Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Thursday 9 November 1871, page 7


QUEENSLAND.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

BRISBANE, Nov. 1.

The Parliament of Queensland is to meet for the despatch of business next week, and will have its hands full of work for the remainder of the year. Of the members returned at the general election, three have already resigned, of whom one, Mr. Tozer, was elected by the constituency of Wide Bay, on the understanding that if Mr. King, who sat for Wide Bay in the last Parliament, should fail in his attempt to wrest the representation of Maryborough from Mr. Walsh, Mr. Tozer should resign in his favour. Mr. Walsh succeeded in beating Mr. King by a very narrow majority, and Mr. King has since been returned for Wide Bay without opposition. One of the seats for the Burnett is vacant by the resignation of Mr. Moreton, a Ministerialist, who will probably be succeeded by a member of the same party and one of the seats for East Moreton by the resignation of Mr. Jordan, whose name is identified with the question of Queensland immigration, but who is now largely engaged in sugar-planting, and finds that his business requires his undivided attention. For East Moreton two candidates are in the field-one, Mr. Douglas, late agent-general of the colony, who has announced himself as an independent candidate, with private grievances against the Palmer Administration, opposed to their general policy, yet prepared to support them in any bona-fide attempt they may make to grapple with the difficult question of re-adjusting the representation of the colony on a fair basis. The programme of the Opposition comprises the resumption of immigration on a large scale; the expenditure of money on what they describe as remunerative public works, especially the extension of the South-Western Railway from Ipswich to Brisbane ; additional representation, the readjustment of the electorates, and the imposition of a tax on the occupied lands of the colony. Mr. Douglas holds that the questions of readjusting the boundaries of the present electorates and of providing additional representation for the present population ought to take precedence of all other business, but on general questions he expresses himself as quite prepared to give his support to the Opposition. His views, however, are not sufficiently thorough to satisfy the leading members of the Opposi-tion, whose chief, Mr. Lilley, is in want of a " mon very much in earnest, who will be as hot as fire, consuming every evil principle he finds before him." Mr. Douglas therefore, is opposed by Mr. Hemmant, who has Mr. Lilley's hearty support, and is working very hard, and re-peating his hustings speech night after night in various districts of the electorate, with the view of securing the vacant seat. It is difficult to estimate the chances of the rival candidates, but on the whole it is not improbable that the verdict of the East Moreton constituency will be in favour of Mr. Douglas.

The sending elections will have little appreciable effect on the strength of the opposing parties in the House. Of the 30 members who are ready to take the oaths next week Mr. Palmer's supporters number 18. Even supposing him to lose the Burnett, he will still have a sufficient majority to carry on the business of the country against all fair, as distinguished from factious, opposition. His policy has not been declared, but as it is currently he lieved that the 10 Ministerialists who were returned a few weeks ago represented the views of under 6,000 electors, whilst the 13 members of the Opposition reprobated the views of over 13,000, it is morally certain that Mr. Palmer will invite Parliament to consider the question of readjusting the representation, either on a basis proposed by himself a few months ago, or on some other basis more likely to give general satisfaction than his former idea of splitting up the colony into 40 electorates, each to return a single member. Probably, also, the question of separating the colony into financial districts will be brought forward again by the Ministry ; whilst the land acts of the colony are not unlikely to require further amendment, especially in respect to providing

some plan for the proper classification of unalienated public' lands. It is pretty certain, again, that Mr. Pring's report on the Queensland gold-fields will be considered, and that a new gold-fields act will he passed, embodying the' result of his inquiries, at the beginning of the year. Possibly, also, the fact that the revenue of Queensland for the current year is almost certain to exceed the expenditure may induce Mr. Palmer to waive his objections to the construction of the Brisbane and Ipswich railway, about the effect of which on the general prosperity of the colony most extravagant expectations are entertained by the leaders of the Opposition. At the worst, the construction of that line would entail a small annual increase on the expenditure of the colony and even if the gradual growth of the population were not certain to lighten the annual burden per head of the loss from Queensland's premature investments in railways, it is desirable that provision should be made for continuing the Southern and Western Railway to Brisbane, so that Parliament might be relieved of a question which, so long as it remains unsettled, will stand in the way of legislation for the general good. If Mr, Palmer yields on the question of the Brisbane and Ipswich Railway, there will be no factious opposition on the Estimates for the coming year, including provisions for the postal arrangements suggested by the Melbourne Conference, which seem to be in accordance with the wishes of the English Postmaster General, and to meet the approval of the people of Queensland.

