QUEENSLAND AND HER RESOURCES AND PROSPECTS
Queensland dates her existence from the year 1859, when she was
separated from New South Wales, and she is, therefore, the youngest of
the Australian group of colonies. But her vast area, almost the whole
of which is available, her varied climate, and the lavish manner in
which Nature has bestowed upon her all the resources that go to make
a country great, foretell, with certainty, that she will before long
assume the leading position among her sisters, and eventually develop
into one of the finest countries in the world.
The area of Queensland is 668,224 square miles, rather more than
five and a half times the area of the United Kingdom, and the whole
population in 1882 was only 248,255.
All along the coast runs a broad belt of mountainous country, entirely
covered with forest. The timber becomes thicker and thicker towards
the tops of the mountains, the higher ones being overgrown with dense
impenetrable “scrub,” while the slopes and valleys between are open
timber, with long grass growing everywhere amongst the trees.
Between the foot of the coast range and the sea is a tract of level
country, varying from sixty to a few miles in width, in which are
situated large areas of the finest alluvial soil, suitable, in the
southern parts of the colony, for the growth of all the fruits and
cereals of a temperate climate, and, in the central and northern
districts, for the cultivation of cotton, coffee, tobacco, sugar, and
all the products of the tropics.
The whole of the coast country is well watered, and is not subject
to the severe droughts which occasionally visit the interior. The
mountains, of course, attract rain, and the valleys between form
natural reservoirs, in the shape of chains of water-holes and big
lagoons, and, especially on the eastern slopes, innumerable creeks rise
in the ranges, and find their way down to the sea.
One of the most extraordinary features of the coast country is the vast
quantity of timber that grows everywhere. It is positively bewildering
to think of the thousands of square miles that are covered with endless
trees. The most common varieties are the blue, red, and spotted gum,
iron-bark, stringy-bark, and blood-wood, all of which are admirably
adapted for fencing and building purposes, as they are easily split and
sawn, possess a very high breaking strain, and, when protected from the
weather and the attacks of white ants, are perfectly imperishable. Even
when standing in the ground, and exposed to the weather, they are good
for fifteen or twenty years.
Of course, away in the Bush, the ravages of Bush-fires and white ants
make havoc among the fences; but I have seen a stringy-bark sap-paling
that had been twelve years in the ground, and when I took it up it was
so sound that I made it into axe-handles.
Besides these varieties, on the eastern face of the coast range are
pine, red cedar, and beech, and, on the western slopes, rose-wood,
myall, dead-finish, plum-tree, iron-wood, and sandal-wood, all woods
with a fine grain suitable for cabinet-making and fancy work. With the
exception of cedar and pine, large quantities of which are exported
every year, these woods are of little value at present, and on the
Queensland lines of railway sandal-wood is used as fuel, the quantity
of heat which it gives out being greater than that of any other wood
in the colony. It is an inferior kind of sandal-wood, but still it
contains a great quantity of oil.
The scrubs of Northern Queensland are full of different sorts of
hard-wood, with most beautiful variegated grains, admirable for
veneering; but at present their inaccessible position prevents their
attracting the attention that they undoubtedly will when the country
is more opened up. A visit to the Queensland gallery in the South
Kensington Museum will give some idea of the beautiful quality of her
different woods, but nothing but a visit to the colony can give any
idea of the quantity.
The extent and richness of the mineral districts of Queensland are
almost fabulous; and although the accounts of experts and others of
what they have seen may, at first, appear incredible, experience
proves every day that they fall short of the reality, and that
the extraordinary wealth of the colony in metals is comparatively
unexplored.
The recent crushings on Gympie gold field read more like a fairy tale
than anything else, and when the report of them appeared in the papers
everyone in the colony thought it was a misprint. One line of reef
there lately took 500 tons of quartz out of a shaft that they were
sinking, which averaged 20 ozs. of gold to the ton, and, on another
line, a crushing of 53 tons gave the astounding yield of 2534 ozs. In
nine months over £82,000 in dividends was paid by the latter claim.
Startling, however, as these returns undoubtedly are, they are entirely
thrown into the shade by the recent discovery of gold at Mount Morgan,
in the neighbourhood of Rockhampton.
The following is an account of the mine, taken from the Charters Towers
_Mining Journal_ for September 1884:--
“Situated about twenty-five miles south-east of Rockhampton, on one
of the branches of the Dee River, it seems to be a portion of a large
basin in the hills. It rises out of granite, and is from 400 to 500
feet high from the site of the crushing mill, half a mile distant on
the creek, where an abundance of water may be conserved. The property
consists of 640 acres of freehold.
“The gold-bearing stone is composed of ferrugineous quartz and
ironstone, some of it having the appearance of ‘clinkers’ from a
blacksmith’s forge. The lodes, which seem to be parallel, run north and
south. They are from 40 to 100 feet wide, and are very puzzling to most
visitors. In some places they are quartz, in others porous ironstone,
and in others there are cavities containing stalactites of black
oxidised iron. Some portions are very much richer than others. Gold of
a very fine grain is easily seen in the quartz, where it is not much
oxidised, and, when prospected, it is apparently free.
“One lode now working is 40 feet wide, and another 100 feet wide in the
face, and about 70 or 80 feet from the crown of the hill, and about 100
feet below this there is another face of similar stone, on the same
quarry-like lodes.
“In these faces gold is always obtained from the drillings. By the
present appliances, which are totally inadequate, the yield of gold is
from 10 dwts. to 3 ozs. to the ton. Owing to the heavy nature of the
ironstone quartz there is great loss in the ‘tailings,’ all of which
and the sludge are being saved. Five assays from the ‘tailings’ give
over 4 ozs. to the ton, and the ‘blanketings,’ after being put through
the wheeler’s pan, and the Berdan, and concentrated in the shoot,
assay as high as 90 ozs. of gold to the ton. Taking it for granted that
this statement is correct about the tailings, if the gold can be got
out of the stone it will yield 5 ozs. of gold to the ton, and the top
lode alone is estimated to contain 450,000 tons.
