. cultural Estimates, regarding a matter affecting Mr, ~esina.] 1980 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Supply. the butter export trade. Some time ago there to the surprise of the purchaserH it was discovered that appeared a series of articles in the Melbourne while the ontside of the boxes bore the Queensland Age, an article or two in the JVIelbourne A1'aus, Government stamp and the brand of the Queensland butter factory, there was a well-known registered Vic and an illustrated article in the ;\1elbotirne torian brand on two sides of the interior of the boxes. Leader dealing srecifically with a very impor· tant development in the QuePnsland butter Here was the point h8 made on the last occasion export trade. The fir,t time his attention was on which he SJ>"ke on thP subject, and he mode drawn to the matter was in th"' Age uf :\IoEday, it. •g jn in view of the explanation given hy :Yir. 9th Aprll, 190G. U11der a big heading, on the Fonh, the manager of the Silverw-Jod Butter principal page, close to the lPnding articles, l!.,actory! n,nd i.n view of an adn1i:::.slon Inade by there arpe<1red the f,J!owing :-" Victotia butter: the J.linister hin"elf and the comments made by Falsifying hranrls: D•llihle-breasted boxes : A lVIr. Crowe, an expert ;cppointetl by the Victorian Queensland n1a~querade." He read :1 portion of Government to in vestig::tte the matter. The that article on the last uccasi•m he spoke" on the articlP went on to ..,.ay- subjecr, but he would have tn rf'',d two ot.hf-'r The following iil the exact marklng of the brands on portions in repl.v to the explan·t'iun given by ?vir. the outside of each box:- SilYerwood ~lonntain Creamery Butter. Forth, the n1LLimger of the Sil\'el'WO(Id But.ter Queenslanrl-Bntlercnp Brand. Factory. 56 lb. net. The CHAIR.\:L"K : Befnre the hon. mPmber That butter left Queensland packed in boxes. proceeds to read the extracts, I w"uld like him It w.~-.:: packe-1 in the nsual wrappers, and being to explain what he is complaining abmlt, and consie;nPd in C·•ld "torage 1t readily turned out of how he connects hiD rernark3 wilh the vote uuder each box in a solid lump. \Vben it wus done, dis~us8i1m. on the 5th April, in J\Ielbourne, in the presence Mr. LESINA: The best way to discover that of a represeDtative of the Melbourne Arte, the was to follow his arguments. He wanted to following registered Victorian brand was dis show that tbe department did not act di,creetly covered on two side•, of the interior of each in allowing G~)":ernrnent brands to be placed oll box:- those boxf•s. He wn..nted t1• t:1mphasise the fact ..:tustralian Butter-- Golden Cllnrn Creamery. that there bud been cn.e--le::;s hn.ndling of Govern (Here the tiesi~J:n of a ehurn appears.) ment brands, and if he could show that the Registered trade mru·k. department had erred in that respect he would Extra choice quality. show an aet of adminititrative incRpacity on the He had read the comment of one of the leading part of the Minister or his snbordinate officers. Anstralian papers with a hig replltation in the The fact existed and it could not be denied. old country as a commercial paper, and he asked Anyone could read f<>r himself the facts as stated were they to allow a ~tatement of that sort to go in the Aye newspaper which shoWtcd that there forth to the worltl and Hot to demand any had been gross fraud perpetrated, and that a explanation from the lYiinbter, whose depart nefarious system of falsification of brands had ment w .Lt-> re~ponsible for such a state of affair::;;? been in existence. He thought he could show ·would the Mini,ter give an expla11ation? Mr. that there had been careles-ne"S in the super Forth, the manager of the Silverwnod Dairy VIsiOn of the export tr,~de in butler, and if he r'ompan,v, wrote a letter to t:>e Daily 1~Iail of could show that he had proved one point in hts 14th September. He would not read the whole indictment. He did not know who was respon of it, but he said-- sible, or how it occurred, but he wanted to prove It was practieally alleged at thr time that fraud was it in order that the Minister mig-ht t:tke action intended--the intention bein,~ to turn the branded to rectify the abu'e which had existed and in ends inside out and export the butter as Victorian order thnt "uch miotakPs rni(;ht not be made in produce. 'l'he simple fact was that the case maker had failed to remove the brands t'rom some old boxes we future. The Age, speaking on the subject, b:tid- had in stock and had revers0d the ends. When the recent Royal Commission on the butter industry maile itR investigations the producers of Yic 'l'he CHAIRMAN: Order ! I think the hon. toria and the community generally were a8tonnded at member should confine his criticism to matters the revelations which were then made public. Day connected with the department which have after day fresh light was thrown on the scene, an~1 the examination of witnesses showed that the "\Vhole occurred within the past twelve months. It machiner.v nf the butter trade was practkaU.r involved is not in ord~r to bring the same matter up in a network of triekery, brought about hy the greed every year, otherwise there would be no finality. and deception of many or the middlemen who were then If the hon, member has new matter to bring acting as agents for butter faetorie,.:. Since the 1iual forwa,rd be will be in order. report of ~he commission wa~ published the majority of the factor1e~ have adopted co-operative measure~ in the i'v.Ir. LE SIN A : He did not bring this matter handling and sale of their produc8, with gratif:dng up last year. It only occurred a few months results, and it was thonght that the industry was rid of those who had been snch a menace to one of our greatest ago. He me.de reference to it on the Financial sources of production. From re<.