Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 3 February 1866, page 7


THE LOGAN.

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

January 30.

DURING the past week Mr. Arthur Pim has been round with a memorial, for signatures, to the hon. the Minister for Lands and Works, concerning the road from Baker's to Rafter's

farm, for Eden's ferry and the Logan, that was surveyed last April or May, on the suggestion of a previous petition, which represented the route to be 3 or 4 miles shorter than the old road by Mr. Markwell's. The survey, however, did not bear out that statement; and the rapid settlement since that time of the Logan further down towards California Creek and the Albert junction, has rendered it absolutely necessary that, in order to treat all the settlers somewhat equally, and at the same time to make as good and as near a road as possible for all parties, it was necessary that the old road bo adhered to. The Government, too, seem to have something of this in view, for Slack's bridge has been com-menced; and it is hoped that the settlers on Lower Logan and in the parish of Boyd will bestir themselves with a counter petition to the one that has been going round the upper part of the river. If the new proposed road was really so much nearer for anybody but Mr. Pim and his pro-posed town, it would be a different thing, but it is not; and at the present time Government will do best to make the old road which can at some future time be continued from Markwell's, past California Creek to the junction, and the people at the Logan village may hope to have a nearer road to Brisbane by Brown's Plains when the country is surveyed from there to the Logan River. Then the Logan Bridge road and the village road can meet at Brown's Plains, and the Albert road and the junction road meet at Markwell's. Such a.scheme would answer all ends. Attached to the memorial mentioned

are the names of some of the Albert residents, who seem most unfortunately to be mixed in the matter for a further extension of the road from Eden's ferry to the Alberton ferry at Kemp's. Now this part evidently originates in the rival ferry system. Stones has a ferry further down the Logan than Eden's, and there are not wanting parties who affirm that route to have some advantage. Now, as there have been five different roads blazed be-tween the Logan and the Albert within the last two years, it must be a matter of considerable doubt which way will yet ultimately prove the best. For this petition to be looked upon in that part as anything but a rival ferry system is to me totally incomprehensible. I will mention the five routes. First, in 1863, that by Samuel Waterman, from Pimspocket through Jimmy-bark Scrub to the Albert Ford. Second, in 1864, that by the same man, from Slack's Creek to Jimmybark Scrub. Third, in 1864, from the present Eden's Ferry, to meet the first route behind Mr. Henderson's stockyard. Fourth, in 1864, that by Stone's, across the range to Jim-mybark Scrub again. Fifth, the last and least and the most curious just now, by Mr. Eden, for it keeps parallel to Waterman's second track, and in many places within twenty yards of it, and then makes a turn into Stone's new track, which is the sixth. But this last is from a part of the river. Again, that these roads are as yet thorough delusions may be understood from the fact that in both Stone's and Eden's route, purchased land is crossed, and it is not unlikely that the proprietors will fence across these short cuts one of these days, and leave the traveller and the road in the lurch. But a good road to the Logan is an indis-pensable luxury we cannot well do without, and at via Markwell's at the present time must be made to meet in an impartial manner, the wants —not of one section or another, but the wants of every settler at present on the river. Reaping operations seem to have commenced pretty generally on the lower part of the river upon the early maize. The corn from the scrub land, as for as can be judged, is in no way in-ferior to last year's crop. Some Logan maize will be in the market in a few days, and like-wise some from the Albert. The maize on the upper part of the river on the forest land seems to be an entire failure of the first crop. Several parties of German children have gone down to the Pimpama cotton plantation, having been sent for to pick cotton as the season has already commenced. On the Albert, Mr. Warren has ten acres just getting ready. I think there is not much cotton on the Logan Reserve this year. With reference to the fatal accident that oc-last week, I think that the present is a fitting time for something to be done towards getting a professional surgeon and physician to settle on the Logan. Accidents and illness are happening rather frequently, and the expense of aid from town is something enormous to the generality of settlers. I believe that £8 and £10 are the lowest charges for one journey from Brisbane to the Logan, consequently people do not fetch advice except on the most pressing and nearly hopeless occasions. Now, if the present settlers were to guarantee a subscription of 10s. or a £1 a house, according to the family, a year for three years, something worth while, a really good doctor's attention could be secured. At the end of three years these subscriptions could cease, or be continued in a lower proportion, as the case might warrant and the practice of the settlement advanced. At any rate, this is a matter that demands the most serious attention of the settlors, and it would be well if a com-mittee were to bo formed to carry the matter out. The agricultural returns hare been collected on the Logan lately, and, no doubt, when the whole are compiled and classified the gross totals will be something startling for such a recently settled neighborhood ; but I do not think they are as complete in their arrangements for obtaining full information respecting what is actually being done as they might be They do not show as the why and the wherefore, and by the time when such are printed for public use, they are no more an item of present dependance than an almanac for 1766. A year in such a place as the Logan is about equal to a century in an old country, as regards reclamation and cultivation. I take it to be the future every body wants to see into from the collection. To see may be safely set down at any time from a former proportion is not always a sure way in new places,—some sort of column for estimation of probable increase for next year everybody at present could have filled in, and it would be a great guide. There is a column whereby one could tell the annual value of the Queensland gardens, but there is not a column from which we can tell what the whole of Australia would like to know—the annual value of our agriculture. The returns for stock are not as complete as the English returns were when they happened to be collected. There is no place for the poultry. Neither do the . population returns say whether the people are adults or children, or whether they are wholly engaged in agriculture or not. Like the table cattle, which includes calves, and that for sheep, including lambs, the return for the agri-cultures includes the children. A great many peopIe that live upon other people's land are not noticed, and the returns miss very nearly all the labor. Being taken at New Year's Day, one-half the young men from the Logan would be in town at that time. I have my own data only as yet; but I believe that on the Logan River, in the Agricultural Reserves, and in the parish of Boyd, we have 160 families averaging ; about 5, which gives us 800 people. This, of course, does not include any of the cattle stations or the timber getters, nor yet any of the sugar plantations on the Albert or between it and the Logan. I believe that, as regards the new road to the Logan River, the popula-tion are about equally situated above and below , Slack's Creek, so that the road, if made on Slack's old route, as before stated, will fairly suit all on the Logan, and it will also be as near as any route yet devised for the Albert, Pim-pama, Coomera, and Nerang Creeks.