“According to Dr. Liebius, M.A., F.C.S., the gold from this mine is
worth £4:4:8 per ounce, assaying as high as 99·7 per cent of gold and
is free from silver. The cost of production is remarkably low. It is
said that 3 dwts. of gold to the ton pays for breaking, carting, and
crushing. The formation cannot be called a reef. The whole hill-top
seems to be of richly auriferous stone. It is merely cut away to suit
the convenience of the miners, so that a broad quarry or terrace has
been formed. The cutting is 20 feet deep and about 100 feet long; the
stone is of the same character the whole distance, and extends to the
summit of the mountain several chains higher.
“With reference to the statement that only one half of the gold is
extracted in the ordinary quartz-crushing and amalgamating machinery,
Dr. Liebius says:--
“‘Having the small quartz-crushing machinery in the Sydney mint under
my charge, I had an opportunity of testing this fact. In November last
we received 458 lbs. of this ferrugineous quartz, part of it consisting
of picked stone. It was carefully crushed, and amalgamated in the
Chilian mill with 240 lbs. of mercury. Thus 7·41 ozs. of gold were
extracted. Another lot, weighing 174 lbs., was similarly treated, and
from this 12·12 ozs. of gold were extracted. Thus Lot 1 gave at the
rate of over 39 ozs. of gold to the ton of quartz, while Lot 2 gave
gold at the rate of over 169 ozs. of gold to the ton of quartz. In Lot
1 gold at the rate of 46 ozs. 2 dwts. 12 grs. was left in the tailings,
while in Lot 2 the tailings averaged 46 ozs. 5 dwts. 18 grs. of gold to
the ton.’
“This discovery of gold is the largest, and richest in quality, ever
yet made in any part of the world. A ninth share in the property
lately sold for £31,000 (the purchaser being one of the remaining
shareholders), a price very much below its value. Provided the owners
of the mine can extract the gold from the stone, and there is no
reasonable doubt of their being able to do so, the top lode alone
should yield over £9,000,000 of profit.
“It may be that this mine is unique of its kind, but there is always
a very great likelihood that where there is one there are others. Its
development will give a great stimulus to prospecting, not only in the
neighbourhood of Rockhampton, but throughout the whole of Queensland.
It discloses what prizes this colony, almost unknown as yet, offers. It
is barely two years since the property was purchased from the Morgans;
and had they held on to their interests, they would soon have become
millionaires. As it is, they have in a very short space of time retired
with large fortunes. It is left for their successors to draw in the
future wealth from the mine beyond the wildest dreams of avarice.”
Besides gold, the country is wonderfully rich in other metals; the
chief of which are copper, iron, tin, silver, cinnabar, lead, and
antimony. The deposits of copper are especially remarkable. The mines
are but little worked at present, since the price of copper fell to £60
per ton, and the total amount exported in 1882 was only £650.
But formerly, when copper was worth £90 per ton, the profits from the
mines were very great. Peak Downs copper-mine, the principal one in the
colony, has paid over £1,000,000 in dividends, and, so far from its
being worked out, it is the opinion of experts, and those who worked
in the mines, that there is as much copper there as ever came out. The
mines are not working at present--a circumstance due principally to
the greediness of the shareholders, who thought of nothing but their
dividends, and omitted to open up the mines ahead of the work.
As an instance of how the work has been mismanaged, an engine shaft
twelve feet square was sunk to a depth of 150 feet, which cut the lode
they were looking for, eighteen feet from the surface, without the
manager ever detecting it.
The reports of experts who have visited the copper-lodes of the north
show that the resources of the colony in this respect are unlimited.
The following account, by Mr. Sheaffe, of the Mackinlay ranges, and the
Cloncurry copper-mines, in the _Queenslander_ of August 9, 1880, is
well worthy of notice. He writes:
“The Mackinlay ranges, teeming with an extraordinary wealth of
minerals, are flanked for nearly 200 miles by high undulating downs of
exceeding fertility; so that on the one hand you have almost boundless
pasture, and upon the other almost inexhaustible mines. That I am
justified in speaking of these mines as almost inexhaustible I shall
proceed to show. The first known copper-mines approached by this route
are the Mountain Home, the Rio Grande, and the West Briton, of which
Mr. W. Wellington, who was sent to England by Messrs. Bolitho and Sons,
reported as follows:--
“‘The principal lode is at Mount Norma, a well-defined lode, varying
from three to six feet wide, running north and south, and dipping to
the east. It stands in the face of an almost perpendicular mountain,
showing from 400 to 500 yards. The ore is principally gray, of the
following percentage, namely, thirty-four. The Rio Grande lodes consist
of two, running parallel, with a distance of 250 yards between them.
The outcrops show very distinctly on both these lodes for about 300 or
400 yards in length, consisting of red oxide and gray ores, of the
following percentage, namely, forty-four. The West Briton, also running
north and south, is about a mile north-east of the Mountain Home,
showing a large lode from six feet to eight feet wide, chiefly red
oxide and gray ore, of the following percentage, namely, thirty-eight.
These lodes appear to be well defined and regular, all running north
and south, and dipping to the east. The cost of working these lodes
would be very little for some time to come, in consequence of the ore
being so near the surface.’
“The line, after leaving these mines, should then pass near the gold
reefs of Bishop’s and Fisher’s creeks. Near this are situated the
Homeward Bound and Flying Dutchman copper-mines, from the former of
which 250 tons of ore have been sent to Sydney, all of which have
yielded over 40 per cent of pure copper.
“Twelve miles farther on the Cloncurry copper-mines are reached, the
richness and magnitude of which it is difficult to conceive without
having seen them; and though I have known many skilled miners who have
worked at, and several mining engineers of note (Mr. H. A. Thompson,
the Chairman of the Mining Board being one) who have inspected these
mines, I have never known one who was not at first sight astonished
at the almost incredible amount of rich ore lying on the surface of
the ground. Half a mile to the south-west extremely rich and extensive
lodes occur, while thirty miles to the north-west unnumbered lodes
and copper-bearing veins appear. I myself know of nearly 100, only
eight or ten of which are secured, and none worked. Eight miles to the
north-west, on the Leichardt River, are two lodes, containing ores of
red oxide, gray, and malachite. These lodes are from twenty to thirty
feet wide, immense deposits of copper. Big boulders of gray are lying
loose on the surface, of tons’ weight.”
