Evening star., 1901-07-13
Queensland is Certain to Have {
Brilliant Future.
RICH IN ALL SORTS OF RESOURCES
Gold Mines That Have Given Up
Fabulous Fortunes.
A PROSPEROUS PEOPLE


Copyright 1901. by Frank q. Carpener)
BRISBANE. Queensland.
Queensland is the coming country of the
New Australia. The good lands of Nicto-
ria have long since been taken up. New
South Wales is fairly wei developed and
South Australia and West Australia
so largely desert that they can never sup
port a great population 1t is different
with Queensland. The state has vast tracts
of arid land, which it expects to use
| through artesian wells. 1t has already re-
deemed a country twice as great as the
state of New York. and ] am told that the
most of the vast area beyond the coastal
range is underlaid with subterranean lakes
| and streams, which will furnish water for
stock The cultivated lands are increasing
| every year. The government is slowly but
surely pushing the railroads on into the
| interior, and enough pastures for 1S,00000O
sheep now in use. Queensland has al
ready more cattle than all the rest of Aus
tralia combined. and in its northern parts
all sorts OF tropical fruits and crops
being raised with labor from the South Sea
Islands.
But let me tell you something of this
frontier colony of Australia. which may be
called The Newest England of these
English south lands Queensland is a prin-
cipaity in itself 1t comprises the north
eastern quarter of the Australian conti-
| nent, having coast as long as from New
York city to the great Salt Lake. In di-
| rect line from north to south it is as long
as from Washington to Omaha, and from
east to west about long from Wash
ington to Chicago. 1t is half again as large
as all our Atlantic states from Maine to
Florida. 1t is four times as big France.
and twelve times the size of England and
Wales. The York peninsula at the north
of it is larger than Ireland. and the state
all told would make seventeen states as
large as Ohio. or more than thirteen the
size of New York. Queensland contains
GiS, 900 square miles, 42I UD1,U1 acres. of
which less than 12,0O0,o00 are cultivated.
A Tropical Country.
The entire upper half of it is tropical. 1t
! is not far from the equator. and the coast
lands will raise all sorts of tropical fruits
and crops There are more than 100000
acres in sugar, and eighty sugar mills. The
sugar business Is in the hands of trust,
which is increasing the product every year.
and which is now making something like
100000 tons of sugar annually. In the same
region coffee plantations are being started.
there are extensive rice fields and pine
apples and all sorts of tropical fruits
raised for shipment to the cities further
south. Last year the exports amounted to
| forty-five million dozen bananas. half a
million dozen pineapples and million and
a half dozen oranges.
The lower half of Queensland is much
| like northern Florida. There are large
| have a soil as rich the Red River valley.
| Here you find all sorts of crops. including
wheat corn and alfalfa. Some Of the land
| | am told is too rich to raise wheat until
! 1t has been farmed for a few years Some
! produces 10 bushels of corn to the acre,
! and some farms two crops are raised
| every year. A great deal OF money is MADE
| in alfalfa. 1t grows very rank, ana III some
| places as many as nine crops are cut in one
| year. each cutting producing from one to
| two tons per acre. 1t is not uncommon Tor
! a man to get hundred dollars per acre
| annually out of alfalfa. This is, of course
| on the very best farms. As a general thing
| the farming is carelessly done. Ihe SEEDS
are merely sown and the crop reaped. There
! is little artificial fertilization. but never
| thelesS the farmers make money.
| At present most of the land is held IN
large tracts, There are single farms which
comprise 5000 square miles. and there are
fields that are ten miles square. The gov
ernment still owns % per cent of all the
lands in the state. and it leases out large
portion of them to the squatterS ana snaH
famerS.
The Government and the Farmers.
The government of Queensland is a sort
of a patriarchial institution for nursing the
people Both town and country demand all
sorts of things of it. Not long ago a depu-
tation called upon the officials here at Bris-
bane and demanded that they should ex-
pertinent as to raising certain kinds or
trees The demand in this case was pre-
posterous. and the official ansrly said:
I'VE can't spend the state money in that
way. You ask the government to do every
thing | am surprised that you do not de-
maud that we suckle your babies.
| called at the agricultural department in
brisbane the other day to ask as TO the eX-
nerimental farms. / told that these
had been established in all parts of the
state and that the best of experts and
SPECIALISTS were imported to supervise
them A number of the experts are Ameri-
cans and some of them receive very high
salaries DIR. Maxwell, the sugar expert,
came here from the Hawaian Islands I'M
der "a contract which gives him $1,000 a
year and the tobacco expert, Mr.. r. S.
Neviu of Kentucky, is also well paid. Mr..
Nevill is now serving his second term of
three years / have met Mr.. Nevill during
my stay in Brisbane. He is a thorough
American, but is fond of the Australians
and is full of practical Information about
them. He has travelled throughout the
greater part of Queensland, and he says it
has great possibilities along many different
lines, and especially along that Of tobacco
raising. He is Introducing American meth
DDS of culture and doing much to make the
plantations here successful. He is prac-
tical tobacco raiser, having been engaged
for years in handling tobacco in Kentucky
and Missouri.
Rich in Mines.
,ipip ht,r