>_·nt discoverie:;;, how Statement debate, and s•id he would bring it up ever. it would avpear that. the high reputation ?Yhich ,,,~ain on the }~stimates. It made no difference Victoria has gah1ed for the quality of her butte~·is again t,) him if the C.Iinister declined to say anything to he ttlrt1tencd. For some tirnr large ttuantities of furr.her about it. The ::VIinister had made no Victorian butter have bef:'U exported to South Africa, adPquate reply, but the manager of his. factory but l'€Cently several weil-kno"'n ):lelbourne exporters have found their trade vanishing, owing to tbe fact that replied to him in one of the daily p&pers, and they w~~re unable to compete with loeal rivals, who his statement was that they bad those boxes in were underHclling them in the trade. stock. That was a clear give away. How did One of thl: most rcpntable firms of 31elbourne they come to have those boxes in stock ? The merchants has just m:-ule a peculiar discovery, which game must have been carried on for years, and calls fol' prompt and rigorous inYestigation. The facts show t.lmt nertain Queensland bntter. which has always he contended that no satisfactory explat.ation had been reg.arded as a lower grade than Yictnrittn, is beillg been given either by the :\1inioter or the company. paclm~ 111 cases ingeniously de .. igned with regiRt.ered His contention was that t.he Minister should Victormn brands. The circumstances a"sociatcd with a'certain who was responsible in the Af(ricnl the discovery are peculiar, for they show (:reat lBxit.J on tural Department for so loosely affixing the .the part of the Queensland Government authorities who Government stamp to boxes of Queensland attarh the stamp of that Government to bntt~c;r. Some butter that they could 1eadily be turned into few we•''ks ago the firm of 1\1elhourne merchant~ above referred to purchased through the local agents of a boxes of Victorian butter, and exported as such Queensland butter factory a ton of 1Jutter for delivery to South Africa. Victurian butter was at that in Melbourne. The cDnsignment, comprising about time realising lld. per lb. in South Africa, forty boxes, came forward at the end of last week1 and while o;,r butter was fetching only S~d. per lb., [Mr. Lesina. [30 NOVEMBER.] Supp1.Y. 1981 so that by sending our butter to Melbourne and A JYir. \Vatson also wrote strongly condemning shipping it from there as Victorian butter to this fraudnlent and nefarious practice. If cur South Africa there was a gain of 2±d. per lb. buttor industry, which was an important one, Mr. O'KEEB'J<'E : \Ve got an explanation of was to get a fair show, this kind of business th : t long ago. would h>t,·e to he knocked on the head. \Ve had received no explanation of the matter so far. Mr. LESIN A: \Ve had not got an explana The exrJlanation of Mr. Forth was unsatisfactory tion of thiH matter. The only exphnat.iou to him as a Queen;lander who would like to see which had been gh·en was that given by Nfr. the butter industry forge ahead, and establish a E. Forth, the manager of the Silverwood Dairy nnme for itself in every market that it was Company, in a letter which he wrote to the possible to reach. But unles-; this kind of thin!,( Dctily llfail, and Mr. Forth in that letter left wa;;:; stopped, and its recurrence rendered in1pos unquoted vital portions of the report of the sible in the future, there would a! ways be a expert of the Government department in Mel suspicion in the minds of the public that there bourne. The Age, which he had in his hand, was something wrong in the Agricultural Depart proved th>tt statement, "'' it contained the report ment. He should he the very last man in the of 1\Ir. Crowe, the Superintending Dairy Expert. House to believe that any man in the ~'-gri As soon as it wos found that Queensl::.nd butter cultural Department would be deliberately was going d·;wn there under this faked brand, guilty of conniving at any such practice as he the Government promptly instructed their had mentioned. But there was carelessness. Superintending Dairy Expert to investigate the By lYir. Forth's letter he was convicted out matter and report upon it. iYir. Crowe reported of his own mouth. He said that the brand on the matter, umler date the 9th Aprii. A was a facsimile of a brand sent from Mel con~iderable [X>rtion of his report Mr. Forth bourne. The brand must then have been ma.de left out in his letter to the Daily 1Wail, in reply here, and he (Mr. Lesina.) understood that to his (l'vfr. Le,imc's) remarb in the House. it was made by a man a" \Voolloongabba to the This was what :Yir. Crowe reported- order of the arm who sent the b·.1tter to Mel ! callecl this morning nnd saw the Quecn~lantl boxes bourne, and that the boxes were made by a man and butter referred to. rrbe boxes \YCre, hS stated, at Rosalie from :few Zealand pine. He hoped branded on the outside with the ·• Silverwood" brand, that when the :Yiinister r<"e to speak he would and on the inside with the "Golden Churn" brand. There may or may not be a motive for this; but it is h:tve something to '"Y ur:on this matter, because most undesirable that such a. thing ~hould exist. If there was a belief that everything was not this has been the re:mlt of an accident through the strai;:;ht. If the hon. gentlem;:>n ':"as not r-: Silverwood running short of lJlank ends, and stamping sponsible, then who was responsrble m the Agn the other sicb? with some Golden Clntrn box ends, the cultural Department for putting the Govern practice certainly gives rise to suspicion. On the other m•-,nt seal and stamp on those boxes? Did they hand, it is a weH-kuown fact that Victorian butter is in much greater demand in 8onth Africa, Great. Brita'tn, do it with their eyes open ? \V ere they careless, and Western Australia, than Q.ueens!and butter. A :J.ir. m· were they ti'red? These were the points Hansen, who \Vas formerlv manager of the l~uroa Butter upon which he should Jik,, some information, A Factory, but HO\Y of Durban, some time back reportLd. eaptain of one of our , .. as tal boats, who had that Queensland butter brings ld. H, llOUnd lc,,s there frequently taken butter from Queensland to than Victorian, and that the best class of customers will not have anything from Australia but Victorian JYielbourne, g-ave evidence before the Royal butter. If this i~ the case~and I believe it to be so- Commi .si on in J\Ielbourne, and 'aid he had then certain .tustralian firms who use similar brands often sean the butter boxed with butter from the in the various State.;;; are exploiting" the South African Silverwoocl Dairy Fact-Jry. That evidence was customers. I gave a, good deal of evidence before tlle published in the Age. On the other hand, the Butter Oormuis;:;ion on the suQjcct of a national brand, question occurred to him-and it would natur and on my evidence was based tll"\ir report iu regard to the subject strongly urging same. ally occur-\Vhy was it that the Department of Agriculture was so lax in applying the Go Mr. Forth stated that they had those boxes left vernment brands to the:,e boxes under those on hand, and he admitted that ic wa" five or six circun1stance~? Yf'ars since tnA Silverwood Company ha~.te last twelve month:->, neither have we imported any farms in detail. He Rhonld reserve his remarks