Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/193

Rh Q U E Q U E 175 creasing rates. The absolute public debt in 1884 was 16,570,850. Of that amount the outlay on railways was about 12 millions ; immigration, 2 ; harbours, l. Roads and telegraph lines took other sums. Education. Queensland led the way among the Australian colo- nies, in the establishment of a system of public instruction free, unsectarian, and compulsory. At the same time, however, the parliament declined to grant further state aid to the clergy and religious edifices of Protestant Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Wes- leyans, and Roman Catholics, formerly drawing from the treasury. State or provisional schools aro formed wherever there is a suffi- cient gathering of children. The annual public cost was 2, 17s. per scholar. There are, however, self-supporting private schools. Masters and mistresses of state schools are paid by the Government according to their own educational status, the number of children, and the proficiency of instruction. Excellent training schools for teachers are established. Five superior grammar schools are partly supported by the state ; the municipal councils have voluntarily aided those institutions, and offered scholarships to their pupils. The Government gives free education in grammar schools to suc- cessful scholars in state schools, besides three years' exhibitions to universities to a certain number passing a high examination. State aid is also rendered to schools of art, schools of design, free libraries, and technical schools. Population. The estimated population in January 1884 was 290,000, of whom three-fifths were males. Polynesian labourers, imported for three years, are about 8000. The Chinese, now re- stricted by a heavy poll tax, may be 18,000. The Aborigines, very fast dying out, mainly by contact with civilization, may be from 10,000 to 12,000. History. The Portuguese may have known the northern shore nearly a century before Torres, in 1605, sailed through the strait since called after him, or before the Dutch landed in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Captain Cook passed along the eastern coast in 1770, taking possession of the country as New South Wales. Flinders visited Moreton Bay in 1802. Oxley was on the Brisbane in 1823, and Allan Cunningham on Darling Downs in 1827. Sir T. L. Mitchell in 1846-7 made known the Maranoa, Warrego, and Barcoo districts. Leichhardt in 1845-47 traversed the coast country, going round the gulf to Port Essington, but was lost in his third great journey. Kennedy followed down the Barcoo, but was killed by the blacks while exploring York Peninsula. Burke and Wills crossed western Queensland in 1860. Landesborough, Walker, M'Kinlay, Hann, Jack, Hodgkinson, and Favence continued the researches. Squatters and miners have opened new regions. Before its separa- tion in 1859 the country was known as the Moreton Bay district of New South Wales. A desire to form fresh penal depots led to the discovery of Brisbane river in December 1823, and the proclamation of a penal settlement there in August 1826. The convict popula- tion was gradually withdrawn again to Sydney, and the place was declared open to free persons only in 1842. The first land sale in Brisbane was on August 9, 1843. An attempt was made in 1846, under the ministry of Sir James Graham and Mr Gladstone, to establish at Gladstone on Port Curtis the colony of North Australia for ticket-of-leave men from Britain and Van Diemen's Land. Earl Grey's Government under strong colonial appeals arrested this policy, and broke up the convict settlement. In 1841 there were 176 males and 24 females; in 1844, 540 in all; in 1846, 1867. In 1834 the governor and the English rulers thought it necessary to abandon Moreton Bay altogether, but the order was withheld. The first stock belonged wholly to the colonial Government, but flocks and herds of settlers came on the Darling Downs in 1841. In 1844 there were 17 squatting stations round Moreton Bay and 26 in Darling Downs, having 13,295 cattle and 184,651 sheep. In 1849 there were 2812 horses, 72,096 cattle, and 1,077,983 sheep. But there were few persons in Brisbane and Ipswich. The Rev. Dr Lang then began his agitation in England on behalf of this northern district. Some settlers, who sought a separation from New South Wales, offered to accept British convicts if the ministry granted independence. In answer to their memorial a shipload of ticket-of-leave men was sent in 1850. In spite of the objection of Sydney, the Moreton Bay district was proclaimed the colony of Queensland on December 10, 1859. The population was then about 20,000, and the revenue 