Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/191

Rh QUEENSLAND 173 pials. A monster bird, like the New Zealand moa, twice as large as the existing emu, once strode over Queensland plains. An ichthyosaurus, computed nearly thirty feet in length, was found on the surface of the Flinders river downs. The Secondary fossils have less resemblance than those of Western Australia to the European species. Near the Condamine a fossil monitor twenty feet long was unearthed. The northern coal-fields display the Glos- sopteris, Siyillaria, and Lepidodendroii. The northern beds exhibit the mesozoic Thinnfeldia odontopterodes, Aletho- pteris australis, and Podozomites distans. Some existing Queensland fish, as the ceratodus, are allied to those of the Carboniferous age in Great Britain. Minerals. Gold is found iu alluvial deposits and iu quartz veins. The most important of the former were near the northern Palmer river, but auriferous quartz now almost monopolizes the digger's attention. The recognized gold workings are over 7000 square miles. While there were 3454 Europeans, early in 1883, engaged iu quartz mining, only 280 were on alluvial ground ; in the same year 2046 Chinese worked alluvial claims. Charters Towers in the north and Gympie in the south are the chief gold centres ; but Mount Morgan, south of Rockhampton, is the richest mine yet discovered. The gold export realized 1,498,433 in 1875, but only 829, 655 in 1882. The decrease is owing to the greater dependence of the miners on blasting rock. 1 Gold is often found mixed with silver, copper, or lead. One lode had to the ton 75 to 120 ounces of silver and from 4 oz. to 4^ oz. of gold. Silver ore is being worked to great advantage now near Raveiiswood, Star river, and Sellheim river. Copper has been long so low-priced in England that its extraction in the colony, with high-rated labour, has been seriously checked. The cupriferous area is very large there. Mount Perry, Peak Downs, Herberton, and Cloncurry are the leading copper sites. The " Aus- tralian" mine of Cloncurry, 200 miles south of the gulf, is very rich. In one place a lode, 80 to 120 feet wide, showed 30 per cent, of bismuth and 40 of copper to the ton. Tin streams were first opened at Stanthorpe, near the southern border. Tin lodes of astonishing richness exist in the "Wild river district about 19 S. lat. There are single claims of tin stream, or on tin lodes, besides tin land leases, at Tate river, Wild river, and other localities. The Tinaroo yield in the five years lias been 383,350. Called the Cornwall of Australia, this tin district shows gold, silver, copper, and antimony. The tin export of the colony during 1883 was 298,845. Iron ores abound, but with no present prospect of being utilized. Bismuth, graphite, antimony, nickel, cinnabar, and other metals are known. Precious stones are gathered from gold and tin workings. Building stones are plentiful in variety, and good in quality. Granite, porphyry, basalt, sandstone, and marbles are wrought. The coal is, after all, the most important and useful of the minerals. Already steamers, foundries, and railways are being supplied from Queensland pits. Several beds are known near Moreton Bay. About Ipswich and Darling Downs the coal is clean to the touch. Some specimens cake, others do not. All are good for gas and steam purposes. The Darling Downs beds are in an ancient lake, and are valuable for fuel and oil. On 100 lb of that coal being burnt, 529 lb of water were evaporated to 505 from Newcastle coal, leaving 16 lb of ash to 7 for the other. That cannel is of Lias age. Much rests under the Eolian sandstone and basalt of the west. The Burrutn mineral, between Maryborough and Bundaberg, is true coal, yielding, at the first opening, 3000 tons a month. One seam would give 5,000,000 tons. The Dawson, Bowen, and Mackenzie river basins, of vast extent, are Palaeozoic, as in the Drummond range, and westward over the main chain. Coal is found in the York peninsula. On the coal of Queensland the distinguished Australian geologist, the Rev. J. Tenison Woods, expresses himself thus : " The fact that the coal formations cover so vast an extent of the territory, and so many valuable coal-fields having been discovered, makes me con- fident in predicting that its resources in coal are enormous, are equal, if not superior, to any other colony, and will raise her shores to be in the end the grand coal emporium of the southern hemisphere. " Agriculture. Until the last few years little cultivation was to be seen, and only 180,000 acres yet receive such attention. Labour was supposed to pay better in other employments. Still there can be grown in Queensland corn of all varieties, hay, English vege- 1 As an illustration of success the Day Dawn mine of Charters Towers may be cited. Some Germans long struggled in vain, and with difficulty got enough gold to supply them with food. Suddenly they struck a rich reef. After considerable gains they formed a company to work the ground. Upon a paid-up capital of 12,000, the share- holders' dividends in four years came to 138,399. Gympie affords even more remarkable instances of good fortune. tables, sweet potatoes, melons, cassava, cocoa, indigo, arrowroot, ginger, coffee, rice, tobacco, cotton, spices, cinchona, cocoa-nut, bread-fruit, and sugar-cane, with the fruits of England, India, and China. Lucerne is