Queensland butter for some considerable time. Further until we come to that vc,te. than this, we have no knowledge of, nor are we con nected in any way with, the double brandi11g of the 1\Ir. :FOX: He wished to rder to the general boxes. Assuming they were so branded, as n1leged, administration of the State farms. There were we c:tn only say that it \vas not done with our know six in the St,te, and only one in the Central ledge or consent. There are many different ways in which a shipper may havu obtained boxes bearing our district, but the whole State bad to contribute brand, and he should. of course, have had the brand t,l any lo;;s which occurred. He planed off before it was used for a.ny butter \\ c hq_d not [9.30 p.m.] approached the Government some authorised to be so branded. It appears from your time ago with the view of having account that this was noL done, our brand being some State farms started in the Central di,trict, merel.v tlwned in so that a Jraud may be perpetrated on and an in~pector had been sent up about the ns. We are having inquiries made into the matter. We fail to see, however, how it could injure the in matter. He had had letterR recently from dustry vf this State. as our brand is not and nev~r was farmers' aRsociations there, asking him to again intended to be exclusively a Victorian one. approach tlw Government on the 'ubject. Pend \.Ye might mention that we ''ere the pioneers of the ing the establishment of another State farm, he South Afriean butter trade with this I'Ountry, and in woulcl >trnestly if the Minister for Agriculture wonlrl agree to this >tsked the .Minister to consider the matter, as he suggestion, and the Minister for Lands were agree believed he had a desire to assist the dairy able. There seemed to bean ovinion, with regard to tarmers in that district. They had to help to t hos0 groups, that they wanted the best land at keep up the State farms in the southern !J«rt of the cheapest price. He did not know that there the State, and were entitled to some considera was any justification for that assumption .. -;\-nd tion on tho;;e grounds. there w>ts a tendency on the part of the lYitmster Mr. HAMILTON (Gregory): The farmers' for Lands to reserve the best land for those who representatives stated that the Government were prepared to pay for it straight out, and ought to get stud stock and stud bulls for spend their own money on improvmg it. The Queensland. He believed there were four bulls people be was speaking for should have the best imported from England a short time ago, ann one land procurable, and in the vicinity of a market. was sent to the Biggenden State farm. The SECRETARY FOR PVBLIC LANDS : Is this The SECHE'fARY ~'OR PuBLIC La~ms : They group different from the other groups?_ were brought from the south. Mr. BURROWS : I~ was a group to he Mr. HAMILTOK: They had prize pigs there, formed under the l!J05 Act, which was adminis and also a horse, in connection with which t-hey tered by the 1::\ecretary for Agriculture, and made a charge of 7s. 6d., but the farmers would what he was asking for was a pass to one or not pay it. more d its members from Charters Towers to The CHAIRMAN: Order ! I must point Atherton and back. out to the bon. member that he is discussing Mr. P AGET : He desired to add one or two details now in ccmnection with State farms. more to the multiplicity of matters which had That should not be done until we get to the been brought under the notice of the Minister. vote. The first was with reference to the Government M1·. HAMILTON: He thought this was on Entomologist, Mr. Tryon, who had been in the the general principle of assistance to farmers. service of the State for many years, and the In places where this had been done, the farmers excellence of whose work no one would simply, beccJ,use they had to pay a fe\\ shillings, call in question. Mr. Tryon was overworked, refused to take advantagP of it. He rose princi and simjJly had not the time to properly pally to point ont that under the Shearers Ac attend to his dutie,. In the concluding para commodation Act only £600 was put down for graph of his r~port he asked for more as.istance. inspector". That would only pay for three The question of entomology was one which inspectors, and there were three diYisions of the serioueand. In 1900-1, exclusive of ,mni! people could be settled there. The "Trust" votes, it was £4(;,500; in 1901-2, £38,H73; ,'VJ:inister should see if he could not manage in 1902-3, £2i),382; in Hl03-4, .£2:),973; in 1904-5, for the Agricultural Inspector to travel amongst £22,3(\() ; and in 1905-6, .£2;},392. They were the farmers and settlers of the upl~nd of the now on the up~grade. The hem. me1nber referred tropic,,, such as the Atherton and Herber to the l'""ition of l\lr. Briinnich, and be w:te dis ton lands, and teach them up-to-date methods. posed to a;:ree with him. Indeed, in moving the 'Ttlis \vould not be rnoney theown away, more vote, he had indicetted that l'dr. Briinnich's re especially as in that district they were riJaking a lllUnf:'ratinn \Vas not at all excessive. \Vithont staunch effort to start the dairying industry. any disparagement to the Instructor in }fruit As Le bad stated, .£10,000 was subscribed in Culture, it was rather an anom'>ly that Mr. Cairns for the purpose of forming a dairy associa Briinnicb should only be getting £380 whilst Mr. tion, and sorne cattle were exporterl, 600 heifers Benson was getting .£450. being imported in one order. Some assistance in this way might do good, without any spoon Mr. PAGET : If Mr. l:lriinnich had been feeding. In the old days they bad to carve brought from some other country he wonld have homes ont of the bush themselves. This might been gettmg .