Some very fine copper-lodes are situated at Mount Flora and Mount
Orange, ninety miles from Mackay. The horseshoe formed by the two
mountains and the ridge that connects them is one mass of copper-lodes,
some of them extremely rich, and consisting principally of red oxide
and malachite. An attempt was made to work them by some local men and
some Sydney capitalists, who put up smelting works on the field, and
obtained very fair results. But the company collapsed, from no fault
of the mines, but from the grossest mismanagement on the part of the
shareholders, backed up by swindling on the part of the mining manager.
Men who used to work in the mines have since told me that they have
known the manager to put a shot or two into the wall, and entirely
conceal the face of the lode. He then reported to the shareholders
that the lode had “duffered out,” and that it was useless to continue
working; and one of the latter, who was “in the swim” with the manager,
obtained the whole claim from the rest for a trifling sum, and the lode
was opened up again.
The peculiar natural advantages of the Mount Flora and Mount Orange
mines should make them pay well, if properly managed, even when the
price of copper is as low as it is now. Not only are they within a
short distance of the coast, with a good road all the way to port, but
they are in the centre of a district which is full of large deposits
of coal. It is the opinion of geologists that the western plains will
be found to overlie large beds of this mineral, which has already been
found in nearly every part of the colony where it has been searched for.
In wandering about the runs in the neighbourhood of Mount Flora
copper-mines, and Mount Britten gold-mines, I have come across many
splendid seams of coal, cropping out in the gullies and banks of the
creeks, some of the seams being eight feet wide, and all of them a very
good sample of coal. In the neighbourhood of Bowen, 100 miles farther
north, there is a seam of coal fifty feet thick, but it is not of quite
such good quality as that farther south.
The principal coal districts that have as yet been tried are near
Brisbane, in West Moreton, on Darling Downs, at Maryborough, at Bowen,
and at Cooktown in the far north. But I believe, myself, that the coal
beds in the neighbourhood of Grosvenor Downs and Lake Elphinstone,
runs lying between Clermont and Bowen, will prove equal to any yet
discovered in the colony both for quantity and for quality.
The tin-mines of Queensland are remarkably rich, and the value of the
amount of that metal exported in 1882 was £269,904. The chief mines are
those at Stanthorpe on the southern boundary of the colony, from which
tin to the value of nearly a million sterling has been taken. Hitherto,
all through the colony the metal found has been chiefly in the form of
stream-tin; but recently what was thought to be a valuable discovery of
lode-tin was made at Herberton, in the far north.
A tremendous rush set in, and boat-loads of speculators started up from
Melbourne and Sydney to secure the ground. Not a man came down from the
north in the steamers but had a sample of Herberton lode-tin in his
pocket, and glowing descriptions of the enormous quantity of it that
was sticking out of the ground excited the southern capitalists to the
verge of madness.
Certainly the samples sent down were of extraordinary richness, but at
present it seems doubtful whether the lodes will prove permanent, and
I think the people who did best out of the Herberton tin-rush were the
working men who originally took up the ground, some of whom sold their
claims to maniacs from the south for as much as £20,000, without having
done £20 worth of work in them.
Extraordinary as is the mineral wealth of Queensland, however, it
is not in this that her real greatness lies. Gold is all-powerful
in most things, and its acquisition will, for a time, outweigh all
other considerations, but its presence can never make a barren land
fertile, or turn a bad climate into a good one; and although immense
deposits of this and other metals will always attract a large floating
population, they will never support a permanent one, unless backed up
by other conditions. The real greatness of Queensland lies in the fact
that while she has been exceptionally endowed with what may be called
ready-made wealth in the form of minerals, she possesses at the same
time one of the healthiest climates in the world, and an enormous area
fit for cultivation and stock-rearing, capable of supporting a vast
population under conditions of life the most favourable. She is, in
fact, a self-contained country, having within herself all the elements
of a powerful nation, the germs almost of that chimerical greatness
that has been described by Prince Bismarck as “une puissance finie.”
The term was applied to England; and whether it was intended to mean
that she is strong enough to maintain her position unassisted either
by an alliance with foreign Powers or by her Colonies, or whether the
double meaning of the last word was meant to imply that the greatness
of England has departed, in either case most Englishmen will be
inclined to question the fitness of its application. The phrase is a
trebly unfortunate one.
In the first place, the greatness of England has not yet departed; in
the second place, no Power that has ever existed has proved itself
strong enough to entirely disregard an alliance with others; and in
the third place, the only thing in the history of the world that
has ever pointed to the possibility of such a Power arising, is the
present question of a permanent union of all British territories
throughout the world. The British Empire, so united, would be by far
the most powerful one that the world has ever seen, and would, indeed,
be independent of any possible combination against it. But as regards
England herself, now that Imperial Federation is attracting the
universal attention that it deserves, it is apparent that she depends
quite as much upon her Colonies for retaining her present position in
the world as her Colonies depend upon her for retaining theirs; and
Queensland, with a territory of over half a million square miles, and
a population of less than one for every two square miles, must be an
important factor in the future history of a country so over-populated
as Great Britain.
To the west of the coast-range lie the prairies of Queensland, an
almost boundless extent of rolling downs and plains, covered with grass
and herbage that for rearing sheep and cattle is unsurpassed in any
country of the world. Every mile of available country is now taken up,
and held by the squatters, who are, of course, the chief producers of
the colony, and to get new country a man must go into the northern
territory of South Australia and into Western Australia. The number
of sheep in Queensland in 1882 was over 12,000,000, and the number of
cattle about 4,000,000; the value of the wool exported in the same
year being £1,329,019. In the future sheep will increase very much
faster than cattle, for no one who can afford the expense of forming
a sheep-station will continue to rear cattle upon country that is fit
to carry sheep. For many years to come, from climatic reasons if for
no others, it is certain that the interior of Queensland will continue
to be what it is now, essentially a wool-producing country; and its
capabilities in this respect are incalculable.
The rainfall is unreliable, and the absence of natural water renders
even the squatter’s industry at all times rather a precarious one, and
obliges him to spend large sums of money in making permanent water upon
his runs. The danger of drought is lessened by the largeness of the
areas held by the squatter, and is further reduced by the precaution
of storing water, but in a drought such as has recently visited the
southern portion of Queensland, and New South Wales, nothing can save
him from serious loss, and it is in reality only the enormous profits
which he makes in good seasons that enable him to face an occasional
bad one with cheerfulness.
