The Tariff, Laissez-Faire, and Federation In• Colonial Queensland by *G. Lewis, B.Econ. (Hons.), Ph.D. The purpose of this article is to review the development of Queensland's tariff was no more than a compromise between pro­ the Queensland tariff in a relatively broad economic setting and to tection and free trade seems to me to be mistaken. In what note the politics of colonial tariff policies. Such a discussion follows I shall re-assess the tariff's development by taking into casts light on the question of government involvement with the consideration its wider economic and political context. economy and on the economics of Federation in the northern Colony and State. Although a knowledge of the main tariff The Major Fiscal Changes policies is an essential step towards understanding the structure Queensland followed a moderate free trade line from its and timing of colonial economic growth the question has been foundation until the mid-'eighties, then the tide turned in favour slow to attract historical attention. Queensland's best nineteenth of moderate protection. The division between the two phases was century historians, Coote 1 and Knight 2, did not discuss the not sharp; even during the first period sugar was protected by matter. Other writers, such as Weedon 3, W. F. Morrison 4, bounties and import duties 12. Queensland's tariffs were invari- Bernays 5, and Lack 6, also had little to say about it. The first ably pragmatic and the fiscal issue never assumed the same to call attention to the tariff were Coghlan and Allin. Coghlan proportions as in New South Wales or Victoria. The main tariff commented mainly on the 1860s and 1870s and pointed out that revisions were made in 1866, 1870, 1874, 1888, and 1892. The Queensland's tariff policies invariably had been pragmatic 7. Allin phase of free trade dominance culminated between 1874 and 1879 was more concerned with inter-colonial tariff relations. He added when there took place the most prolonged bout of tariff discussion. detail to Coghlan's picture but his interpretation was less satis- By the early 1880s protection was becoming more influential and factory 8. the protectionist apogee came between 1888 and 1892. Although When the Queensland tariff was first brought to historical the second fiscal debate was pitched in a lower key than its pre- attention, there was no agreement as to what tariff policy had decessor, the protectionists were in the ascendant. The issue been. This divergence of opinion continued for some time. In receded with the continuing debate over the depression, the strikes, 1933 G. V. Portus commented that Queensland had followed the and coloured labour, until it flared up finally over Federation, yet. lead of New South Wales in her fiscal policy 9, while in 1955 there was no movement back towards free trade 13. 1. D. McNaughtan stated that Queensland had kept a position The connection between economic recession and protection between protection and free trade 10. With the recent publi- as an expedient was made clear during the 1866 crisis. The new cation of G. D. Patterson's study, however, we now have the first seven and a half percent ad valorem duties were the response of full historical account of the Queensland tariff. Patterson's con- a government in urgent need of funds 14. It was not a rigorously clusion is that although there was a gradual increase of duties protective schedule. Higher rates were levied on drink and tobacco, through the century, neither protection nor free trade had been but ~heat and flour were not taxed, and later in the year sugar a dogmatic policy. Queensland, like the other smaller colonies, machl?ery was again exempted. Some Brisbane merchants' repre- had steered a course lying between the two extremes taken by sentatlves, such as Theophilus Pugh 15, had argued for a wider New South Wales and Victoria 11. While this conclusion is close extension of the tariff while William Groom 16 the advocate of to Coghlan's and McNaughtan's earlier verdicts, the opinion that Downs agrarian inte;ests, had pressed for ad export duty on * Tutor in History, University of Queensland.