£1,000 a year. seem a trifling matter, but the great dairying industry of this State was started through the The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: travelling dairy which was instituted by the late Some day he hoped to bring all the chemists and labBundaberg or * TneSECRETARYFORAGRICULTURE: by bringing the Bundaberg .'taff down to Bris He was glad, after waiting for six hours, to have bane. There was a prospect ahead in regard to an opportunity of replying, in th<" briefest l\Ir. Briinnich, and he hoped that his services possible way, to some of the comments made on would be retained to the State. \Vitb reference the vote before the Committee. There had to the mellilotus forlder plant, the reply from really been only three questions discussed. The Victoria was a little vague. The department first was the advances to settlers fund, w hicb he had written for a plant, and, aR soon as they got did not propose to reply to, because there w:ts a it, Mr. Bailey would be able to tell vote of £7,000 in connection with that matter [10 p.m.] what family it belonged to and what which would come before the Chamber under its ' tlue was. \Vith reference to "Trust" votes, and that would be the time to the inspectors at Cairns under the Shearm·s and discnss the advances to settlers fund. The other Sugar \Vot'ker;' Accommodation Act, Mr. Con questions raised were those of pouitry and fruit. nolly was helping Mr. Newport in inspecting- the He had been puzzling to know, on looking back sug-a; works. He had already reported on Ham over the six hours that bad passed, what they bledon, :Yiulgrave, and Mossman, and was going were cnn,,idering. to make a further report in respect of Mossman. l\ir. PAGgT: There wc·re many important Owing to t,he absence of regulations, there was a matters brought under your notice. difficulty in opH·ating the Act to the fullest ex tent, bnt he scarcely tboufht l\1r. Newport could The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: be charged with having been neglectful of his The hem. member for niackay referred to the vote for agricultutal purposes, and hoped that work. there would be an increase. Ho would remind 1\Ir. PAGET: At Hambledon and Mulgrave that hon. member that there were trust funds the accommodation is as perfect a~ it could be. administered by the department as well as the Mr. lYIANN : You only saw the mills. The revenue funds, and they totalled £10,648. He brmers' places want looking after too. was glad to apprise the Comn,ittee th~t since framing the ERtimates the country had a good The SECI{ETARYFORAGRICULTURE: windfall, owing to the failure to pass the penny The work of the inspectors had bad relation to the postage propo~als through the Federal Parlia accommodation. The other question raised by ment, ani! from that source the Government got the hon. member for Uairns was a matter for the an increase of £30,000. Up to the present time local authorities. The hon. member for Bowen their Estimates of revenue had been exceeded, appeared to be concerned nbout the Chinese so that meant more money available for neces growers in hi' electorate, and he stated that he sary work. In framing his Estimates, in the had drafted an Aliens Leasing Act. His own first plac,, only those things that were urgently impre&,ion was that it wail not possible to frame required were included; but since it became a law prohibiting the leasing of land to Chinese apparent that revenue is exceeding that esti which they would not get round in some way. mated, every recommendation for further expen After all, he did not know that the Chinese fruit diture he had made to the Treasurer had been was very bad. \Vhen there was a great danger acceded to. On the Supplementary J<~stimet some document had been ing the annual report, he might say that suppressed in connection with the return of a 3,500 copies had been sent to farmers. Each :ecent s_hipment of tomatoes from Sydney. That subscriber to the Agricult1tral Journal got a nnpresswn was not well-founded. He had lYlr. copy, and the only subscription to that journal Scriven's a'surance th•tt he placed at the dis was 1s. for poshge. Under the circumstanc· s posal of the conference >tll the papers in his he was surprised that the circulation was not possession, and that nothing was suppressed. 10,000 instead of 3,500. It was very strange that the recommendation of the hon. member ::\olr. BARNES: \Ve only saw a summary-not for Lockyer concerning shipments of poultry the original,. was the very thing the department had been carrying out for three years. They intimated The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: that they would be glad to receive poultry, The summary contained all the salient points. The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, said he had not the slightest intention of doing it. * The SECRETARY FOH AGRICULTURE Mr. P. J. LEAHY asked if the hon. gentle moved that £6,540 be granted for "Agricultural man would m,;ke the neces~ary inquiries into the College." This showed an increase matter. [10.30 p. m.1 of £065 on the V?te asked for last year. There were m creases m salary The SECRETARY FOR AGRICl:LTURE: Certainly. to the natural science master, the mathema Mr. \VOODS asked what had been done in tical master, the farm foreman, the assistant connection with the settlement of the Gulf farm foreman, and the dairy instructor. In con Settlers' Associ>ttion Group from JYiungana on tingencies for ''\Vages, liouse·servants, Store,;, the Atherton lands? and Incidentals" there was an increase of £650. The amount spent last year was £4,033, and The SECHETARY FOR AGRICULTURE the Principal thought he could not get through replied th,;t the question would be dealt with this year on less than £4,000; hence the amount next week. put on the Estimates. In connection with the library they were agking for a further vote of Mr. LESINA asked whether Mr. Bensun had £25, and for sundry buildings £115. There was a been paid for his services in writing a special fresh vote of £100 for drainage, and £8 for article for the Silverwoud Dairy Factory Com horses. There was a decrease of £100 with re pany's paper ? gard to machinery and implements. Last year The SECRETARY FOR AGI:ICULTURE : I cannot the amount was £150, this year they were asking tell you. for £50. Last year there were fifty-eight students at the College, and the net cost per Mr. LE SIN A : Mr. Benson was supposed to student was £77. be engaged os an expert in fruit culture in the Mr. LESINA asked whether the Principal of Agricultural Department, and surely the Minis the College had purchased any stock this year? ter ought to know whether he was paid for ser vice' rendered to a private company with which The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: the Minister was connected. Mr. Mahon had bought some dairy stock from Talgai West. TheSECHETARYFOR AGRICULTURE: Mr. LESIN.