In the chapter devoted to a comparison of the relative advantages of
a sheep-station and a cattle-station will be found statistics which
show what the profits of the former amount to in fair seasons; but
anyone who is acquainted with the Western country would see at once the
absurdity of supposing that it could be profitably held except in large
areas, for pastoral purposes, until a great change has taken place in
the civilisation of the colony.
It is impossible, of course, to imagine that such a country can remain
permanently in the hands of a few hundred graziers, whose object is to
keep away any population from their runs beyond the few hands necessary
to work their flocks and herds. The Western Downs are supposed by
geologists to overlie large underground reservoirs of water, and
certainly wherever wells have been sunk to any depth success has
attended the experiments, so that in time it is probable that some
system of irrigation will be developed, which will turn the country
into something more profitable to the community than sheep-runs; and
the opening up of the country by railways will transform the interior
of Queensland from a purely pastoral into an agricultural country.
That cheap carriage to the coast is the one thing needful to make
wheat-growing pay has been conclusively proved by the large quantities
grown in the Allora and Roma districts, since the opening of the
railway from Brisbane to the latter town. Five quarters to the acre
is not an uncommon crop, and in 1880 250,000 bushels were raised in
the colony. The quality of the wheat is excellent, the weight being
as high as sixty-seven pounds to the bushel, and the flour fully
equal to Adelaide. Land is being rapidly laid down under wheat in the
Darling Downs and Maranoa districts, and it is expected that before
long Queensland will produce sufficient to make her independent of any
foreign supply.
With such resources as these at her command, it is evident that the
colony requires nothing but an extended system of railway communication
from the interior to the coast, to bring population and prosperity in
its wake. The transformation that has been wrought in those districts
where railways have already been constructed, shows what progress might
be expected if the colony were to put forth her whole strength in this
direction. With a good Government the thing would be done at once--for
no sane man disputes the advisability of doing it; but, unfortunately,
Queensland, like her neighbours, New South Wales and Victoria, suffers
in this respect from a succession of selfish, sordid adventurers,
whose proceedings it is impossible to watch, without forgetting the
impurity of their principles in the imbecility of their policy. It is
as absurd to distinguish the members of either party as Conservatives
or Radicals, as it is to call any of them politicians, since the
transparent motive of all of them is to plunder their colony. The Ins
and Outs of Legislation would be a more appropriate term. The party who
are in go straight for whatever they want; and the only security of the
country lies in the certainty that the party who are out will do their
best to prevent them from getting it, not from any consideration for
the public weal, but because they want it themselves.
The great natural want of Queensland is navigable rivers and deep-water
harbours. In all her seaboard of 2000 miles there are hardly any
good harbours for vessels of large draught, and not a single decent
navigable river. By a sort of practical joke of nature every one is
adorned with a sand-bar at the mouth and a mud-flat a little way up.
These efforts of nature are a thorn in the side of every coasting
skipper, and a perfect god-send to the rascally _employés_ and
_protégés_ of the Department of Public Works, who derive a regular
annuity from misdirected attempts to deepen the rivers. More or less
illegitimate plunder is made out of every public work in Australia by
all concerned in it, from the Ministry downwards; the most notable
instances being the adoption of Wood’s brake by the Victorian railways,
the Steel Rails Inquiry in Queensland, and the Transcontinental
Railway scheme in the same colony, which will be more fully described
hereafter. These are official swindles, and require the active
co-operation of those at the head of affairs, and a great deal of tact
on the part of all concerned, to carry them through. Even then they
do not always succeed. The Transcontinental Railway scheme was the
downfall of the Ministry whose Premier was its chief instigator and
promoter.
But in a small way nothing is so profitable and so popular with
Government engineers as deepening a river, because it is work that can
be indefinitely prolonged. At any other work they are bound to show
some sort of progress, be it ever so miraculously slow, or else show
some reasonable cause for delay. But in deepening a river, the engineer
has it all his own way. No one can tell what he is about under water,
and, by combining a studious neglect of the most elementary principles
of engineering with a slight knowledge of the bottom of the river, he
can extend his work over any period of time. The amount of public money
that goes in this way is enormous.
The Fitzroy River, on which lies the town of Rockhampton, affords a
striking example of Queensland Government engineering. Seven miles
below the town are situated the Flats, on which there was naturally
about three feet of water at low tide. It was decided to remove these
flats, so as to allow vessels drawing nine feet of water to get up at
any tide. The estimated cost of the undertaking was £25,000;--time not
specified, being, as the advertisements say, “not so much an object as
a comfortable home” for the engineer to whom the work was entrusted.
After fooling around dredging for some time, this worthy hit upon a
notable scheme. Starting a little above the flats, he built a training
wall slantwise down the river, so as to leave a narrow passage near the
opposite bank. He calculated that the rush of the tide through this
narrow channel would very soon deepen it.
He was perfectly right. It very soon did, and, by the simple process
known as robbing Peter to pay Paul, the sand so washed away formed a
fresh flat a little lower down, with only eighteen inches of water on
it, instead of three feet!
Finally, after expending £110,000 during a period extending over ten
years, they have at last succeeded in getting a depth of about five
feet at low tide. Less than half the money wasted in tinkering the
bottom of the Fitzroy would have given Rockhampton a deep-water port in
Keppel Bay, at which ships drawing thirty feet of water could lie at
any tide, and a railway from thence to the town.
There is not a single town on the coast of Queensland that has the
natural advantage of deep-water communication with the sea, either by
means of a harbour or a navigable river, except Bowen and Gladstone.
These two townships are situated on the coast itself, and have good
deep-water harbours; but there is no back country to either of them, so
it will be long before they are of much importance. All the other ports
are only accessible to boats of very light draught, and generally these
have to wait for the tide.
Townsville lies right on the coast, but the neighbouring bay is so
shallow that no vessel of any size can get within a mile and a half of
the town.
Mackay lies two miles up a river, with flats upon which there is not
more than a foot of water at low tide. At the mouth of the river is a
sand-bar, and outside nothing but an open roadstead.
Rockhampton is forty-five miles from the coast, up the Fitzroy River,
the flats in which have just been described.
Bundaberg and Maryborough are each of them some distance up a narrow,
muddy, shallow river.
The coasting-trade of Queensland is increasing so enormously, there is
no doubt that in time these difficulties will be overcome, and some,
at least, of the coast towns will be provided with good artificial
harbours.