Page Fourteen Queensland Heritage duty was abolished and in 1874 Macalister's tariff reduced ad valorem rates to five percent and replaced sugar and agricultural machinery on the free list. These changes were welcomed but the hopes that were expressed about expansion were unjustified 22. Although there was an intense fiscal argument during the deterior­ ating economic conditions of the later 1870s, there was no going 23 back to even the expedient protection of 1870 • The prosperity of the years 1880 to 1884 made Queenslanders forget about their tariff debate, yet the duties scale gradually inclined towards protection. After small readjustments upwards in 1885 and 1886, McIlwraith's 1888 schedule removed the impost on wheat and retained the 1885 five percent duty on agricultural machinery, while ad valorem rates went up to fifteen percent. The Brisbane Courier argued that the new charges were indicative of llEGIN~. a revenue tariff 24 but the general opinion was that protection had arrived and would probably stay 25. With the onset of the depres­ <:! I ,. •• r· f· (", '~-.;(." to ,';'4': ~ ": ~ .... <:...*.j:, ",,-: : ," f -, ';-:;",.., • ,f:: ;;~t:nt:r*:i'.*************** sion protection was increased and by 1892 ad valorem rates rose as high as twenty-five percent. McIlwraith had even taxed No.9. imported flour - a measure which had not been attempted since All Act to Impose Additional Duties of Customs. 1870. Some still saw the tariff as only moderate protection as two other rates of fifteen percent and five percent were charged [A~8.r::nF.lJ 1'0 3IlD OCTOBER, 1866, on many articles instead of the twenty-five percent rate. This flexibility, however, was as much a sign of the determination of Ql\ecu'~ ~xec!l('nt ::\Ia;i~sjy m~d E it cllacl?cl hy t he )10"t, hy ,,!th p",. protectionists to make their duties workable, as of moderation 26. B the ad\"ll:0 and consent of the LeglslnllYC COllllell and Leg-1SlatlYC Assembly of Queensland in Pildiameul asseml)lcd andllY the anthority The Transition from Free Trade to Protection of the same as 1'0110'1";;- 1. III addition 10 the duties of custOillS noW payal)!c Qulhc Ada; To explain the transition from free trade to protection It IS lI11dennent iOllcd 0;ol)rls t her' shall hc l:olIedecl amI paid to Her necessary briefly to consider the politics of the tariff issue. In a )bjc,l,\' upon ~L1cfl goo(l~ "ltell importerl "hetilel' lJ,}' land 01' sea the broad extra-parliamentary sense the politics of Queensland's first c\lll ie- follo"iLl~ i,nd sneh duties ~hall he payahle upon tlt~ goods two decades, after an initial phase of squatting hegemony, were named 110\\' in honcl- £; s. d, On 'Yines Hot eontaiuillg; mOl'C than 25 per cent. dominated by the squatters and the town liberals. At its peak in of nleohol of a slJe~ifl\.: gradt,\' of 8'26 (1.t ~l~c the mid-'sixties, squatting influence was steadily chipped away by tcmperaIUI'C of GO degrees of :Fahrenhclt s the urban groups. This reversal of strength was accelerated in tllermometrr-thc gallon ...... " 0 3 0 the mid-'seventies by expansion in the sugar and mining industries, On ale and porter of all sorts in wood-the gallon 0 0 3 rail construction and urbanhuiJding. From the mid-'seventies to On lea-the ]loU11l1 .,. .•• ... 0 0 ;3 the mid-'eighties urban middle class radicalism had a prestige Ou coffee and eltieor~'-the pouud 0 0 ~ which it previously lacked. Then, as the squatters' primacy had On opiLUn-per pouud ...... 0 10 0 On to],,1('l:O aud :;,uutf-pcr pound... 0 0 G been challenged by the liberals, the liberals were themselves found 011 ci"'ars-pe1' pound , O. 1 0, wanting by the labour movement. Economic diversification in the 2. 'n1l'r~ ~lt~dl be collected and p;\id to Her )I:JJcsty on the ~.c,.. early 1880s was again the basis for this new alignment 27. This Ilndenucuti011l'11 n'OOlh ,,'hell imported \rhethn hy hiud or ~ea the is a simplified picture and Allan Morrison's opinion, that the ' 11 . 1" '" t: s, d. f<) O\\ll1g' I lltj('~- '" 0 () (i period between 1860 and 1890 was 'one of faction among different ~I,)l'tII'C ll On ,III([ olluT I!l'('l' ('1(1<'[' p..rrY-l he g,dlo () 0 Ii types of property owners, rather than of growing party schism on ()11 \ II Il':';';ll'-; hI' ~:dl,)n .J () 0 a basis of principle', must also be considered 28. However, if Ull l'il'" - 1"'1' \'''1 .) () II ~:,1I-I"';' economic legislation is a touchstone of political dividing lines then (hi I,», (I (J .) parties did emerge earlier in Queensland than in New South 1111 1":1\\ ,'(1('''.' -1"'1' I'(lHlld .. , .. , ." "i (I I) ·1· ()ll ('hl~\ 111;ll.< 'illd lil~lll1ll';\("tl:n·tl l:d('11;t- pt'" ptllllH 0 t) I Wales 29. Oil drj"l! t',.,.~,. -1"'l'I"'11l1l! .... II··.. \1":' _1\ 1'1',,11 :tll ,I" ,) 'j" "I 1 j" I'' .. 'I 1,,[,1 I" • 'I ' ". In relating these groups to the tariff there were some fixed d. i Ii 'l'~. .... 11;11 ll' l',;,.· 't', q .'. II ". f' J' :!I (t, tIl;' ,.' J 1 " I ' I '\ J,." .'1' I, ' interests that can be readily identified. Squatters opposed any Jlnl1fil'(t',j \', L, : [I ( I.' ~l' I ' 1. ' r )' . P\' Jll' . ,,' ' . t" ! I '-. \ t· 1 l'l' It'J t.l ,I., tax on stock imports and were unenthusiastic about encouraging il r I I11' 1;1 .... t 11f,' t 1';)1 '-I f ."1 .... I' .