\ asked if it was true that certain It was very im)Jrobable that Mr. Benson got stock had been bought from Denham Bros. at any payment for the article. The hon. member Toowoomba? had asked the question before, and the reply The SECRETARY l<'OR AGRICULTURE: No, which would be found in "Votes and Pro ceedings" was that the hon. member was re Mr. LESINA: Did the Iviinister say that ferred to the ch,;irrnan of the Si! verwood Com absolutely ? pany, from whom he could get the information The SEmu:TARY FOR AGRIOUL'l'URE : I say so. without any doubt. Mr. PAGET thought the increase' in salary Mr. LESIN A : He did know the chairman of were well warranted. \Vhat was the number of the Silvei'\FJOd Dairy Company. Mr. Benson students now enrolled at the College? was a jJUblic servant, who'e salary the Com The SECRETARY l!'OR AGRICULTURE: J<'ifty mittee were asked to vote, and he was doing eight. work for a privately-owned newspaper. Yet the 1\fr. P AGET: He understood the Minister to :Minister could not a"certain from the Under say that he had induced the Treasurer to allow Secretary whether 1'.lr. Benson was being paid him £800 extra for the College over and above for that private work. Civil servants were this vote. debarred by the regulations from doing work The SECRETARY FOR AGHICl:LTl:RE: Yes. outside for payment, because hy doing w they might come into competition with other pe"ons Mr. P AGET : He noticed in the daily papers who were earning their living nt such work. an advertbernent for tenders for the grubbing \Vas 1'.1r. Benson paid for this work, or was he and ciearing of 100 acres of extra land at the doing it out of pure and sincere love for the College. vV as this extra money to cover the cost Minister who owned the paper? The Minister of that? declined to give any information on the "mbject, THE SKCRETARY FOR AGRICULTUllE : Part of and referred him to the eh airman of the com· it. pany. That wacl a nice reply to give a repre Mr. P AG ET : Could the Minister tell the sent,,tive of the people with reference to a public Committee to what purposes this land was to be officer! The hon. gentleman had not given any put, and the total area under cultivation at the information with respect to the statement College? in the l\Ielbourne Age, that they looked with interest to the Queensland Government's ex *The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: planation of the sending down to Mel There were 360 acres under cultivation, and the bourne of butter-boxes bearing a faked brand. reason of breaking up the 100 acres was that If the explanation of ::Yir. :Forth was correct, wme nut-grass was appearing in the cultivation that out of forty boxes bearing the faked paddocks near the creek. It was proposed to brand a small number were left in stock >tnd break up another 100 acres to plant lucerne in. were used to take Queensland butter to Vie· Mr. BARl'\ES: The hon. member for Too toria, then, on that admission, he pinned the woomba had stated that the cattle at the College firm down to being parties to the commission of were as good as any to be found in any part of a deliberate fraud on the general public. Why the world. He believed that applied to some did they have that brand there? It was not of the cattle; but he did not know whether the their registered brand. They were putting attention of the ::Ylinister had been drawn to an Queensland butter in those boxe•, and sending it article in the Queensland Dairy Bullet'in of down to Melbourne to be ;;old as Victorian 20th October last with reference to this matter, butter, which was conniving at a deliberate He would read portions, so that he might fraud. He must express his deep regret that obtain an answer from the JYiinister. The writer the Minister could not be induced to offer some said- explanation. In this, as in a good many other things, the Govert:t Question put and passed. ment now takes a hand, and experimental farms are 1906-fiF Mr. Barnes.] 1986 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Suppl;IJ·
being e<:;tablished and worked in several places. One £400 to the Botanic Gardens, Brisbane. There such farm is at Gatton, where dairying, among~t othm· things, is carried on. was a decrease of £50 to the overseer of the tobacco farm, provision having been only made "* for five months. \Ye expected that the report of the Department of Agriculture and Slock for 1905-19013 \VOnld state clearly Mr. PAGET asked how many farm appren the gross and net returns from every C''J\Y in the herd, tices there were, and whether they had started and thus let the }Jublic knO\V how man,. cows there are work? at the College that actually do pay, ·and how many there are that do not and arc simpl,\ living upon the The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: State. The apprentices were four in number, and they The writer inferred that certain picked beasts started work three months ttgo. were select.eJ, and, as a matter of fact, the Mr. P AGET asked, with regard to the £500 majority of the cows at the College were only which had been granted as an extra amount to ordinary beasts- Kamernnga for thP current year, whether it wns Each month the Ag;·ieultural J01~rnol contains a re to go tovvards the extension of cultivation, and port of the milk yield of "'hat i'3 supposed to be the whether any arrangement had been made for dairy herd at G::ttton College, but as this list comprises the taking in of apprentices? He would also about twenty cows out of a total of 117 it would be suggest the desirableness of establbhing a State more correct if styled a report of the best cows milked at the College that month. farm on the Herberton range, which, though in the tropics, had practically a temperate climate. The writer raised a very serious charge against If such a farm were established, the main fea the department, in that the:v were practically tures of it should be dairying, fruitgrowing, and picking out the cows, and suppressing informa experiments in connection with the growmg of tion which ought to be given to the public. cereals and root crops. Further on he said- The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: crhe names of the cows that comprise the monthly report are given, together with their milk and butter He vMuld provide, on the Supplementary Esti returns for the mouth, but on turning to the annual mates, for Kamerunga the sum of £50 for a disc report-to ascertain the totals for the year it is aston plough and other implements ; £150 for improv ishing to tind that they are not given. Excepting that ing the men's quarters, and £300 for the water they are not worthY of publication, it is difficult to supply, making KiOO altogether. The question understand this omission. Certainly the reason for of apprentices at the State farm had not been this omisslon is not the want of space, because the space dF;oted to tabulating the butter yielcl for the overlooked. 