In 1841 the whole trade of the colony of Queensland was carried on by a
small cutter trading between Brisbane and Sydney. In 1879 the entrances
inwards to Brisbane were 1261 vessels, with a tonnage of 637,695 tons,
and the clearance about the same. Since then the increase in the coast
trade has been even more surprising.
In 1883 Townsville alone, the most northern town of any importance in
Queensland, was importing about 4000 tons of goods a week.
The production of sugar alone in the colony has risen from 12,300 cwt.
in 1868 to over 400,000 cwt. in 1883. Very soon good seaports will be
an absolute necessity; but, in the meantime, with the exception of the
work done in the Brisbane River, all the money spent has been so much
thrown away.
Mackay, the great sugar-growing district of Queensland, is about the
worst off for a port of any town on the coast. It has, as I have said,
a river with shallow flats and a bar at the mouth, and nothing but an
open roadstead outside.
There are, however, two small islands, known as “Flat-top” and
“Round-top,” just off the mouth of the river; and it was thought that
something might be done in the way of a breakwater. The genius of the
Fitzroy flats was accordingly consulted on the subject.
He assured the delighted inhabitants of Mackay that it would be the
simplest thing in the world to make an excellent harbour. Nothing
to do but connect one of the islands with the mainland, throw out a
breakwater on the far side, and run a railway right away from the end
of the breakwater into the town.
After an interval of four years, during which time they had been driven
nearly out of their minds by the patriotic agitation on the subject by
the member for Mackay, the Government proceeded to vote some money for
the furtherance of this scheme. The breakwater was to be about a mile
long, and tenders were called for in sections. The first section was
the only one ever completed, and the only one ever likely to be, until
some very much more able men take it in hand. The contractor’s only
notion of a breakwater seemed to be to blast rock out of an adjacent
cliff, break it up small so as to be convenient for handling, and
barrow it into the sea, leaving it to form its own batter. He never
got farther than high-water mark. His work, about forty yards long,
remains, another monument of Government stupidity, and the Mackay
breakwater ends where most breakwaters begin.
But the most notable attempt of modern times to rob the public
exchequer was the Transcontinental Railway scheme. The responsible
position of those whose names were connected with it, the magnitude
of the undertaking, and the great care with which the real conditions
under which it was to be carried out were concealed, for a long time
saved this gigantic fraud from detection. At length, however, it was
exposed, the public realised the amount of which it was intended the
colony should be robbed, and the result was that the Ministry who
brought in the Bill were defeated, and obliged to resign.
The proposed scheme is really worth some consideration, in order to
show the enormous vitality of a colony that can still make rapid
progress, even under the incubus of a Government that endeavours to
plunder instead of fostering its resources.
The Transcontinental Railway was to run from the inland head of the
Brisbane-Roma line (a Government line) to Point Parker, in the Gulf of
Carpentaria, a distance, roughly, of 1000 miles.
There is no doubt that such a line would be of inestimable benefit to
Australia at large, and especially to Queensland; but it is certain
that the latter colony individually would benefit much more from an
extension of her existing lines of railway farther into the interior.
The whole colony being fully alive to the importance of extending her
railway system in some shape or way, the Government made it their
business to try and persuade the inhabitants of Queensland that her
credit was already strained to the utmost, and that it would be
inadvisable, even if it were possible, to borrow sufficient to perform
the proposed work.
We were told by the Premier that because we owed £58 per head of our
population, which would be increased to £70 when the loans authorised
were issued, we were on the verge of ruin, and could not possibly
borrow any more.
Now it may be very sound to estimate the gravity of a public debt
in this manner, when the money has been borrowed for unproductive
purposes, such as war, or construction of national defences. But in a
colony like Queensland almost the whole of the money so borrowed has,
with a due allowance, of course, for official plunder, been expended
on developing the national estate, so that the debt is represented
to a great extent by valuable assets which bring in a revenue far in
excess of the interest on the capital borrowed. Thus, in New South
Wales, a colony that owes £18,000,000, the railways alone are valued at
£25,000,000, and pay 5 per cent on the cost of construction.
The estimate of Sir Thomas M’Ilwraith, the Premier of Queensland, for
the construction of the Transcontinental Railway was £3260 per mile.
In his reply of 22d February 1882, to General Fielding, the agent for
the Syndicate that was formed in Europe for taking up this scheme,
Sir Thomas M’Ilwraith declared most positively that the cost of a
railway from Charleville to the Gulf, including every item, surveying,
supervision, rolling stock, construction, stations, and all other
outlay, should not exceed the above sum. Sir Thomas is himself an
expert, and had besides the benefit of Mr. Watson’s survey and estimate
to help him. The whole cost for the 1000 miles, therefore, should not
exceed £3,260,000.
The Syndicate were to be allowed seven years and a half to complete
their line. This gives £434,666 as the sum required to be spent every
year to complete the line within contract time. Queensland can borrow
at the rate of 4 per cent interest; we therefore find that had
Queensland herself undertaken the work--
Amount required to be spent annually on construction, £434,666.
1st year’s interest at 4 per cent £17,387
2d ” ” 34,774
3d ” ” 52,161
4th ” ” 69,548
5th ” ” 86,935
6th ” ” 104,322
7th ” ” 121,709
half 8th ” ” 65,202
--------
£552,038
========
So that in seven years and a half Queensland would have completed the
1000 miles of railway, at a cost of £3,260,000 of loan funds, on which
she would have paid interest during that time £552,038. The total cost
to the colony therefore would be £3,812,038, and at the end of the time
she would herself be the owner of the line.
Later on we shall see what it was proposed the colony should pay the
Syndicate for the railway before it eventually passed into her hands.
Having partly succeeded in persuading the colony that it would be
impossible for her to borrow sufficient to accomplish the work, the
Premier drew our attention to a body of philanthropists in the shape of
a European Syndicate, who were ready to do it for us.
The fact of a joint-stock company being able to do what a colony like
Queensland cannot do is sufficiently startling. But no matter; we were
told that although our credit was run dry, Providence had provided us
with the means of accomplishing our object in the shape of land-grants.
Nothing could be more simple than to use the enormous area of
comparatively unremunerative land to pay for the railway.