•. manufacturing or agriculture; expansion in those sectors would deprive them of capital and labour. The commercial urban middle classes supported the squatters' free trade principles, while the much smaller urban industrial middle class endorsed protection. pastoral products. Yet neither could move the Government For their part, urban industrial workers came to a position of towards higher duties at that time 17. qualified support for their employers' case for manufacturing pro­ tection but opposed duties on agricultural produce. Workers also The next major change came in 1870 after Palmer's ministry protested vigorously against food, drink, clothing, and tobacco had replaced Lilley's. The Treasurer, Robert Ramsay, placed six­ taxes. Lastly, farmers wanted wheat imports taxed and pence a bushel on wheat, raised spirit duties, and removed sugar agricultural machinery exempted but did not usually support and farming machinery from the exemption list 18. More contro­ millers' claims for a flour tax 30. versially, Ramsay proposed a flour tax. But this was too much of an innovation. It was rejected and ad valorem duties went up to These interests were most influential in south Queensland. ten percent instead. Ramsay took pains to represent the tariff as In the north, sugar and mining were especially important. Planters being solely for revenue purposes 19, yet some members saw it as were protectionist. They supported duties on imported sugar and the beginning of moderate protection. McIlwraith chose to do the exemption of sugar machinery from duties. Miners opposed so 20, although Lilley described it as a continuation of his earlier protection, notably on food, drink, tobacco, and mining supplies, free trade policies 21 • It was really neither one nor the other. although mine owners demanded that their machinery should receive the same preferential treatment as sugar machinery. There In the next few years seasons improved and the current ran was very little manufacturing industry in the north and little more strongly in favour of freer trade. In 1872 the gold export agricultural or manufacturing production in central Queensland.

Queensland Heritage Page Fifteen Queen Street Wharves.

Although it can be misleading to describe the regional fiscal expansion of sugar and mining. Even before the 1880s sugar differences in a blanket fashion, it is clear that the south had the imports were taxed and sugar machinery was usually exempted, most to gain from protection and the centre had the least reason yet mining was not assisted. Northern miners and mine owners to support it 31. accordingly added tariff reform to their list of injuries in cam­ Why the first phase of the tariff was free trade and why paigning for separation. This still did not make the north a protection followed can now be outlined. In the .1~60s and 1.870s bastion of free trade after the 1880s. The fiscal issue in the north squatters and laissez faire liberals were the pohtically dommant (and centre) was concerned primarily with securing better treat­ groups, hence free trade. In the 1880s. and 1890s labo~r beca~e ment for special regional needs 37. If the north had formulated influential and the liberals less laissez fazre, hence protectIOn. ThIS its own tariff it would have been a mixture of protection and formula is too tidy but the qualifications necessary to make the free trade which would have given pride of place to the north's description historically accurate reinforce i~. To begin with, regional needs. McIlwraith realised this when he remarked in agrarian political influence became more wIdespread after the 1888 that if parliament agreed to a differential scale for the north 1870s. The Downs repurchase campaign of the later 1870s was then the likelihood of separation would be increased 38. On the at last having results and a great deal was hoped for from the grounds of his earlier Victorian experience he argued that northern miners would come round to protection. In a broader sense than 1884 land act 32. When little agricultural growth materialised, the urban radicals who previously had pressed for agricultural the tariff he was right. In 1J99 the inland miners voted for settlement became more interested in labour radicalism. Bruce Federation and a White Australia 39. Mansfield has shown how in New South Wales farmers and The third qualification to the explanation of the transition workers were divided on the fiscal issue 33. In Queensland more to protection is that labour was not solidly protectionist. The of a rapprochement was possible between the two. There were depression brought this out. After a higher tariff had been placed exceptions to this rule. Non-industrial workers without any on imported boots and shoes in 1890 the workers concerned went reason to support protection were incensed by Downs farmers' on strike because employers had not passed on the benefits by demands for agricultural duties. Yet in the early 1890s some increasing wages 40. Another labour objection was registered the farrr;ti~g labour representatives were elected by constituencies 34. following year. At a meeting of the Queensland Protection League, However at that time farmers were not pohtlcally strong enough ~aluable Mat Reid, a Brisbane working man's leader and an ex-member of to be a ally for labour. In 1900 Queensland cultivated Hyndman's English Social Democratic Federation, had insisted the smallest amount of land per head of any of the colonies 35. If that state-aided immigration would have to cease before workers the farmers were a weak ally they also tended to be an unwanted would support protection. one. After the early 1890s Queensland labour did not construct a comprehensive rural policy until 1913 36. The boot manufacturers had been protected and what had been the result? The employers had filled their factories Another factor in the move towards protection was the with boys. (Cheers.) We had protected flour, and what