Mr. Macalister, the Speaker of the late Parliament, is without a seat in the present Assembly, and is said to be unwilling to sit for a squatting constituency. It is possible, however, that he may be brought forward for the Burnett, in which event some temporary arrangement may be made about the Speakership of the new House, for which Mr. Forbes, one of the members for Ipswich, is understood to be a candidate. Mr. Forbes was chairman of committees in the late House, and has claims on his party which would be cheerfully acknowledged if his selection as Speaker were likely to give satisfaction either to the House or to the colony at large. The appointment of Mr. Ramsay, whose indifferent health compelled him to resign the Colonial Trea-. surership in the present Administration in favour of Mr. J. P. Bell, would be much more popular and though it has been lately stated that Mr. Ramsay does not desire to be Speaker, it is possible that he may be selected to fill the chair, at all events during Mr. Macalister's absence from the House. Mr. Pring, who is a member of the Opposition, would make a capital Speaker, if he were free to accept the office. But he has accepted retainers to appear at the Roma District Court next week, in some important cases of cattlestealing, and will be out of the way of temptation.

The Queensland Statistical Register for 1876 has just been issued, from which it appears that the present population of Queensland is estimated at 120,000. The area of land under cultivation in 1870 was over 52,000 acres, of which nearly 15,000 acres were under cotton andoverG.OOOacreswereundersugar cane. The bonus on the production of cotton ceases this year; notwithstanding which, it is expected that the crop will continue to increase in importance year by year, towards which result experiments now being made to utilise the cotton seed, and likely to be successful, will doubtless contribute. For the present year, the yield is estimated at 8,000 bales. The production of sugar is already in excess of the local demand, and an attempts about to be made to introduce Queensland sugar into the home market, with every prospect of remunerative returns, Fresh discoveries of gold reefs are reported every week and satisfactory accounts of the yield of gold continue to be received from all the established gold-fields, as also of the yield of copper from the copper mines of the north. The wool clip of the present year is fast coming to hand and though the year has been i (lying one to those interested in pastoral pursuits, satisfactory returns are expected whilst the improvement in the price of that state makes the prospects of the squatter) higher than they have been for several

years.

The incoming mail has brought the intelli-gence that the Marquis of Normanby is likely to succeed the Earl of Belmore as Governor of New South Wales. His Excellency has just returned from the North, where he visited most of the towns of importance as far as Caldwell. At Rockhampton, the question of Separation was brought before him by Mr Shaw, the chairman of the local Separation Committee ; but his lordship, whilst declining to commit himself, did not express an: sympathy with the views of which Mr. Shaw was the exponent. Elsewhere the Marquis of Normanby made some remarks in reference to the duties incumbent on the employers of Polynesian labour, to which exception was taken a day or two ago by Mr. Hemmant the opposition candidate for East Moreton But as his lordship seems to have said little more than that, in his opinion, the duty of the employers of Polynesian labour is to endeavour to civilise and christianise the Polynesians upon whom their influence may; be exerted, Mr. Hemmant's strictures might very well have been spared. The question of what is the duty of the employers of Polynesian labour to Polynesians already in Queensland, has little bearing on the question, with which the present Parliament ought to deal without delay, as to whether Queensland _ ought to be relieved from the stigma of encouraging a form of slavery of her sugar plantations by the repeal of the act under which Polynesians are brought to the colony and which, whatever its intention, was powerless to prevent the enormities lately forced on the attention of the Queensland public by the report of the Government agent on board the Jason.