It is a most fortunate thing that the colony came to its senses, and
realised the merits of the case before it was too late. At one time
there was a danger that the Government might snatch a victory, and
rush their nefarious project through Parliament, before the colony
understood what was taking place. Had this happened, there is no doubt
it would have had a lasting and most injurious effect on the prospects
of Queensland.
There is not space here to transcribe the full terms of the agreement
between the Queensland Government and the Transcontinental Syndicate,
but what it amounted to was this: the Syndicate in the first place were
to receive eleven million acres of land, freehold. This land was stated
by the Premier to be worth at least 10s. an acre, and Government have
been repeatedly solicited to offer it at auction at that upset price.
Not allowing therefore for the prospective rise in the value of the
land upon the completion of the railway, this gives the value of the
land-grant to be given to the Syndicate at £5,500,000. But in exchange
for the inferior portion of land adjacent to the railway on the Gulf
watershed, the Syndicate were allowed to select 1,200,000 acres on the
Batavia River. This is grand agricultural land, which cannot be valued
at less than £1 per acre. This brings the total thus:
1,200,000 acres on the Batavia at £1 £1,200,000
10,000,000 acres along the line at 10s. 5,000,000
----------
£6,200,000
==========
In making this valuation no account has been taken of the extra value
of the land in the various townships along the line, and of the port on
the Gulf, half of all which was to belong to the Syndicate.
Having induced the Syndicate to make the railway for us by the above
enormous bribe, the agreement further provided for the purchase of
the railway from the Syndicate when it was completed by the following
remarkable clause:--
“13. In the event of the Governor-in-Council exercising the right of
purchase of the said railway and rolling stock and appurtenances,
given by the 26th clause of the said Act, the basis of valuation upon
which the fair and reasonable value thereof shall be ascertained as
therein mentioned shall be twenty-five years’ purchase of the average
net earnings of the railway during the three previous years, with 15
per cent added thereto for forced sale, but not being less in total
than £100 for every £100 of capital paid by and expended on the said
railway, rolling-stock, and appurtenances.”
In order to give an idea of the probable amount that the colony would
be required to pay under this clause, I cannot do better than quote
from a pamphlet which appeared at the time the Bill was before the
country. It was called _The latest Political Device for partitioning
Queensland amongst Speculative Rings, and its Exposure_. It was
written, I believe, by Mr. R. Newton, and was of immense service
in showing up the gigantic fraud that the colony was very nearly
swallowing. He says:
“From the above clause it may be inferred that the Government cannot
exercise the right to purchase the line till the expiration of three
years from its completion. By those most competent to form a correct
estimate, it is computed that this colony will possess not less than
30,000,000 sheep in its central districts by the expiration of the time
to be allowed to the Syndicate for the completion of their line to the
Gulf. For it must be remembered that the country through which this
Syndicate line is proposed to be taken, is not a useless, unoccupied
territory, only to be made of any value by this railway. With the
exception of a barren strip at the Point Parker end, the country is
occupied as grazing-runs along the whole length of the proposed line,
and for hundreds of miles to the west of it. Some of the country
through which the line would pass is highly improved, and the whole
is now being developed in an extraordinarily rapid manner. Few people
understand or realise the vast traffic this increase in sheep will
bring to our railways.
“We will take, as a basis for calculation, that only the produce and
requirement for working one half of these 30,000,000 sheep can be
influenced on to the Syndicate lines; and considering the enormous
power they will possess, with the facilities they would be able to
give at their port, Point Parker, by lines of steamers of their own,
carrying at low freights, to allow the Syndicate line only one half the
traffic is a moderate calculation.
“This, then, would give the Syndicate the traffic for 15,000,000 sheep.
The wool from these, at 4 lbs. all round for clean and greasy wool,
gives 26,786 tons. We will put the average freight on this at £8 per
ton, a rate much below what is at present charged on our lines, the
freight on clean wool from Roma to Brisbane, a distance of only 317
miles, being now £8 per ton.
“Allowing only double the weight of up-carriage to wool down, which is
considerably under what is found in practice (as _vide_ the traffic
returns of the Central Railway, a line supplying almost solely pastoral
country), and calculating the average charge on up-freight at the same
rate as wool down, viz. £8 per ton, and allowing for passenger fares,
together with the large traffic which may be expected from live-stock,
meat, etc. (without taking into account the mineral traffic from the
Cloncurry, which may be immense)--we give the same amount as wool
freights bring in--we have the following result:--
26,786 tons wool down at £8 per ton,
average freight £214,288
53,572 tons up-loading at £8 428,576
Passenger fares, live-stock, meat, etc. 214,288
--------
Total gross earnings £857,152
========
“Taking the working expenses at 50 per cent on gross earnings, which
is an ample allowance over such an extremely easy and level country,
we have £428,576 per annum nett earnings, which, at twenty-five
years’ purchase, with 15 per cent added, comes to the enormous total
of £12,321,560. This amount, if not considerably more, is the sum
we should have to borrow in a few years, to purchase a railway, for
the construction of which the country will have already given away
£6,200,000 of its lands, besides vast unknown values in sites of
towns, etc., and which line the country could have constructed itself,
including interest on loans and every possible charge, for a sum not
exceeding £3,812,038. It is simply utter nonsense to spread abroad the
idea that this great colony, with its vast undeveloped resources--with
the great future which is undoubtedly its inheritance--is unable to
borrow for the making of its main trunk lines of railway (which would
represent so grand an asset) a sum scarcely exceeding £3,000,000,
extended over a period of eight years.”
Such was the great Transcontinental Railway scheme, which occasioned
the downfall of Sir Thomas M’Ilwraith’s Ministry. It is deeply to
be regretted that they ever took such a proposal in hand. They were
the best government Queensland has ever had, and, had they chosen
to do so, they were in a position to pass measures that would have
been of inestimable service to the colony, such as the Coolie Bill to
introduce coloured labour from India to the sugar plantations. Instead
of which they took advantage of the security of their position to
tamper with the interests of the colony. Allusion has been made above
to the Steel Rail Inquiry. This was an attack made by Mr. Griffiths,
the leader of the Opposition, upon Sir Thomas M’Ilwraith’s conduct in
the purchase of some £60,000 of steel rails for the Queensland railways.
Mr. Griffiths directly impugned the honesty of the Premier’s conduct in
the transaction, and, although he was unable to establish his charge,
the extremely unsatisfactory circumstances that appeared in the inquiry
greatly weakened the confidence of the country in the Ministry. When
this further scheme for wholesale plunder was exposed, of course the
country could stand it no longer, and turned them out.