6475. Little trade, no manu- factures, wretched roads, defective wharfage, struggling townships, and poor schools marked that epoch. Political liberty occasioned a general advance. The first parliament, with the ministry of Mr (now Sir R. G. W.) Herbert, organized a good school system, carried an effective land bill, and established real religious equality. While the pastoral interest rapidly grew, the agricultural and trad- ing classes got firm footing. The revelation of gold and copper treasures increased the prosperity. But a reaction followed ; wool prices fell, cotton-growing ceased, early sugar-cane efforts failed, and trouble succeeded excessive speculation in land and mines. A steady application to legitimate pursuits, however, soon restored confidence ; and the colony, as its resources have gradually de- veloped, has continued to advance and prosper. (J. BO. ) QUEENSTOWN, formerly COVE OF CORK, a market town and seaport in the county of Cork, Ireland, is picturesquely situated, 13 miles east south-east of Cork, on the south side of Great Island, on the slope of an eminence rising somewhat abruptly above the inner Cork harbour. It consists chiefly of terraces, rising above each other, and inhabited by the wealthier classes. On account of the mildness of the climate it is much frequented by valetudinarians in winter. Previous to the American War the Cove of Cork was a very small fishing village, but within the last fifty years it has rapidly increased. It received its present name on the occasion of the visit of Queen Victoria in 1849. The harbour, which is 4 miles long by 2 broad, and is defended by the Carlisle and Carnden Forts at its entrance, and by Fort Westmoreland on Spike Island, can afford shelter to a very large fleet of vessels. The port is the calling station for the American mail steamers. Among the principal buildings are the new Catholic cathedral for the diocese of Cloyne, and the Pro- testant Episcopal church for the united parishes of Clonmel and Temple Robin. A fine promenade, over a mile in length, connects Queenstown with Rushbrook, a favourite watering-place. The population of Queenstown in 1871 was 10,334, and in 1881 it was 9755. QUERCITRON is a yellow dye-stuff obtained from the bark of the quercitron oak, Quercus tinctoria (see vol. xvii. p. 693). The tree is a native of the United States, but is now also cultivated in France and South Germany. The dye-stuff is prepared by grinding the bark in mills after it has been freed from its black epidermal layer, and sifting the product to separate the fibrous matter, the fine yellow powder which remains forming the quercitron of commerce. The ruddy-orange decoction of quercitron contains quercitannic acid (vol. xvii. p. 692) and an active dyeing principle, quercitrin, C 33 H 30 O ir. The latter sub- stance is a glucoside, and in aqueous solution under the influence of sulphuric acid it splits up into a rich tinctorial principle, quercetin, C 2r H 18 O 12, and a variety of sugar called isodulcite, C 6 H 14 O 6. The reaction may be thus formu- lated CssH 3 oO ir + H 2 = C 27 H 18 12 + C 6 H U O 6. Quercetin precipitates in the form of a crystalline powder of a brilliant citron yellow colour, entirely insoluble in cold and dissolving only sparingly in hot water, but quite soluble in alcohol. Either by itself or in some form of its glucoside quercitrin, quercetin is found in several vegetable substances, among others in cutch, in Persian berries (Rhamnus catharticus), buckwheat leaves (Poly- gonum Fagopyrum), Zante fustic wood (Rhus Cotinus), and in rose petals, &c. Quercitron was first introduced as a yellow dye in 1775. For many years it has been Used principally in the form of FLAVIN (q.v.). Flavin is pre- pared by boiling quercitron in water and precipitating the tinctorial principle by sulphuric acid. By one method soda crystals are added in preparing the solution. The yellow precipitate is washed to free it from acid, pressed, and dried. From 100 parts of quercitron about 85 of flavin are obtained, having a tinctorial power more than twice that of the original bark. Quercitron and its in- dustrial derivatives are principally employed in calico- printing. With alumina (red liquor mordant) they yield a bright canary colour, with tin salt a fine clear yellow, with iron liquor grey, olive, or black according to the strength of the mordant, and with mixed alumina and iron liquor an orange tint. QUERETARO, a city of Mexico, capital of the state of the same name, lies on a plateau 5900 feet above the sea, 152J miles, north-west of Mexico by the Central Mexican Railway. It is a well-built place with a beautiful tree-planted alameda, a cathedral, and several handsome