The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-06-08
ANTIPODAL PROGRESS,
Queensland at the EAbibItion-.-shes Shows
that she has EInny More Useful Things
than Kapgnroos.

| that she has HInny More Useful Things
than Kapaaroos.
If there is any quarter Of the globe to
which the American people have not
been looking for an extraordinary dis
play Of national resources and progress
at the Exhibition, that place is probably
Australia. But the exhibits of Queens
land, Victoria, South Australia and New
South Wales, in the Main building, dis
pei any preconceived ideas of insignif-
canoe relative to these colonies, and are
not surpassed either in extent or interest
by those of nations that we're in the
zenith Of their power when the shaggy
haired and fabby muscled native Aus
tralian was undisputed monarch of the
greatest island on the globe. OF these
four colonies Queensland takes the palm.
Her goods are not exhibited for sale,
but to show the superior advantages the
country offers to colonists, and thereby
to encourage immigration. This is to
be said of the other Australian colonies
also. Mr.. Angus Mackay, chief COM
missioner of Queensland, and editor of
the Queenslander, is instructed, while
experimenting the display, to examine
American machinery, it being proposed
to introduce it in the colony. which thus
far has been u producing and not q
manufacturing country. Queensland
comprises over one fifth of all Australia,
and is more than three times as large as
Texas. The style of living corresponds,
as rule, with that in California, owing,
in great measure, to the similarity of
climate and industries between both
countries.
The section of Queensland in the
Main building is inclos d by neat,
plain, rectangular structure and has nine
hundred and sixty square feet of wall
, space and 1000 square feet of floor
s, ace. The aggregate value of the ex-
hibits is hardly /, ss than quarter mil
lion dollars. The upper half of the
walls is covered with charts showing the
, geological formation of the country as
, far back as the most npronounceable
, of the epochs, and also the relative
, prices and productive capacities of farm
, lands. The lower half of the walls is
occupied by hundreds of colored pho
tographs of romantic scenery and land
+ scapes, designed, with the aid of refer
! ence schedules, to show the kinds of
f farm lands which may be purchased for
specified prices. For instance, there is
a piece of fertile lowland sprinkled with
wood growth marked I" five shillings pei
\ acre. there, an undulating region OF
4 cleared land, with streams gliding
q through the valleys, and to be had fol
q ten shillings an acre; and over further 6
a level, cultivated strip of Unusual rich
ness, with flock of sheep rushing
:, toward a stream in the foreground and {
a pioneers thaGched and comfortable cot
n tage in grove in the rear, which may
q be purchased at fifteen shillings an acre
s The most prominent feature of the foo
o space is gilt monument, twenty fee
Q SIX inches in height, three feet thre,
q inches square at the base and sixteei
) inches square at point one foot from
h the top, where it begins to taper to
is point. This represents the bulk of al
n the gold mined in Queensland during
, the years 1868 to 1875, inclusive. Thi
n precious mass weighed sixty-fve tons
n twelve cwt., forty-one pounds and 81,
a ounces, its value being $35, ,O00, 900. TIL,
a wealth of Queensland in minerals is in
calculable, and doubtless when the gol,
mines of Victoria and California shal
have been worked out, as are now thos
of Havilah and Ophir of cid, tn
mundic reefs of tropical Queenslan,
will, with the aid of chemical skill, b.
{. only just commencing to distil thei
,. long boarded treasures, so wisely guarde'
,e by nature and kept back from too earl
ransacks, in wait for the time of need
ts when other sources of gold will hav
W become exhausted. This metal is ex
hibited here mainly in quartz. Th
q country possesses the richest gold reef
in the world, averaging over two ounce
st to the ton of quartz throughout.
The principal other metals are coppe
le and tin, and these are shown in pyra
mids of ingots as well as in the natura
~ state. Huge nuggets of almost pur
. copper in the latter condition exhibi
the effects of fire to which they wer
10 subjected in some prehistoric age
Specimens of chrome iron, occurring j
I'd serpentine rock in inexhaustible quaint
ties near Ipswich, and of spicular iron
le found in various parts of the colony
are shown. The iron and antimony
N however, though both of them abund
ant, are not worth working in Qeens
land, as compared with other metal
10 there. Walls full OF free gold, of var
Gus degrees of fineness, are arrayed a
TX plentifully, and rather more temptingly
to than the bottles on the shelves of a
apothecary. All the coal thus far dis
~ covered in Queensland has been btu
II minous. The coal fields cover an are
a. of about $4,000 square miles. Th
quantity of coal mined in 1873 was 33
"a 613 tons. 1t is, however, too unfavol
q. ably situated for bringing to market
m A curious specimen is the rosewood COZ
-fossilized piano, probably-retainin
all the sensible properties OF rosewoo
- except color. Lands containing COS
y may be purchased anywhere in thi
a, colony before or after survey, and
u any quantity not exceeding three hur
dred and twenty acres at thirty shilling
e; an acre; the buyer, however, must e.
Il, pend one pound per acre in working til
OF mines within one year from the tim
ID of sale. Though the display of whit,
gray, red and variegated marbles is e,
ID tensive, these materials form no consit
s, erable portion of the mineral wealth {
lg the country.
x From the prominence given to IL
skulls and other bones of the dugon
or sea COW, one might imagine that bea
to be the idol of pagan country. I'll
secret of it is, however, that the dugor
IN affords delicious meat, combining IL
ch dainty flavor of the turtle steak wit
3, the delicacy of the veal sweet bread, an
ii. without race of fshiness about
n Another curiosity is the thick, stron
he even fiber of the Gida Retelsa,
a Queensland hemp, plant that grows