Headed by Mr. Griffiths, their successors advanced, and, having elected
a congenial spirit in the shape of a thrice-convicted felon to the
Speaker’s chair, they laid themselves down to try by every means in
their power to retard the progress of the colony, and feather their own
nests.
The conduct of the Queensland Parliament in selecting such a man to
fill the position of Speaker was severely censured by the neighbouring
colonies, and deeply resented throughout Queensland herself. The tone
of our Parliament has never been very high, but compared with the
Houses in New South Wales and Victoria we always felt ourselves to
be eminently respectable. All claim to such distinction is now gone.
Whatever elements a House may be composed of, it cannot fail to lose
caste by assigning the position of Speaker to such a man as now holds
it.
But although the Queensland Assembly may be deficient in a sense of
dignity, it certainly does not lack wit. Some years ago the present
Speaker (Mr. Groom) was very desirous of obtaining a Government
appointment. In the course of debate, one of his friends declared that
Mr. Groom’s long services under Government most distinctly entitled
him to hold some office. Whereupon someone on the other side got up
and observed, with more truth than feeling, that “considering what
the nature of Mr. Groom’s services to the country had been, the only
appointment he was qualified to hold was that of Groom of the Stole.”
It is deeply to be regretted that a more healthy tone does not pervade
the legislature of the Colonies. But as long as all respectable people
hold aloof, and excuse themselves from attempting to take part in the
government of their country, on the plea that they do not care to
be mixed up in such disreputable society, there is not much hope of
improvement. Such idle seclusion and selfish apathy deserves to be
afflicted, as it is, by the worst of governments.
Throughout the whole of Australia a feeling obtains that Parliament is
a profession which it is just as well for all decent people to keep
clear of. In a book of advice to those visiting the colony of Victoria,
I read the following interesting warning:--
“If you enter into conversation with a respectable-looking individual
to whom you are a stranger, on no account ask him if he is a member of
the Legislative Assembly. You cannot offer him a greater insult.”
As a class the squatters are marvellously indifferent to the
legislation of the colony they live in, and they have greatly their own
selfishness to thank for the losses that they suffer in consequence.
The squatters are, of course, the backbone of a pastoral country
like Australia, and represent the greater portion of its wealth. But
anything like co-operation amongst them for the purpose of protecting
their interests in Parliament is unknown. Each one thinks he can do
best for himself by attending to nothing but the management of his
station, and letting legislation take care of itself. They are by far
the most poorly represented class in Parliament throughout Australia,
and the consequence is that their seclusion in the Bush is subject to
periodical interruptions of a most disagreeable kind.
While busily employed in making money in the back country, they awake
too late, to find that literally the ground has been cut from under
their feet at headquarters, and perhaps half their run taken away by
some empirical piece of legislation on the part of the town-loafers to
whom they have abandoned the reins of government without a struggle.
Of course, in a new country, the most difficult question that any
Government has to deal with is a satisfactory adjustment of the
question as to how the land shall be occupied. So far the problem has
not been treated in the manner most likely to conduce to the welfare of
the community, for at first, in the older colonies, immense freeholds
were allowed to accumulate, the evil effects of which have found vent
in measures of retaliation against the class that owned them.
The difficulty in a colony like Queensland lies in the fact that
while the great want is felt to be an increase of population, it is
almost impossible to find a class of people who can occupy the country
profitably in small areas. The squatter knows, of course, that he only
occupies his run upon sufferance, and that, unless he chooses to spend
large sums in securing it as a freehold, he must expect to surrender
his country when it is required for other purposes. When the time comes
he succumbs to the inevitable, and moves farther away in search of
fresh country; but his sorrow at being forced to give up the whole or
half of his run is by no means diminished by the discovery that it is
not of the slightest use to those who have taken it from him.
Of course, if a squatter holds land that is fit for cultivation either
of sugar or of wheat, it is only right that he should hand it over to
those who are able and willing to turn it to a use which is obviously
more remunerative to the colony at large than the growing of stock. But
when he holds country that is out of the scope of agriculture for the
present, it is annoying to have to surrender it prematurely to people
to whom it is no sort of good. Even in Queensland, land without capital
is more of a curse than a blessing to those who are forced to hold it,
and there is no more wretched class in the colony than the holders of
pastoral selections.
It is perfectly impossible that a man can make anything more than a
bare living out of one, and generally it is impossible for him to
do even that honestly. When he has complied with the conditions of
occupation, by completing the necessary improvements in the shape
of fencing-in his selection, there is no more work for him to do,
and he simmers down into growing pumpkins and sweet potatoes for his
own consumption, and generally ekes out a living by stealing his
neighbour’s cattle. A more utterly useless class of men to the colony
cannot be imagined. The fact is that, for a long time to come, the
most profitable way in which the greater portion of Australia, and
certainly of Queensland, could possibly be held, would be in the form
of large pastoral leaseholds, paying a fair rent to the Crown, but
having a security of tenure that would encourage their holders to
invest their capital largely in improvements. To throw open the runs
of the squatters to selection wholesale is merely to try and drive
civilisation at high pressure, which always means waste of power, and
to foster a mushroom growth of population that will weaken rather than
develop the natural resources of the country.
The population required for a country like Queensland consists mainly
of two classes--large capitalists and skilled workmen of all trades.
The former will find an ample field for profitable investments upon any
scale that they may desire, and the latter will readily find employment
at a high rate of wages.
But to the man of small capital, who is master of no trade, the colony
is indeed a delusion and a snare. The days are over when large fortunes
were rapidly made out of nothing at all, and anyone who makes money
there has to work for it, and to work hard too. The possessor of a few
hundreds, or even a few thousands of pounds, who goes to Queensland
with the idea that he is likely to make his fortune, will find himself
wofully mistaken; for the odds are a hundred to one on his losing every
penny of his money.
If he goes out there to friends whom he can thoroughly trust, and
who will take care of his money for him, of course he will get a
higher rate of interest than he could get in England, and as he gains
experience of the country he will see opportunities of increasing his
capital safely. But unless he has good introductions to thoroughly
sound men of business, he had far better stay at home.