Page Sixteen Queensland Heritage was the consequence? The price of bread was going up negligible effect and was repealed in 1875 after being condemned to 3td. a loaf, although thousands of people were starving. as a breach of free trade principles. It had exerted 'a decidedly 49. (Commotion.) 41. demoralising effect' on the community Examples of the move Despite this protest, in more normal economic times Queensland away from economic liberalism in the mid-'eighties were less labour, especially in the south, was sympathetic to protection so striking but the government began systematically to foster techno­ long as manufacturers shared their profits with employees and so logical change. After the 1884 drought a policy of artesian well long as food prices were not greatly increased. boring was undertaken. In 1885 £50,000 was granted to build central sugar mills on co-operative lines near Mackay, and £10,000 The Wider Decline of Laissez-Faire in Queensland was provided for mines in need of capital for deep-reefing. In The transition to protection cannot be properly understood 1887 the Department of Agriculture was created, and funds were unless it is seen as part of the government's increasing role in the granted to erect a rabbit proof border fence. Lastly, in 1889, colonial economy. The reasons for the importance of the state in the government began the system of travelling model dairies 50. Australian economic life are well known. Traditions of authority In the ten years after 1874 the increased political power of were implanted by the convict experience and there was a need urban middle class radicalism had helped commercial liberalism for constant resort to public enterprise in a geographical environ­ to become a relatively doctrinaire set of beliefs. But if the political ment that was unfriendly to individual effort 42. What has strength of the radicals had increased, their effectiveness was received less historical attention is how the state's role was justi­ limited by their environment. The 1876 land act and the 1875 fied at a time when the prevailing economic orthodoxy was non­ Immigration Act failed to lead to agricultural settlement, Kanakas interference. Recently C. D. Goodwin has argued that advocates were re-introduced in the sugar industry in 1892, and the local of government activity put forward their claims piecemeal. 'They government Acts were imposed from above rather than developed endorsed land reform, tariffs, or a national bank, but seldom the from beneath 51. And this was the reason why laissez faire was basic rationale of strong government'43. Such an interpretation is short-lived in Queensland. It was inappropriate in colonial con­ understandable from the viewpoint of a historian trying to recount ditions. Overseas experience may also have had a salutary effect, the development of economic thought, but for practically minded as the decline of Manchester School economics was beginning to contemporaries this distinction probably would have been un­ be acknowledged in England by the end of the 1870s 52. The acceptable. In economic affairs Australians often were pragmatic, development of the colonial tariff from free trade towards pro­ but this flexibility did. not necessarily indicate a piecemeal tection must be seen against this wider background to be appre­ approach. The colonists' main concern was economic develop­ ciated. ment and the tariff, land, railway, and immigration policies were The Tariff and Federation seen as different means leading to that end. To conclude the discussion of the tariff debate, Federation The state's role was a large one even in Queensland's early deserves some special comment. In the 1899 Federation Refer­ years. The 1860s Land Order scheme was intended to link endum the colony returned a very small 'yes' majority of 38,000 immigration and land sales. The first railway was built by the votes to 31,000 'no' votes. The north and centre, with the government. Subsidies were offered for cotton and sugar pro­ exception of Rockhampton, strongly supported Federation. The duction, and a manufacturing industries assistance Act was passed south, especially Brisbane, the South Coast, and the North Darling in 1869 44• Yet, as the treatment of the Queensland Steam Downs, had been opposed 53. Although the history of Queens­ Navigation Company shows, these innovations were not made land's role in Federation still needs to be written there are two without some soul-searching. The Q.S.N. had been founded to useful preliminary studies. The first of these, following Parker's break the monopoly that the Sydney based Australasian Steam pioneering 1949 article, has emphasised the economic and fiscal Navigation Company had of the Queensland coasting trade. After reasons for the vote 54. The second, more in line with Blainey some early successes the Q.S.N. ran into difficulties, but when its and Bolton, has argued that nationalism was a stronger force in mail contract came up for parliamentary renewal in 1865 there was a lack of support for the 'project because it verged on public enterprise 45. Yet doctrinaire liberalism had a comparatively brief reign in Queensland. The prestige of Manchester School economics reached a peak in England between the repeal of the Corn Laws and the onset of the 'Great Depression', a period of about twenty-five years 46. Laissez faire in Queensland lasted little more than ten years. Sharp dividing lines are neither possible nor desirable but land legislation can act as a guide. Douglas's 1876 Land Act marked the influence of a new radicalism in colonial politics, yet the Act had no more success than its predecessors in fostering agricultural settlement. As a laissez faire measure it also had no ideological basis. The next major effort to resolve the land question was made by Dutton in 1884 47 • It too failed but it was different from the 1876 Act in a way which is relevant to the decline of laissez faire. Dutton's Act owed its inspiration to Henry George, the American single-taxer who was one of the few intellectual influences on the Australian labour movement. George was not a socialist but he was an ardent labour sympathiser; his emphasis on 'true free trade', as opposed to a revenue tariff, meant the use of the state to levy a direct land tax, as distinct from the indirect tax effects of any tariff 48. So the 1884 Act may be regarded as a symbol of the wider change in attitudes towards state involvement. From that time on, the land question and other major economic issues became more characterised by the positive use of the state. There were more signs of this change in the mid-'seventies. The Encouragement of Native Industries Act of 1869 had been intended to stimulate industrial growth by land grants. It had a Shipping, Jetty Wharf, Townsville, 1901.

