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I take this as a typical illustration. It is a fact that men are earning in those cane fields wages which would be very hard to get anywhere else. Some first-class experts during the last harvest season were making as high as from 1/. a day, and in a few exceptional extraordinary instances upwards of 'Ms. a day, during the time of harvesting. The point is that this harvest, like all other harvests all the world over, is for a limited season; its beginning depends partly on the part of the coast on which you are. Quite a considerable portion of our rural labour in Australia is nomadic. Our immense flocks of sheep are shorn by shearers who come from their own farms or from employment in the city, during the season. They take their horses, and commencing at the north of Australia, when the shearing season begins earliest, shear their way southwards, right down through Queensland and New South Wales to Victoria, travelling probably 2,000 to 3,000 miles. In the same way, though to a lesser extent, in the cane-cutting on the Queensland coast, which lasts about four months altogether, it is possible to commence at the north, and work south. The cane-cutters, like the shearers, are either the owners of farms, or are establishing farms themselves, .and wish to obtain money for improvements and other purposes. They come for that season of the year. The work proceeds during the hot season, but the evidence goes to show that these men, apart from the over-indulgence in alcohol of which I have spoken, and over-indulgence in meat-eating which is practically universal in Australia, maintain their health perfectly in the cane fields. They can work, not only with the black men, but, as is always the case in our experience, they can beat the black men or Chinamen out of the field, in cane-cutting or any other employment, in any climate we have in Australia. When I speak of the very high wages lam not speaking of the whole body of cane-cutters. Where they earn those high wages they are not being paid by the day, but by piecework. They take contracts at average rates, and the high wages are obtained by exceptional capacity and expert training, such as I have spoken of. They can get that training in a season or two. One season is considered sufficient to train a man, and two seasons ought to enable him to make the best of his time. These high wages are earned only on contract work, they are not earned on day work. I did not intend to enter into all these considerations, or I would have summarised my remarks and abbreviated them. I have been drawn on to them by the fact that 1 had not realised that before I could make these conditions understood in criticising that circular, I had to give some sort of sketch of what is being done in Queensland. Surely, the proper thing for an Emigration Office under these circumstances would be to say : " You are going out to Queensland, a State which "offers already large opportunities for land settlement, which, according to "' its programme, is about to give 160 acres free to any settler who will go " there, and to make other land available at attractive rates; a State where " there are boundless mineral and agricultural resources of all kinds. This "is one class of work in connection with one class of product only of the " many in Queensland, and if you should find that this employment is unsuit- " able for you, you can have ample work on dairy farms, on grain farms, on " sheep stations, on cattle stations, as soon as you acquire the requisite local " knowledge." As far as work in the dairy is concerned local knowledge is soon added. There is abundance of employment on the land in Queensland. I am speaking of that State only because that is the sugar State, whose conditions have been questioned, but the same remark applies to the northern rivers of New South Wales where sugar is grown. Although sugar is not now grown in the remaining states of Australia, with some qualification the same general remarks apply to them. Agriculture is by no means the only rural industry; the timber industry has great potentialities in the felling. This clears the land, which when cleared is marvellously rich. The climate

Sixth Day. 25 April 1907.

Emigration. (Mr. Deakin.