The standard of honesty is no higher in the colony than it is
elsewhere, and there are always crowds of sharpers on the lookout for
men with money to invest. A form of partnership is often entered into,
in which the new arrival in the colony provides the money, and the old
hand the experience. These partnerships seldom last long, and at the
end of them the respective commodities have generally changed hands:
the unfortunate “new chum” has got the experience, and his rascally
partner has got the money.
But Queensland is certainly the Utopia of the working-man who is not
afraid of work, and numerous are the ways of making a living that are
open to him.
On the goldfields ordinary miners’ wages run from £2:10s. on the
old-established field to £4 on new diggings in the back country.
Amongst the trades, carpenters, joiners, masons, and workers in iron
are the most in demand, and at any of them a good tradesman will,
in the towns, earn at least fifteen shillings a day. In the Bush,
the wages for ordinary station-hands employed for shepherding or
stock-riding are from £1 to £1:15s. a week, with rations, running up
to £2:5s. for shearers in shearing time. Nearly all the fencing and
putting up of station-buildings, yards, etc., in the Bush, is done by
contract, and contractors always reckon to make at least £2:10s. a week.
After he has been six months in the colony, the working-man is endowed
with the inestimable boon of the franchise--an advantage for which he
has at all times, and in all parts of the world, shown himself willing
to barter every other consideration.
A great deal has been said about the climate of Queensland, and it is
often described as being a “trying” one. The only possible way in which
it can be justly so described is in the sense of its being a climate
in which people are constantly trying to kill themselves without
succeeding. Probably there is no other country in the world in which
men habitually take such frightful liberties with their constitutions
with impunity.
The ordinary mode of living pursued by the inhabitants both of the town
and the Bush is such that, if the climate were not an extraordinarily
healthy one, they would die like rotten sheep. We will take the average
Bushman’s life, say a stockman, or a hard-working squatter, who helps
to work his own cattle. His food consists of beef and damper, and jam
if he is luxurious. Vegetables he often does not see for weeks and
weeks together, except in the form of pickles, and he is very lucky if
he can always get them.
An occasional piece of pumpkin, or a sweet potato, forms a red-letter
day in the calendar of his diet, and every meal is washed down with
floods of strong scalding hot tea without any milk. Breakfast is the
only regular meal that he gets in the day, and he has that soon after
he gets up, but not before he has had a smoke. If he happens to be at
home in the middle of the day he has dinner; if not, he has nothing
from breakfast to supper, which is a movable feast, somewhere about
sundown.
All day he is riding about under a broiling sun, and smokes an ounce of
the strongest tobacco in the world every twenty-four hours. For days
and nights together, sometimes, he is wet through, when camped out
away from home; sleeping at night under a tree, with no covering but a
blanket in winter, and in summer not even that, and awakening in the
morning, perhaps to find himself lying in a puddle of rain-water that
has fallen in the night, perhaps to find his hair stuck to his hat with
hoar frost.
The only diversion in his _régime_ is an occasional visit to a
neighbouring town, where he probably gets half poisoned by the
extraordinary quantity and the infamous quality of the liquor that he
drinks. If after ten years of this he should find his digestion not as
good as it was, or feel symptoms of the approach of rheumatism, he is
certain to put it down to the climate instead of to his own imprudence.
With the townsmen the case is still worse. Their climate is certainly
not as healthy as that of the Bush, and in summer it is rather
depressing; but they take little or no exercise, which is the only way
to counteract its effects, and drink quantities of spirits from morning
till night, every day of their lives, and even then it seems to take
years and years to do them much harm.
All below the coast range of Queensland cannot be described as a
pleasant climate, though it certainly is not an unhealthy one. But
in summer it is rather a sticky, damp sort of heat, and both men
and animals perspire far more than they do over the range on the
table-lands.
In the Bush, though the thermometer is very high all through the
summer from October to April, there is nothing whatever depressing or
enervating about the heat; and the harder a man works, even though he
be out in the sun all day, the better he will feel.
It is only the habitual loafers and the constitutionally weak who feel
any bad effects from the heat of Queensland. The thermometer runs to
about 90° in the shade in the middle of the day in the summer months,
though on some few days it is much higher. I have seen it up to 120° in
the shade of a back verandah, and 176° in the sun; but I never felt the
slightest ill effects from going out and working all day in the sun,
with no more covering for my head than an old felt hat.
Sunstroke in the Bush is unknown, though I have seen men working
all day in a brick-kiln, when there was not a breath of air, with a
vertical sun over their heads, and no protection but a workman’s linen
cap. Even in summer, in the Bush, when the sun goes down, the air
always gets nice and cool. Hot nights are unknown, and there are very
few all through the summer in which a man is not glad of a blanket just
before dawn.
If the climate of Queensland were a perpetual summer, it might, indeed,
be rather trying to such people as are constitutionally unfitted to
stand heat; but for seven months in the year it is impossible to
imagine a more delightful climate, even for those who object to hot
weather. From the middle of March to the middle of October is an
unbroken series of bright, warm, sunny days, with a blue sky over which
soft, fat white clouds sail on the wings of a fresh, cool breeze, the
mornings and evenings being quite chilly, and the thermometer at
night, during the months of June and July, falling sometimes to ten
degrees below freezing, even in latitudes well within the tropics.
As is always the case with new countries, ague prevails in Queensland,
but chiefly in the districts that have been recently taken up, and it
disappears almost entirely in places that have been settled for some
time.
In the interior a form of blood-poisoning, known as slow-fever, is not
uncommon, and is entirely due to the effects of drinking impure water.
The only really unhealthy district of Queensland is on the shores of
the Gulf of Carpentaria, where several obscure sorts of fever prevail,
one of which very closely resembles the terrible Yellow-Jack, if indeed
it is not the real article itself.
The rest of the colony may be considered as extraordinarily free from
all the maladies incidental to hot climates, and it must be greatly a
man’s own fault if he does not enjoy as good health in Queensland as he
could in any other country in the world. I have tried the climates of
New South Wales and Victoria, and certainly prefer that of Queensland
to either of them; for during the seven years that I was knocking
about the latter colony, at all sorts of work, exposed to all kinds
of weather, I not only never had a day’s illness that I could by any
ingenuity attribute to the effects of the climate, but I feel that I
laid in a stock of good health, of which the beneficial effects will
last during the remainder of my lifetime.