The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1909 THE CALL TO QUEENSLAND.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2611, 20 September 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1909 THE CALL TO QUEENSLAND.

An Ashburton newspaper proprietor, Mr Robert Bell, lias recently returned from a tour of the Australian States and has informed the readers of the “Mail” that any New Zealanders who decide to invest their money in Queensland will incur considerable risk. Mr Bell was brought into contact with many of the leading merchants, farmers and public men of the State that is now busily employed in booming itself and was given exceptional facilities to see the country and obtain reliable information. Mr Bell is evidently not; inclined to advise his friends to leave tills country in the hope of bettering themselves on the other side of the Tasman Sea. “The investor would bo all right,” be told a representative of the “Mail”, “if he could be sure of getting four good years; but the trouble is) that before he had got halfway through his four good years he might strike a drought—and the last drought continued for seven years, and hundreds of people

were ruined during that period. The question for those who aro turning their eyes towards Queensland to consider is, whether during a period of twenty years. —which is not too long a period in a man’s lifetime—whether at the end of twenty years they would have done better in a country which is so prolific on the one hand, and on the other is so cruelly devastated by droughts, floods and fires, or whether, at the end of tliat period they would not have been better off in, say, New Zealand, with its equable clianato and it s more even conditions.” Commenting on the above the “Lyttelton Times” remarks:

Mr Bell very sensibly leaves the people who are tempted to try their fortunes in Queensland to deci i© this question for themselves; but lie evidently thinks that the man of no aerate means, who cannot afford to ‘ae<_a seven years’ drought, will find a better field for the investment of his money and his energy in New Zealand than he will in the northern State. That certainly is our own view. Queensland offers splendid opportunities to the capitalist who is anxious to escape from the restrictive land laws of this country, which do not allow him to speculate in thousands of acres, but the man who has to make his way in the world by his own unaided efforts will find Now Zealand a much more congenial place for the exercise of his activities than

. any part of the Commonwealth. There is a good deall that is sound in the observations of Mr Bell, and likewise of our Christchurch contemporary* but at the same time there are a few awkward facts which well-wishers of this country cannot ignore. In the first place it is possible to matte too much of the drought bogey when discussing Queensland affairs. It is, of course, true that a- large section of the country is subject to periodical drought, but on the other hand there are also immense areas which have an abundant and regular rainfall. Then again there is a vast tea ritory which is rendered comparatively free from the effects of a low rainfall by reason of the fact that ample supplies of water can be obtained from deep wells. This, of course, is a poor substitute for penetrating showers, but at any rate it serves to rescue the territory thus supplied from being condemned as a desert waste. Queensland as a country with six times the area of New Zealand, can afford to have a few arid patches and still maintain a large population on its fertile portions. The hard fact is that the State possesses a vast expanse of fertile lands and, what is still more important, her statesmen are evidently determined to have them fully utilised. Every possible encouragement is given to people to go on the land and become producers, and it is this policy which is causing the present impetus in Queensland’s progress. It is true that in New Zealand we have not the immense areas for disposal that are to bo obtained in the North Australian State, but what we have wo do not make the best of. Owners of land are harassed at every turn and the Governments! policy tends to restrict rather than‘to extend 1 lpnd settlement. The “Lyttelton Times” is quite justified in emphasising the climatic advantages which are enjoyed by those fanning lands in New Zealand, but they constitute poor consolation to the thousands of would-be settlers who are constantly seeking in vain to obtain suitable farm allotments. No matter what natural advantages we may possess they can be to some extent nullified by legislative action-, and in this connection a radical change will have to take place if we are to counteract the present “call to Queensland” which is robbing us of many very desirable settlers., and a large .amount of capital.