The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-04-26 00:00:00

EMIGRATION TO QUEENSLAND.

The following comn unlcation which may prove useful to
some of our readers, has bees sent to The Times for publi-
cation :

In the revie* of 'froHope's Austrafia and New
Zraland, in The Times of Saturday last, the reviewer,
repeating the substance of the author's remarks on the
same subject, says :

"Queensland's great need is emigrants, and she has striven
horn to attract them. By dint of a liberal distribution of
free passage. 811,1 land ord rs she has won them to her
shores, but her generosity has been sadly abused and advan•
tage has been taken of her immigration system by many
whose hearts were bent on Victorian or New Zealand gold-
fields, or who wished to settle on the midi of other and more
mitt active colonies In one year 1 635 emigrant. came from
the British Isles to Queensland, while 2,272 left Q reensland
for the other colonies, thins making a balance of c 37 on the
wr-ng side. The troth Is, Queemland I. riot the colony
Which offers the hest advantages to the small farmer. and
the life of a small farmer cultivating his own land Is the lot
linked by most emigrants."

Ax this general P ate n.en t , made by Puch an author,
and repeated by The Times' reviewer, is apt to mia-
lead the public, who udght itupottee that Queensland
was being depopulated by the superior attractions of
other Australian Colonies, a few remarks on the sub-
jet the iutereet of Queensland may not seem un-
called for.

The year 1869 was that selected to show the break-
down of her immigration system. This was a season
of great commercial depression following a year f-f ex-
cessive drought. Since the close of 1869 the popula•
tion of the colony has increased 20,000. The demand
fer labour is now BO great that, on the average, 500
emiersnts per month are forwarded from British or
Continental ports, who find instant employment on
arrival, at wages as high as those ruling in any other
Australian Colony, if not higher.
This statement, therefore, of an isolated fact in the
past history of Queensland would have been fairer had
equal prominence been given to sir -h truths as the dfl-
kwing :—That during the decade closing with 1871,
Queensland's population ircreaeed 260 per cent.;
toria's 41, per ceut. • New South Wales, 45 per cent.
Had comparisons Mien instituted bet wren the youngest
Australian Colony and the one your reviewer recca
nisea as'' the most prosperous province in all Ans
tralia," it would have been found that at per heed of
population in 1871, Queensland had nine times as
many cattle as Victoria, four times as many sheep,
three times as many horses, as many pigs, and half as
many acres in crop • while her exports as a whole per
head were greater than those of her sister colony
Her total mineral exports per head, including gold,
copier, tin, and coal, were about equal in value.
The average yield of auriferous reef. the great
future source of gold production, was—in reef.,
loz. I.ldwts. Diger'. per ton; in Victoria, 10dwts.
19gra ; while the loss of gold in milling in Queensland
in 1871 was more than (vial to her toial revenue, for
which a rem•ily wi 1 doubtless be found before long,
and to add greatly to the prosperity of her gold mines.
With reference to the settlement of an agricultural
population on her territory, statistics, indeed, show
that Victoria has at the present time twice as much
land per head under cultivation as Queensland, but it
must be borne in mind that the latter colony has made
more prove,ss in the direction than either Victoria or
New Sont h Wales in their early days. When Victoria had
a population of £312,000 she had fewer acres under
cultivation than Queensland has now with half that
nomber of people. New South Wales had been sstab-
li,hed forty-five years before she could boast of more
acres ander crop. The fact is that in all the Austria-
lima Colonies Rowe such industries as gold or copper
trainin.f, ,T an citially ru ii Loewe, of acquiring capital
to f.rin with, have generally been the forerunners of
active settlement on the land.

Queensland hes, undoubtedly, had much to contend
with at the commencement of her career. Her pioneers
with stock in the north lost heavily by attempting to
place sheep in districts fitted only for capital. Her
earliest sugar planters bad to pass through the fire to
gain the experience their successors are reaping the
benefit of. Her great minetal resources, which are
now attracting a large mining populstion, lay for a
lonic time undiscovered, and she rill has to contend
against the reiterated allusione in the Press to the old
daric days, and the tearing open of old wounds (doubt-
less inadvertently in this case by authors )
It is the belief of many who, like your reviewer,
"have long experience of the Australian Colonies,"
that the material resources of Queensland are si cod
to none, and that with a "fair field and no favour'
she will hold her own in the future in lamenting attrac-
tions to emigrant., and retaining them on her own
territory.
While her own people take up her Four per Cent.
Loan for railwaye and other public works at a price as
high as 90; while her inccme greatly exceeds her ex.
penditure, as it dii in 1872 ; while her exports per head
are greater than those of any other Australian Colony,
and while there is a rueh to secure homesteads on the
areas now opened up, specially for the purpose of set.
tling an agricultural impulsion (es we are informed
there was by the last intelligence from the col iny).
Queensland may safely assert that many hearts have
turned in her direction whom the attraction of other
lands shall not tear from her, and that her prosperous
future is as well assured as any of the great Australian
group, of which the "old country" has such cause to
be proud.—! am, ,ko.
RICHARD DAINTREE.
Agent-General for Queensland
32, Charing-cross, April 14.