Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/119

 evidence given before the Royal Commission a. single expression of opinion on the subject, and also on the matter of "mixed farming." Mr. Oliver, a farmer of twelve years' standing on the Lockyer River, was asked, "Do you think that the sand plain country here could be utilised for corn-growing?" and his reply was, "I have broken up some poor sand-plain country, and got twelve bushels to the acre off it; I believe I am the only one who has tried it in the district. It was in a dry season; I rather fancy it would be too cold in a wet season. It was simply £allowed out of the bush, and the yield was as I say." "Then you think," the chairman asked him, "that there is some good even in the sand plains?" "I think a great deal of them," was his reply, "especially for fruit­ growing. It is this yellow sand which seems to suit fruit­ growing. There is plenty of this kind of land alongside all the flats." I need hardly say that with 15,000,000 of acres to choose from, the Company will take as much of the good agricultural land and leave the Government as much of the sand as possible. Still, despite all their efforts, they will have to take a certain proportion of sand plain, and I only quote Mr. Oliver to show that even then the case is not so utterly desperate.

With regard to "mixed farming," a witness named Maley was amusingly emphatic. "They say," was his response to a question on the subject, "that the farmer is the backbone of the colony; but I say that if he does nothing else than grow wheat there will soon be nothing left of him but his backbone. Unless he goes in for mixed farming, unless he goes in for stock, he may as well give up the ghost. That's my opinion." I may add that the Midland Railway Company have got 154 miles of their railway open for traffic, or more than half of the whole length, and they expect to get the balance in working trim by the end of June next. The selection of the vast area accruing to the Company, about 3,540,000 acres, has been completed, and embraces an area of country such as probably forms the finest agricultural territory, possessed by one interest, in the whole of Australia. The surveys have been rapidly pushed forward, and the end of last year saw the plans of