Queensland Heritage Page Seventeen the north 55. In fact the geographical pull of regionalism could distance sheltered the north from commercial rivalry coming from cut right across economic or nationalist dividing lines, or reinforce Brisbane or Sydney. South Queensland had always felt the pressure them. Political labour, for example, had no official policy on of New South Wales rivalry more keenly than the centre or north. Separation or Federation. Queensland's history has been a study Whereas Adelaide could defend her coasting trade with the Adelaide in distance and isolation and rarely was regionalism so decisive Steamship Company, the principal Queensland service, the as at the time of Federation 56. Australasian United Steam Navigation Company, was Sydney based Brisbane was closest to the border of any of the colonial and owned. Local shipping had been more successful in north capitals and Queensland was the only colony where intra-colonial Queensland 58. Consequently the south's proximity to New South separation had been such a long-standing issue. The bulk of the Wales and its different economic structure reversed the balance of population and industry was in the south. The developed re­ fiscal interest. Even southern sugar districts, such as the Logan, sources of the north and centre were almost equal but the centre's opposed Federation 59. The evolution of local government in the position was more vulnerable. As well as domin~ting agricultural colony was also a factor. Townsville and Rockhampton had a~d . manufacturing production, the south had important sugar, appointed Harbour Boards in 1895 to control their ports as part mmmg, and pastoral industries, and had achieved a degree of of their campaign for separation and local government. Brisbane economic diversification. Pastoral, sugar, and mining production had not felt the need to follow suit. Brisbane was the contented were also dominant in the north, while mining and the pastoral centre of government and was unwilling to change a situation that industry were the mainstays of the centre. It was in this context was working well enough. Townsville and Rockhampton, in con­ that complaints about tariff discrimination were made that the trast, had the incentive of Separation and Townsville already had cost of living in the north and centre had been inflated'to benefit more commercial links with Sydney 60. the south 57. Considering this regional background, it is unreasonable to As established exporters, northern sugar growers miners and see south Queenslanders as parochial and materialistic for not pastoralists had little to gain from inter-colonial prot~ction, ~hile wanting to join the Commonwealth in 1899. McIlwraith's .p_r~_-_

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Loading Frozen Meat for Manila, Townsville.

