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The Advertiser.
THURSDAY APRIL 18, 1872.
PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17.
In the Legislative Council—
Several question were answered.
The CHIEF SECRETARY laid on the table Mr.
Ulrich's report upon the mineral character of
the country north of Port Augusts.
■ country
The Hon. T. Hoo&BTB withdrew his motion'
for all pavers connected with the bonus pro
mised to Mr. GoyderJ* Northerri-TkrHtory pur
vey party oa the Chief Secretary pointing oat
thai all the information required would be
l found in a Parliamentary paper of a previous
i lemon. . .
The Testamentary Causes Amendment Bill
was read a third time and pasted.
The Language of Aeta Bill was read a second
time and paased through Committee,
i The Oyster rishery and Game Bill was read a
' second tune, and a number of clauses passed in
Committee.. .' '
The Boose adjourned at 10 minutes to 4
o'clock till next day.
i • IntheHtmseof Assembly—
On the ruling of the Sfkakeb, the Waste
lands Fund Appropriation Bill was withdrawn,
the title not being in accordance with- the leave
granted,
, Petitions far a jetty and reservoir at Brought
; ion Area, and for the extension of the water i
supply to M«ainJia and Prospect Village were
' received.
The s'orub Im^r Bill was laid on the table
and read a first time; also, a Bill to repeal the
Governor's Salary Augmentation Act, and a
Bui to amend the lioensed Victuallers Act of
1869.
I The House went into Committee, and the
Hon. A. Bltth moved an address to the Go- j
vtrnpr for a BUI to authorise the granting of
200.000,000 acres of land to any Company who
shaUconrtnut a trans-continental railway. The
House resumed after Mr. Birth's speeoh, and
( the Committee obtained leave to sit again that
'. dsywfpfc. -
Mr. Htraras's motion for £600 for the im
provement of the road between Green's Plains
' and Moenta. was carried," '. .. '. '•__ J
Several returns were ordered.
A Bill to prtyidfe forth* fesfis of wrltrfor
election of mmnbars: of / Parliament darjnj;
recess was read a first time.
An address to the Governor was .adopted,
praying for the report of the Attorney-General
on the Preeeden^f.^BiUfals^ith^ despatch of
His Excellency in forwarding it, and any oilier
correspondence relating thereto.
Mr. Bodoa.uk obtained lease to introdooa a'.
; Bill to regulate precedency in South Australia,
which was read a first time.
A week's kave.of absence, was granted to Mr..
fiiddoch, and three weeks' leave to Mr. Lake,
' tm account of urgent private business.
' The House adjourned at quarter past 6 till
next day.
A discussion of considerable importance
took place in the House of Assembly on
Wednesday. The late Treasurer, Mr.
Hughes, moved for the sum of £600, to
clear and define the. line of road between
Green's Plilns and Moonta. This motion,
consideredfby itself, was a matter of small
moment; but it was the first of along siring
of similar motions standing on the Notice-
Paper for the same day, the aggregate
value of which was £61,700. Now, as
tiie Government have inherited a deficit
of £55,000 from their predecessors, and
as the failure of the wheat harvest has
compelled ' the present Ministry to write
off £30,000 from the railway revenue an
ticipated by their predecessors (making,
without any other reductions, £85,000 of
deficit), it was somewhat trying—even to
a "strong Government"—to be asked in
one afternoon, to add £61,000 of unex
pected expenditure to the £85,000 of
ascertained deficiency; or, rather, the
£95,000 as set forth by the Government
in their revised Estimates. It is true, £600
is but a small amount; but the thin end of
the wedge is only a small quantity, me
chanically considered; the real difficulty
consists in the iMek end of the wedge
thit very naturally follow?. The Go
vernment, considering that the long
string of demands made upon the Trea
sury would have to be considered as a
whole, and knowing perfectly well that
no visible resources existed to meet these
demands, came to the conclusion that
they must be resisted db initio. Accord
ingly it was stated, that whilst Ministers
fully appreciated the importance of the
various works proposed, and would be
only too happy to assist in-carrying them
out, they could not possibly pledge them
selves to such large items of expenditure
before they had taken into consideration
hojr_and ;in what way they could raise
the amount. It was distinctly stated by
the Treasurer, and other members of the
Government, that they were heartily
willing- to do more for the Peninsula
than their predecessors had done; but, at
the same time, it wasjout of their power,
with a looming deficit of nearly £100,000,
to plunge'blindfold into extra votes of
between £60,000 and £70,000 in one
afternoon!' It~was~ therefore asked that
all these motions should be withdrawn,
until the Government had time to con
aider whether they could raise a supple
mentary revenue, to enable such extra
ordinary votes to be complied with. A
distinct pledge was given that the just
claims of the Peninsula should be honor
ably and immediately dealt with;
although as the motion of the hon.
member Mr. Hughes draw in its wake
£60,000 worth of other motions, it was
felt that the item of £600 for tho road
between Green's Plains and TfaiTina. stood
in very awkward companionship, and had
better be withdrawn, in order to its being
dealt with on its own merits. So much
for the argument of the Government.