'With regard to the establishing of last five years from nineteen cows, ten only of which a State farm above the range, bh attention had were in milk during 1906, \Yould sufiice to give full not been drawn to that before. details o! the gross anct net returns from the whole 19i cows and heifers at Gat ton College. Mr. MANN: Yes; a deputation waited on you at Atherton. The total value *of dairy produce from* the College* herd The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: for the year W;iS £5f:i6 Os. lOd., and after deducting He remembered now. It was two years ago. £213 ~s. 3tt. tlle 1·etnrns from nineteen good eo"';;;, He did not kno\, that he was particularly ac,~orcling to their average production, as stated in the report and calculated at the llrke charged to t,he enamourod of that proposal. It was an excellent dining hall for butter, ;md supposing that none of the district for the raising of fruit, bnt where was sevent.y-seveu heifers were in milk, it only neetl1'; a very the market for it? If there was any desire for simple snm in pl'oportion to pr·ove that the bulk of the special educational facilities in that neighbour cows in the College hertl are bdng kept at a los"'. hood, he would be glad to give those facilities. He submitted that if the statements he had 'fhe eotahlishment of a State farm was another read were not correct they ought to be contra matter, to which he was not prepared to give a dicted by the Minister. definite answer. The SECRETARY I<'OR AGRICULTURE : Mr. BOWMAN (Fortitude Volley) asked He could not deal with the question raised by when it was proposed to light the Botanic the hon. member for I3ulimba. as he did not Gardens? He belieYed there was a sum of know the veracity of the statements made; but money !Jlac,cd on tlw Estimates, and the people if the hon. member would lmnd him the news of Brisbane would cheerfully welcome the open paper extracts he had read he would send them ing of the Botanic Garden,; if they were lighted by electric light. on to Mr, ~Iahon, and ask him to throw some light on the matter. It must be remem *The SJ~CRETARYFORAGRICULTURE: bered that the cattle at Gatton College had a The first estimates that were sent in to the Chief fre"h hand upon them very frequently, some Secretary were u ther costly, and it was sng times that of newchums who were learnin15 gested that something less expensive might be their business. arranged. This was a thing he would like to n-Ir. LESINA asked whether the Principal see accomplished. (Hear, bear l} They had the had sold any dairy stock from Gattun this year? public gallery opened at night and also the little gardens next to the Exenntive Building ; and The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTUHE: X o. notwithstanding that a good many children Mr. LESINA: Rot at Warwick? played round those gardens, apparently not a leaf had been disturbed. He was sure tbat if The SECRETAHY FOR AGRICULTURE: No. the gardens were opened at night it would prove ·Que,tion put and passed. a great boon to the residents of Brisbane. A protecting wall was being erected round the ~iver frontage of the Botanic Gardens, and it STATE FARMS, GARDENS, AND NcRSERIES. was proposed to make a nice promenade there The SECRETARY J!'OR AGRICUL'I'URE with seats, so that on sultry nights people could movea that £7,550 be granted for "State }!'arms, sit along the bank and have a pleasant time. Gardens and Nurseries." There had been a He hoped the Botanic Gardens would be lighted new appointment at the Rorna State J!'arm, and at night before the summer was over. (Hear, increases of £10 to the overseer at Kamerunga, hear l) and the Director of the Brisbane Botanic Mr. BOWMAN drew attention to the neces Gardens. In contingencies there was a very sity for providing better facilities for the library large increase, of which £1,200 was attributable of the botanist ; also to the fact tsat Mr. Bailey to the opening of the State farm at Roma, and needed more books for his library. [Jfr. Ban~es. Supply. [30 NovEMBER.] Supply. 1987
.1Ir. J\IANX hoped the Minister would con a1r. LESINA: A ::\1r. Smith, a pretty big ·sider the question of establishing a State farm selector in the Roma district, told him of a har over the range at Atherton, as the climate was vester which he purchased-and the harvester quite different to that at Kamemnga, and what was an Australian invention, by the way. He would grow well at one place would not do well only had this harvester a few years when it was at the other. He was pleased that the overseer at scattered all over the country. There was one ·the Kamerung., St,te Nursery, iiir. :!\1alcoltn, had p.trt which frequently required renewal, and got a rise in his salary. He would like to know every time he had to pay £1 for it. In Too if the house had been improved? ThP overseer woomba there was machinery being turned out was a married man with a family, and the houoe which waR in general uRe in the I-toma dibtrict. he lived in was a two-roomed structure which It certainly cost a little morp than the gaily had been originally provided for a single man. painted, gimcrack. Yankee rubbish. Machinery The quarters in the Blue Book were valued at could be obtained also from Mr. l\1cKay, in £20, ttnd for that a man should be ~ble to get a Melbourne, and he employed Australian labour. four-roomed cottage to live in. He would again Mr. KlmR : He is a pretty good sweater. bring under the notice of the :!\Iinister the nec·•q. sity of growing seedling cane: . ..tt Kamerunga. He Mr. LESIN A: He supposed the hon. member had seen the seedling canes at the Acclim:1tisation meant a precty bad sweater. \V ell, the Victorian Gardens in Brisbane, and the man in charge Government had a wages board to regulate there told him that with the soil at Kamerunga wages, and if this man sweated he should be they would get much better results from those punished. An attempt should be made by the canes. Very few pe-1ple took advantage d the Government to encourage local industry wher economic plants which were grown at Kame ever they could. \Vith reference to some of the runga; but if seedling canes were grown it machinery being patented, they could make all would be a boon for Korth Queensland. He the machines in Australia, except where they thought they might send Mr. Newport to Kew were protected by patents, and he hoped that Guinea to bring back some varieties of seedling before long they would be able to make them cane. 11~·. Cowley, on one occa~ion, raid a visit all. He saw a single furrow plough at the Roma to Kew Guinea and brought back some good State farm which could be turned out by the varieties with him. ThE· bulk of the farmers in