Page Eighteen Queensland Heritage diction that Federation would mean the ruin of Queensland's 4. W. F. Morrison. The Aldine history of Queensland. Sydney, manufacturing industries was largely borne out 61. It is equally Aldine, 1888. misleading to see northerners as more patriotic because of their 5. C. A. Bernays. Queensland politics during sixty years 1859­ enthusiasm for Federation. It would benefit them directly. The 1919. Brisbane, Government Printer, 1919. north had a special concern for defence, yet no-one argued that 6. C. Lack. Three decades of Queensland political history. this was parochialism, although it was as much a particular Brisbane, Government Printer, 1960. regional problem as was the potentially vulnerable position of 7. T. A. Coghlan. Labour and industry in Australia. v. II. southern manufacturers and farmers 62. London, Oxford University Press, 1918. p. 1159-60. Central Queensland's experience bears out this interpretation. Though the inland was pro-federal, Rockhampton was opposed. This 8. C. D. Allin. Australasian preferential tariffs and imperial was a mixture of the south and north's reaction because of the free trade. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, 1929. centre's median position. Rockhampton was desperately con­ p. 96. Also See C. D. Allin. A history 0/ the tariff relations cerned about her commercial future. The coastal rail line had 0/ the Australian colonies. Minneapolis, University of reached Gladstone in 1896 and was approaching Rockhampton, Minnesota, 1918. so the danger of southern commercial competition and Gladstone's 9. G. V. Pottus. Australia an economic interpretation. Angus rivalry was in the air. The deep water port issue had been another and Robertson, 1933. p. 45. factor in the centre. Pastoralists favoured either Port Alma or 10. 1. D. McNaughtan. 'Colonial liberalism', in G. Greenwood Broadmount while Rockhampton rarely could see past the advan­ (ed.). Australia, a social and political history. Sydney, tages of improving the Fitzroy River. This contributed to the Angus and Robertson, 1955. p. 114. inland's distrust of Rockhampton. In contrast to Townsville or to 11. G. D. Patterson. The tariff in the Australian colonies 1856­ inland central Queensland, Rockhampton felt the need to put 1900. Melbourne, Chesire, 1968. p. 161. Separation before Federation 63. 12. A. Reitsma. Trade protection in Australia. Brisbane, Under these circumstances the tariff assumed a new import­ J. University of Queensland, 1960. p. 10. ance in the late 1890s. In 1892 the Brisbane Courier described the postponement of Federation on account of inter-colonial fiscal 13. Refer Queensland Parliamentary Debates, v. III, 18 Septem­ differences as a matter for regret, but at least it proved the ber 1866, p. 594. inadvisability of internal separation. The newspaper commented v. XI, 22 November 1870, p. 53. that 'were Queensland divided into three colonies a tariff war v. XVI, 1 April 1874, p. 56. would be waged that must prove mutually destructive' 64. Seven v. LV, 11 September 1888, p. 211. years later The Telegraph interpreted the referendum result entirely v. LXVIII, 18 August 1892, p. 1013. in regional terms 65. It must be concluded, therefore, that There had also been a clash over border duties after regionalism was the primary influence on the Queensland Feder­ Separation. Refer Allin. A history of the tariff relations of the ation vote and that the tariff issue had been brought up again not Australian Colonies. p. 138. as a matter of commercial principle but as a means of inter-regional Also refer Votes and Proceedings 0/ the Legislative Assembly complaint 66. ( Queensland). Second session, 1862. p. 83. Conclusions 14. Coghlan. p. 1159-60, p. 1168. His figure of 10% is mistaken. This examination of the tariff's development has only been a preliminary one, but it is clearly inaccurate to lump Queensland 15. Theophilus Parsons Pugh (1831-96), journalist and public with the smaller Australian Colonies and conclude that its fiscal servant, M.L.A., Brisbane, 1863-69. policy was half-way between New South Wales' and Victoria's. 16. William Henry Groom (1833-1901), newspaper proprietor. There is no good reason why the southern Colonies should be M.L.A., Drayton and Toowoomba 1862-1901, M.H.R., Dar­ regarded as more Australian than Queensland. It is important to ling Downs, 1901. recognise that Queensland had an early phase of free trade followed 17. Q.P.D. v. III, 3 October 1866, p. 770. by protection. These policies were the result of influences from v. III, 11 October 1866, p. 843. within Queensland. They were not externally induced by south­ Also refer W. J. H. Harris. First steps: Queensland work­ ern pressure. There is a strong centralist tradition in Australian ers moves towards political expression 1857-93. Canberra, historical writing but it does great harm to consider Queensland's Australian Society for the study of Labour history, 1966. history in New South Wales or Victorian terms. p. 2. Secondly, the movement towards protection should be seen 18. g.P.D. v. IX, 4 August 1869, p. 689. as part of Queensland's wider dissatisfaction with state non­ v. IX, 12 August 1869, p. 722. interference in economic life. The 1879 land act and the repeal of In 1869 there had been an Additional Customs Act as the the Encouragement of Native Industries Act in 1875 were the 1866 Act had a currency of only three years. The 1869 Act high-water mark of laissez faire. With the host of small but extended the duties for an additional year. cumulatively decisive measures taken in the 1880s Queensland moved into the realm of active state participation in the economy. 19. Q.P.D. v. XI, 22 November 1870, p. 55-6, p. 120. Lastly, by the mid-'nineties the tariff issue only occupied a 20. Q.P.D. v. XI, 23 November 1870, p. 87. place in the political background. The imminence of Federation 21. g.P.D. v. XI, 23 November 1870, p. 93. brought it to attention but it was the issue's regional aspects 22. Q.P.D. v. XVI, 7 April 1874, p. 97. which were most controversial. Northerners were not any more patriotic because of their support for Federation at that time than 23. Q.P.D. v. XXIX, 13 May 1879, p. 14. south Queenslanders. It was to their own regional interest in McIlwraith agreed with the protectionists and singled out terms of the tariff and defence. financial restrictions as the major obstacle to the success of the local government acts of 1878-9. REFERENCES 24. Brisbane Courier, 20 September 1888. 1. W. Coote. History of the Colony of Queensland. Brisbane, 25. Q.P.D. v. LV, 27 September 1888, p. 450. Thorne, 1882. 26. Q.P.D. v. LXVIII, 30 August and 31 August, 1892, p. 2. J. J. Knight. In the early days. Brisbane, Sapsford, 1895. 1113, 1120. Also refer Brisbane Courier, 19 August 1892. 3. T. Weedon. Queensland past and present. Brisbane, Gov­ For the effects of the tariff on imports of manufactured ernment Printer, 1898. goods and wheat, see Weedon, p. 359.