The members for Wallaroo took, how- j
ever, an opposite course, and we do not
blame them at aIL It was admitted from
the Ministerial benches—and no one cao
deny it—that Yorke's Peninsula has not j
had anything like its fair share of public ,
expenditure. Much was made of the j
£18,000 levied upon the Wallaroo pro
prietors as a renewal-fine ; but we think
this argument had much better have been
omitted.' The claim of the Peninsula to
the consideration of the Government
does not depend upon this fine (which has
not jet been paid), but is altogether in
dependent of it. If no fine whatever
had been levied, the Peninsula would
have just as strong a claim on
the consideration of the Parliament.
A vast industry has been developed,
an immense population gathered to
gether, trade and commerce have been
promoted to an enormous amount—in
bet, the whole colony has benefited
immensely by the operations on Yorke's
Peninsula; and it would be sheer infatua
tion and reckless suicide to throw cold
water upon the twining enterprise of
Yorkers Peninsula. This in freely ad
mitted ; and if nothing has been hitherto
done for that district, it cannot be laid
to the charge of the Government, who
hive just taken office, especially con
sidering that one of the representatives
of the district has held the position of
Treasurer of the colony, and could in that
capacity have himself introduced the very
measures he now urges upon the present
Government. These measures were op
posed by the Ministers of the day—not
that they disapproved of the proposed
expenditure, but because they felt them
selves unable to take the first step in a
series of financial motions which would
have doubled the amount of their inherited
deficit, before they had the slightest
chance of considering how the additional
revenue was to be raised.
For the arguments, pro and eon., we
refer to our report of the debates. Suffice
it to say that Mr. Hughes's motion was
oirried, and the "strong Government"
was, happily, defeated by a majority of
two or three votes. We say " happily,"
bacanse it had the effect of bringing these
extraordinary motions to a crisis. Mr.
Hughes had another motion for £5,000
immediately following that for £600, but,
having gained the smaller amount, he
retired on his laurels, and forbore to
press for the larger. All -the other
motions for special grants followed in;
the rear; and the sum total of 'the
debate is—that whilst the Government
lost £600, they won £60,000. The de
feat may, therefore, be philosophically
endured.
No one can deny that the sum of
£50,000 set down in the Estimates for
main road purposes is utterly inadequate
to the wants of the colony. But this
was the amount set apart for the purpose
by Treasurers Hart, Blyth, and Hughes;
and common sense and fair play will at
once decide, that if neither of these
Treasurers could find a larger amount
for this purpose, it is not for either of
those gentlemen to censure the present
Government for failing to accomplish
recognised impossibilities. The truth is,
that out of our ordinary revenue it is
utterly impossible for the Government to
provide sufficient funds for road pur
poses. Another truth is, that previous
Governments carefully abstained from
indicating any new sources of road
revenue. It is, therefore, simply
unfair for' Ministers who were either
unable or unwilling to provide means
for supporting our main roads to
"take the lead- in forcing their successors
to do what they themselves failed to do;
aad the justice of this conclusion we are
sure the Parliament and the country will
both equally see. That more money is
wanted for road purposes every one must
admit; but no man with a Bingle atom of
fair play in his composition will say that
the Hon. Arthur Blyth, after placing
£50,000 on his own Estimates for main
roads, should turn round the moment he
leaves office and table a motion that his
successor is in duty bound, without one
shilling's worth of extra resources, to place
£100,000 on the Estimates for the same
purpose. The Government lost the
£600, but they have won the £60,000,
and have got at least one week's respite.
It is a short shrift, for it is unreasonable
to suppose any really new policy on road
questions can be rationally debated before
the Estimates of 1872 are passed. But
as soon as the Appropriation Bill becomes
law we trust a now Road Bill may belaid
before Parliament, and there need be
little doubt of hon. members devoting
themselves with straightforwardness and
patriotism to the solution of a question
which has blocked the course of practical
legislation for many years, and which
ought now to be promptly settled.
Though ire are not yet in possession of
the whole of the statistics of the last
harvest, we know enough to show, what
for so-ne time past has been surmised,
that the yield of the harvest would be
very disappointing. Six months ago
there was every reason to believe that
the harvest would be an average one ;
but as the crops ripened, and red rust
was succeeded by the ravages of locusts,
the hopes of the farmers faded away.