score in the State. They were making splendid the Cairns district wer~ sugar-growers, and it stump-jumping ploughs at Toowoomba, and they would be a boon for them to have seedlings at were being used all over the Downs. the nursery. lYir. Malcolm was an enthusiast in this matter, and he would give the seedlings Mr. KERI\: 'fhey make stump-jumping ploughs every care and attention. It was only by making at Rorna. experiments in that way that they could find out Mr. LESINA: This was a single-furrow the 'alue of seedling,;, plough, and even that ha.d the tmdP n1ark of the Yankee harvester trmt. Jt was the silliest The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: nonsense in the world to establish a State farm With r~garcl to finding facilities for the library to assist tradesmen who were dri·, en out of work of the Botanist, the building which had Leen Ly the use of this imported m tehinery. By pur formerl:'r used was \V.lf:bed avvay in [11 p.m. J the flqoJ. He would go into the cilasing locally manufactured machinery they matter fuliy; also into the question would not only 'ncourage local production of more books. \Vith reference to the propaga bnt they would help to sclve the unemployed problem. tion of Reed ling cane a.t K::tinerunga, he wa::; not aware that i\Ir. }lalcolm had any special qualifi The CHATR:\IA:'\: Order! I would remind cations for that kind ,,f work, but he would ,,ee the hon. member that he brought this matter up about it. on a previous vote. I hope he will not pursue the matter at any greater length. :\Ir. J~ES TK A: If the hon. member for \V oo thalwta had been prr.ent hP would have been ~'Ir. LESINA: He had no desire to r!o that. verY pleased to impress upon the i\Iinister the But when thousands of pounds were being spent suitability of Atherton as a site for an experi on imported machinery, b~ desired to impress mental farm. upon the :\Iini"ter the desirability of buying }lr. KErm: He is present. lo( ~lly made machinery. :\lr. MAXN : Atherton is in the Cairns elec * The SECRET AllY :FOR AGRICUL'l'URE: toratr. He was prepared to encourage local men ::tll the ::\Ir. L'ESINA would not have referred to it time. Even though it might cost a little more, if he ha,J known that fact. He failc•d 'o com the .A.ustralian rr1achinery \va.s in\':J.,riably prehend how the 1Iinister c mld have forgotten stronger and rnore la.~•ting than the Alllt'Tican, a matter that was l1ronght under hi·. notice two although it might be a little heavier. He years ago by an important deputation. The hon. had no knowledge of whom machines were gentleman promised then to consider the matter. obtained--those were matters that hardly came Mr. MANN : He said bluntly that he would before him. Only last week, when talk not. ing about an elev ttor and a machine for :\Ir. L:ESINA: In connection with ail the cutting silos, be made inquiries whether a State farn1s, gardens, and nnrserit~~, ~ consider Toowoomba firm could undertake the busi abb amount of machinery was provided, and he ness. If the local ~·rticle was suitable for thought the department should procure .hat the work and was acceptable to the manager 1nachinery frun1 local firm~, instead of gPtting it he pr,ferred it e\·ery time. \Vh.·t.hae rightly from the Yankee harvester trust. \Vhy should or wrongly, he \Va.s a proteetionist in that that trust be supported by a democratic Govern reRpect. Concerning the Atherton hrm, he ment? \Vhy did they not go to local firms, was perfectly certain that if ll' could see the which employed Queensland workers at \:;>ueens newspapPr reports his ansccer would have been land wages? that he could not &ee any likelih<>od of it being :\Ir. PAGET: Perhaps the local firms do not established. The matter was raised during the build the particular class of machinery. time of the Cairns conference, and as the Under Secretary was with him he would have taken Mr. I,ESIN A : They were building that class notes of everything promised and would have of machinery. kept the matter before him. He would make fur Mr. KERR: A lot of it is patented. ther inquiry into the matter. \Vhen the Evelyn Hon. D. F. Denham.] 1988 Supply. [ASSEMBLY.] Suppl.1f.
line was constructed there would, no doubt, be a known fact that co-operative companies in this State movement in agriculture which would justify are using a secret chart, an actual copy of which is steps being taken in the direction desired. before us as wc write, which gives a much smaller returu of butter fat tha,n the chart knmvn as O'Calla Question put and passed. ghan's. rrhe difference between these charts is most interesting. By the calculation of O'Callaghan's chart, lOOlb. of cream, tr.;;ting 40, should neld 48.3 lb. of 1!ISOELLAXEOUS SERVICES (Sl:BDIYISION). butter, and. the secret chart mention€d gives for the same quantity of err-am and the same test no more than The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURB :16.3, a difference of 2 lb. of commercial butter on the moved that £3, 6H.f be granted for "_;yliscel 48lb.~practically a discreptmcy or 6 pm· cent. It is laneous Services (Subdivision)." There was not to be \Yondered at, then, that some of these co an additional amount of £21 for the Mount operative factories have been able to put up large buildings, and fit them with costly plants, while, at the Coot-tha reserve ; £250 extra for agricultural same time, they showed no profits, and called up no and horticultural societies ; £250 extra for C'apital from tl1e shareholders. As a matter of fact, reserves ; £250 for the preparation of a dairy when their positions are analysed. it is only too ap chart, and a conditional grant of £100 parent that the building~ and plants have been erected to the Austral Association of Toowoomba. It 1 was highly improbable that any portion of the ~~~~~sf a, ~~~~e~~-l~~ ~~~t ~~~~~~~~~ t~~nui~i~to~l~.ha~J ~~~~~ the factory with a substantial margin for which it vays amount asked for the preparation of a dairy the farmer nothing. chart would be required this year. Dairy charts indicated the contents of cream which was wp· Some persons with whom he had spoken were plied to the factories, and the dairy proprietors very much aggrieved at the statement that co were not ;catistied either with O'Callaghan',; operative compa.nies Vitere using a secret chart, chart or the New South \Vales chart, and and they denied the statement. Did the Minister thought it would be better for Queensland to uf his own knowledge know whether that state have a chart of its own. Its preparaLion would ment was true? be a long and tedious