Queensland Heritage Page Nine/een 27. A. A. Morrison. 'Colonial society 1860-1890'. Queensland 44. 'Select Committee into the Workings of the Immigration Heritage, v. 1, no. 5 (1966). p. 21-9. Regulations'. Q.V.P., 1863, Second Session, p. 401. Also Also see A. A. Morrison. 'Town liberal and squatter'. refer 'Royal Commission on Rail Construction'. Q.V.P., Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland. v. IV, 1872, p. 1342. Also refer Easterby, p. 2-8. Also refer ]. no. 5 (1952). p.599-618. Farnfield. 'Cotton and the search for an agricultural staple in Queensland'. Queensland Heritage, v. 2, no. 4 (1971). 28. A. A. Morrison. 'Colonial society'. p. 24. p. 20-25. Also refer The Encouragement to Manufacturing 29. P. Loveday and A. Martin. Parliament, factions and pdrties~ Industries Act of 1869. Q.P.D. v. IX, 8 July 1869, p. 463. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1966. 45. Lewis. p. 98. Also refer Q.P.D., v. II, 30 May 1865, p. 30. There is little secondary material on this question. For 116-35. agriculture, refer D. B. Waterson. Squatter, selector and 46. For a qualification of this view, refer Harold Perkin. The storekeeper, a history of the Darling Downs. Sydney, Uni­ origins of modern English society. London, Routledge, 1969. versity of Sydney, 1968. p. 187-91. For mining, refer J. Stoodley. The Queensland gold miner in the late nineteenth p. 272, p. 315. century. Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Queensland, 47. For the 1876 Act refer G. P. Taylor. 'Political attitudes and 1964. p. 13-19. For sugar, refer H. T. Easterby. History of land policy in Queensland 1868-1894'. Pacific Historical Re­ the Queensland sugar industry. Brisbane, Government view, v. 37 (1968), p. 253. For the 1884 Act, refer Q.P.D. Printer, 1931. p. 7. For manufacturing, refer M. Stubbs­ v. XLIII, 5 August 1884, p. 252. Also refer M. N. Lettice. Brown. The secondary industries of Queensland 1875-1900. Land legislation in Queensland. Unpublished B.A. Honours Unpublished B.A. honours thesis, University of Queensland, thesis University of Queensland, 1958. 1960. p. 166. 48. H. George. Protection or free trade. New York, Doubleday, 31. For regionalism, refer G. Lewis. A history of the ports of 1900. p. 306. Queensland 1859-1939, a study in Australian economic 49. Q.P.D., v. XVIII, 20 May 1875, p. 220 (Edward W. nationalism. Ph.D. thesis, University of Queensland, 1971. Pechey, M.L.A.). (Now published by University of Queensland Press, ISBN 50. G. Lewis. The crisis years: economic development in a 7022 08124). Also refer R. G. Neale. 'The new State Queensland 1885-1895. (Unpublished B. Econ. Honours movement in Queensland'. Historical studies, v. 4, no. 15 (1950). p. 198-213. For reactions to the 1892 scale of thesis, University of Queensland, 1964). tariffs, refer Brisbane Courier, 28 August 1892 (reprinting 51. A. A. Morrison. Local government in Queensland. Brisbane, Townsville Bulletin); also Brisbane Courier, 25 August 1892 Smith and Patterson, 1952. p. 3-5. for Warwick and Charters Towers reactions; refer Brisbane 52. R. C. K. Ensor. England 1870-1914. Oxford, Clarendon, Courier, 22 August 1892 for Ipswich; Brisbane Courier, 1936. p. 36, p. 111, p. 136. Also refer Perkin. p. 403-5. 20 August 1892 for Mackay and Cairns; Brisbane Courier, 53. R. S. Parker. Australian Federation: the influence of 19 August 1892 for Rockhampton. economic interests and political pressures'. Historical Studies 32. Brisbane Courier, 18 February 1884. Also refer R. 1. Heath­ Australia and New Zealand, v. 4, no. 13 (1949). p. 1-24. cote. Back of Bourke. Melbourne, Melbourne University Also refer G. Blainey. 