Still, even then, it was expected that the
yield would have been better than it has
turned oat to be. It was only when the
reaping-machine was put into the crops
that the full extent of the sad calamity
was realised. Then it was found that the
yield would be amongst the lowest ever
reaped in South Australia. The results,
as brought out by the Government Sta
tist, have shown how true this esti
mate was. Only once before since
agriculture began in South Australia
has so low an average crop been
reaped. In 1867-8. the average was
only 4 bushels 40 lbs.—the lowest we
have ever had; in 1869-70 it was 5 bushels
45 lbs.; and this year it is one pound
lower, the return giving 5 bushels 44 lbs.
to the acre. Though the opinion has
been pretty general for some time back,
that the average would be under six
bushels, there was in some quarters still
a sort of forlorn hope that it might reach
a little more. But now -we know the
worst. Only five and three quarter
bushels is the average yield of the whole
colony. This, we presume, is the average
on the acreage reaped, and not on that
sown.
In 1870-1 the number of acres under
wheat was 604,761, and these produced
6,961,164 bushels. Allowing for the
necessary wants of the population, and
the requirements for seed wheat for
the next harvest, it was estimated
that there would be a surplus of
considerably over 100,000 tons for export.
This quantity at a very low estimate of
price would give over one million sterling
as the profit of the harvest after all our
own wants were supplied. The whole of
this quantity, however, was not exported
during the year, and it is estimated that
at the beginning of the late harvest some
thing like 10,000 tons of the former crop
remained in the colony. According to
Mr. Boothby'a tables, in the year 1871-2
there were 692,508 acres under wheat,
which produced only 3,967,079 bushels,
or, as we have already said, an average
of 5 bushels 44 lbs. per acre. The follow
ing is the comparative result of the two
harvests:—
Acres under Yield in Amount
wheat. bushels, per acre.
1870-1 ... 604,761 6.96L.164 11 :30
1871-2 ... 692,608 3.967,079 5: 44
This gives for the last year an increase
in area reaped of 87,747 acres ; decrease
in bushels, 2,994,085; decrease in average
per acre, 5 bushels 46 lbs. This is a
miserable result, which cannot but be
deplored ; and it affords but poor en
couragement to our agriculturists in
prosecuting their special industry.
The next question is what will this yield
enable us to export during the year. We
have, first of all, to reserve what will
be necessary for our own wants to feed the
population, and to provide seed wheat
for the next year. The population to be
fed may be fairly estimated at 190,000,
which, reckoning six bushels per head,
will require 1,140,000 bushels. The num
ber of acres under wheat cultivation last
year approached 700,000. Seeing the
large demand for land that exists,
which will probably be increased by a
liberal Land Bill, it is not too much to
estimate that for the next harvest there
will be 750,000 acres laid down with
wheat. The usual estimate of seed re
quirements is 1J bushels per acre, which
will absorb about 937,500 bushels more.
The matter then will stand thus :—
Busbels. Bushels.
Yield of the harvest ... — 3,967,079
Required for consumption 1,140,000
" " seed ... 937,600
2,077,300
Remaining for export ... ... 1,889,579
In reducing this quantity to tons, we
have to adopt a different course from the
usual one. When the wheat is a good
fair sample, we estimate 45 bushels of
wheat to the ton. Owing, however, to
the inferior quality this year, we
have to allow 50 bushels to the
ton. The quantity which will be avail
able for export, therefore, will be
37,791 tons. Whon the new wheat came
in there was probably about 10,000 tons
of the produce of the former harvest
remaining in the colony, bo that, sup
posing we shall clear out everything this
yea? before the next harvest is available,
it will only amount to 47,791 tons—not
half of our surplus for last year. It is
possible, however, that owing to the grain
this year being wria^Tl one bushel per
acre will be enough for seed, instead of
our estimate of 1£ bushels ; but this will
not materially affect the whole result.
We now append a more detailed
account of the acreage and yield in the
several counties and pastoral districts, as
compared with the previous year:—
Id County Frome, the area in 1870-1 was 93
acres; in 1871-2, 200 acres; the produce in
1870-1. was 846 bushels; in 1871-2, 2,848
bushels; and the aversgs yield in IS7O-7L 9
bushels 6 lbs. ; and in 1871-2,14 bushels 14 lbs.
In County Cardwell, the area in 1870-1 was
nil; in 1871-2 was 48 acres; the produce in
1870-1 was nil; and in 1871-2. 418 bushels;
and the average yield in 1870-1 w«s oil; in
1871-2, 8 bushels 42 lbs.
In the pastoral districts, the area in 1870-1
was 361 acres, and in 1871-2. 456 acres; the pro
duce in 1870-1 was 3.255 bushels; and in
1871-2, 3.373 bushels ; and the average yield
iu 1870-1 was 9 bushels lib.; and in 1871-2,
7 bushels 24 lbs.
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