process. In re;-ard to the The SECRETARY FOR AGlUOULTURJ!': No. incre:>eed vote for D..gricultur.t! and horticultural Mr. L]1~SINA: He was glad to hear that. societies, it was hoped that the amount might be Of course the object was to introduce a uniform still further increased, but that would depend chart. He did not think a solitary member of upon the wa.y in which the revenue came in. the Committee, unless it was the l'vlinister, Mr. P A ULL : He had been wondering how knew anything about the subject, and he should the vote for the Austral Association came under like to know from the hon. gentleman what the Department of Agriculture and Stock. The would likely to be the total cost of thib dairy association, which encouraged the cultivation of chart? music and song and art, was no doubt a very The SECRETARY :FOR AGHICULTURE: worthy institution and had an elevating ten He did not profess to have any technical know dency, but what connection had it with this ledge nf these matters. He could only say that department? He asked the question becans•o he Mr. Thomson, and dairymen who had been to see had an association in his electorate which had him, were of opinion that even O'Callagh,tn's been in operation for some years, and to which ch~rt was not a final chart, and that we sbould no Government grant was n1ade. have a chart oi our own. It would take about a * The SECRETARY FOR AGRIC"GLTUHE: year's experiments before they could arrive at a The association kept open all the year round an final decision on the matter, and the proba agricultural and economic museum near the site bilities were that another £2fl0 would be required of the old gaol, where economic plants, soils, etc., for the work. were on view, so that when visitors came to the Mr. LESIXA understood that Mr. Thomson district they could be shown its possibilities. had been canvassing fur advertisements for a The grant was a special one, made for this year work which he was about to publish. 'fhat was only, on condition that a similar amount was not right, and if it were done under any other subscribed locally. Government it would soon be knocked on the Mr. PAGETasked what amount of subsidy to head. If the work was a valuable one it should agricultural and horticultural societies the Minis· be published by the department, and l\l r. Thorn· ters expected the vote would be able to pay? son should not be allowed to canvass for adver tisements for it. The SECRETARY :FOH AGRICULTURE: Lnst year the endowment amounted to 2s. Gel. in The SECRETARYFORAGRICULTURB: the £1, and the vote would enable 3s. in the .£1 to He knew absolutely nothing about the matter. be paid. The Government hoped to be able to The work was being done in Mr. Thomson's own make it up to 5s. in the £1. In regard to parks time, and if that gentleman had ueen soliciting and reserves, last year the endowment was advertisements it was new to him. 7s. Gd. in the £1, and this year it would be 10s. Mr. LESINA: He did not see why Mr. in the £1. Thomson should be permitted to engage in that Mr. LESIXA asked who v.as responsible for kind of labour. Being a public servant, in an the award for the successful design of the important department, he was able to exercise Chelmsford shield? pressure on business people which an ordinary The SECHETARY FOR AGRIOUW'URE: I have canvasser could not do. nothing to do with it. Question put and passed. Mr. LBSINJ._: Referring to the proposed dairy chart, a deputation waited on the Minister MUSEl:}l. in J nly last and raised that que>tion among others, and he found in the July number of the The SBCRBTARY FOR AGRICULTURJ<~ Silver1vood Gazette the following paragraph :- moved that £1,000 be granted for salaries and ~o far as the farmer and factory are concerned, no contingencies in connection with the ":Museum, farrer system than that proposed by the deputation Brisbane." There had been ,,ome r8arrangement could possibly be conceiv~d, and not:vithstanding this, in this Yote; certain amounts which had been the t~under of ~he_ connng- storn~- IS already angrily paid to officers from contingencies being now rumbhng from wrth1n the w&.lls at the co~operative in· included m their salaries. The amount was the stitutious, the management of which, of course, do not, same as was voted last year. for very good reasons, wish too close a Government in~ spectiou to be kept on the internal working of their Mr. BOWMAN thought the sum of £fl2 per factories. And we make bold to say that it is a well· annum was a ridiculously small wage to be paid [Hon. D. F. Denkam. Suspension qf Standing Orders. [4 DECE"llBER.] Closer Settlement Bill. 1989 to the doorkeeper, who was on duty from 8 a. m. till 5 p.m. on week days, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays, with one day a week off. This officer had to clean glasses and perform other duties besides attending at the door, and "attendant" would be a more appropriate title than "doorkeeper." He hoped the :Minister would see his way to increase this officer's rernuneration. Mr. BARNES : It seemed an extraordinary thing that a Government which was kept in power by the Labour party should '[11.30 p.m.] J•ay a married man £52 per annum. In a sense, the position of this officer was one of responsibility, as there were times when he was in charge of the institution, and he hoped the :Minister would see his way to grant an advance in salary in this case. Then the assistant in the industrial department was prac tically only receiving an increase of 13s. 4d. per .annum, and he had been in the employment of the department for a number of years. The amount set down for him was £122, and he was gettinQ" previously £104, with certain payments for Sunday work. '\Vhilst the Government had been liberal in advancing high salaries, it seemed unfair that this man should be practically put down at an increase of 13,, 4d. per annum. It was the duty of hon. members, when men were unfairly treated, to ventilate the matter in the House. The SECRETARY FOR AGRICULTURE: Concerning the assistant in the industrial de partment, he apprehend~d that the amount set down was adequate remuneration for his duties, as the trustees had made no recommendation. As to the doorkeeper, the amount appeared to him to be entirely inadequate, and he would bring the matter under the notice of the trustees with the view of getting an increase. Question put and passed.
The House resumed. The CHAIR~!AN reported progress, and the Committee obtained leave to sit again on Tuesday next. The House adjourned at twenty-five minutes to 12 o'clock.