'The role of economic interests in Press, 1965. p. 48. Australian Federation'. Historical Studies Australia and New 33. B. Mansfield. Australian democrat, the career of Edward Zealand, v. 4, no. 15 (1950). p. 224-237. Also refer J. William O'Sullivan 1846-1910. Sydney, Sydney University Bastin. Historical Studies Australia and New Zealand, v. 5, Press, 1965. p. 101. no. 17 (1951). p. 47-58. 34. For criticism of Downs attitudes, refer Brisbane Courier, 54. 1. Green. The Queensland attitude to Federation. Unpub­ 25 August 1892 (reprinting Northern Miner). For early lished B.A. Honours thesis, University of Queensland, 1952. nineties elections, refer Brisbane Courier, 22 August 1892, 55. A. Jenkins. Attitudes towards Federation in North Queens­ also D. Murphy. Prelude to power, the rise of the Labour land. M.A. Qual. thesis, University of Queensland, 1969. Also Party in Queensland. Brisbane, University of Queensland, refer Bolton. Chapter 9. 1970. p. 76, p. 319. 56. A. A. Morrison. 'Queensland: a study in distance and 35. Bureau of Census and Statistics. Commonwealth Production isolation', in E. 1. French (ed.). Melbourne Studies in Edu­ Bulletin, 1948-49, Part II. (Primary Industries). Canberra, cation, 1960-61. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1949. p. 96. 1962, p. 191. 36. Murphy (see reference 34). p. 104. 57. Jenkins. p. 99-100 cities, Cairns Morning Post, 31 August 37. Brisbane Courier, 25 July 1888 and 29 August 1892. 1899 and Charters Towers Daily Herald, 29 January 1897. Also refer Brisfr~ne Courier, 19 August 1892 and 25 Sep­ 38. Brisbane Courier, 26 September 1888. tember 1888, cltmg Rockhampton Morning Bulletin. 39. Q.P.D. v. LXVIII, 31 August 1892, p. 1120. Also refer 58. Lewis. A history of the ports of Queensland. (see reference G. C. Bolton. A thousand miles away. Brisbane, Jacaranda, 31). Also refer N. 1. McKellar. A history of the A.U.S.N. 1963. p. 210. Company. Unpublished manuscript in possession of its 40. The Telegraph, 30 May 1890. Also refer Q.P.D. v. LV, 27 author). Also refer Bolton. p. 165-6. September 1888. p. 447. 59. Q.V.P., 1899, v. I, p. 753. 41. Brisbane Courier, 25 July, 1891. 60. Lewis. A history of the ports of Queensland. (see reference 42. N. G. Butlin. 'Colonial socialism', in H. J. G. Aitken (ed.). 31) Chapter 7. Also refer Q.P.D., v. LXXXIV, 27 Novem­ The State and economic growth. New York, Social Science ber and 4 December 1895, p. 1802, p. 1923. Research Council, 1959. Same author (Butlin) in 'Public 61. H. ~ughes. 'F~deration and industrial development in Aus­ enterprise in Australian economic development'. Explorations tralIa. Australtan Journal of Politics and History. v. 10, in entrepreneurial history. Harvard, Harvard University Re­ no. 3 (1964). p.323-340. search, Centre for Entrepreneurial History, 1950. p. 141. 62. R~fer Bolton. p. 209. 'North Queensland had not been in 43. C. D. Goodwin. Economic inquiry in Australia. Duke, Duke ~xlstence long enough to become enshrined in parochial University, 1966. p. 322. mterests'.

Page Twenty Queensland Heritage 63. 'Further correspondence l'c Separation'. Q.\'.P.. 1898. 64. Brisballe Courier, 29 August 1892. v. III, p. 823. Also refer Central Queensland Separation 6'5. Jenkins. p. 1 quotes T/.,c Tt'!egrapb, 4 September 1899. League. Ill/ert'iell' with the London Sal'e/al'Y 0/ the Com­ millt't' for Separati011. Rockhampton, 1895, in Rockhamptoll 66. R. Norris. 'Economic influences in the 1898 South Austra­ Mornif1g Bulletif1, 31 July 1899. Compare Kidston's poor lian Federation referendum', in A. i\lartin (ed.). Esso)'s in performance in the 1899 Debate. Q.P.D.. v. LXXXI, 30 r-.hy Aus/ra!ic111 Fedt'rati01t. i\lelbourne. Melbourne University 1899, p. 177. Press. 1969. p. 1'50. (Similar conclusion). .