Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/442

418 They are contented to take up what white men consider unprofitable, and, considering all their disadvantages, they have done wonderfully well. They are not allowed to enter any gold-field until it has been open for two years; and there is a poll-tax of £10 a head upon every Chinese who enters the colony. They are generally peaceable, but occasionally they quarrel among themselves over the right to work a certain spot, and then the noise they make is something tremendous."

From Gympie our friends went by rail to Maryborough, a seaport town on the Mary River, twenty-five miles above its mouth, and one hundred and eighty from Brisbane. The railway carried them past many sugar plantations, and they learned that Maryborough is the outlet of a considerable district devoted to sugar cultivation, the annual product being not far from five thousand tons. Large quantities of lumber are exported from Maryborough, and there is also a considerable business in wool and hides from the cattle and sheep stations in the country towards the interior.

Here they took steamer for Sydney, touching at Brisbane, Newcastle, and several other ports of lesser consequence. During their voyage they became acquainted with a resident of one of the northern