much grown for stud stock, where winter food is needed. Bananas, oranges, grapes, pine-apples, mangoes, guavas, tamarinds, and dates thrive well. Coii'ee is being extensively pro- duced. Many Ceylon planters have recently settled in the colony. Cotton pods, tended mostly in Moreton district, are now a paying crop. The mulberry success is paving the way for silk culture. The Roma grapes and oranges are much esteemed. Bananas grow on any coast-lauds. Arrowroot and tobacco are profitable. Sweet potatoes are extensively used. Rice will be a crop of the future. Fanners in the southern hills raise corn and English fruits. Dairy farming belongs more to a cooler latitude. Wheat can be success- fully produced, when labour is cheaper, over an area of 60,000 square miles. Stanthorpe wheat gave 67 lb to the bushel. Maize is a more certain crop. But sugar-cane is now the Queensland farmer's chief resource. From the southern border up to Cape York, if near the coast, it can be raised. All round Moreton Bay, and in the Maryborough and BunJaberg neighbourhood, it does well ; but in the more northern parts, as at the Mackay, Cairns, Burdekiu, Johnstoue, and Herbert fields, the yield is greater, and the plant comes earlier to maturity. In the Mackay sugar district, doring 1884, there were 22,000 acres in cane. Coast Queensland has not only warmth, and rich alluvial or scrub soil, but abundance of rain when growth requires it, with fine weather at cane ripening for manufacturing sugar. Some planters have their own appliances for the extraction of juice and the manufacture of sugar, but the small farmers combine to have machinery in their district, or else dispose of cane or juice for cash to the neighbouring sugar-maker. Polynesians or Kanakas have been used for the sugar-house, though Europeans do all the work of growth and manufacture in South Queensland. Chinese merchants are establishing cane grounds, worked by their own countrymen ; and Germans and Scandinavians have extensively embarked in this industry. Pastoral farming is still the leading industry of the colony, and is rapidly extending over all districts. An occasional check to its prosperity comes by drought in the dry Avestern interior. But a few good seasons, in that healthy wilderness, enable the sheepmaster to recoup himself, especially as, in the remoter parts, he has a securer tenure and a very small rental. In "settled districts," and within 30 miles of the coast, a " run " is subject to resumption by the state, at six months' notice, should any part be required to be cut up for farms. In the more distant " unsettled district " a lease of twenty- one years is fairly secure. The rent advances every seven years of the term from about half a farthing to a penny an acre. In the dry parts, where grass is insufficient, cattle and sheep thrive well on the salt bush and other shrubs. The only really unavailable pas- toral region is that portion of the north-western slope of the Main Range already referred to. The spear-grass sometimes sends its barbed tufts into the flesh of sheep. Wild dogs, floods, and droughts have to be encountered, though the animals to be tended are unaffected by ailments plaguing flocks and herds in Britain. The western plains, dry but fertile, are best for sheep ; the hills and moist coast-lands for cattle and horses. The merino sheep yields excellent wool on tropical pastures, contrary to former expectations. The sheep had increased from 3,000,000 to 12,000,000 between I860 and 1883 ; and cattle, from 430,000 to 4,320,000. To meet future droughts, subterranean streams have beeu found by artesian wells in the most arid wastes, and the storage of water after floods will furnish a supply in dry weather. Flora. The Queensland flora comprehends most of the forms peculiar to Australia, with the addition of about five hundred species belonging to the Indian and Malayan regions. The eastern por- tion of New Holland may have a vegetation of a somewhat different type from that of the western, but both have older representatives than those found in the central zone from the gulf to the Southern Ocean. The palms in the north-east of Queensland include the Cycas and the screw or Pandanus. The pines take an important position in the colony, as the Moreton Bay pine (Araucaria Cunninghamii), the Burnett bunya bunya (Araucaria Bidwelli), the kauri or dundathu (Dammara robusta), and the she pine (Podocarpus data). The Callitris or cypress family like poor soil. The cedar forests are buried in scrub towards the mouths of eastern rivers. Coast-lands are crowded with trees, though brigalow-scrub, with the silver-leaved tops, prevails far inland. There are trees rising above 300 feet. One monster, near the Johnstoue river, was seen 88 feet in girth at 55 feet from, the ground, and 150 at the base. The Moretou Bay fig-tree has immense wall-like abutments. The bottle or gouty stem tree of the north, Dclabcchia Gregori, is allied to the African baobab. Flowers are numerous, yielding often a powerful fragrance, though most commonly exhibited on shrubs. Queensland is notably a timber region, having both hard and soft woods. Above three hundred useful woods, many taking a fine polish, were sent to a recent exhibition. An active export of some, particularly cedar and pine, is conducted at Maryborough j and Port Curtis. Woods there are in use for building purposes,