A Settler's 35 Years' Experience in Victoria, Australia: And how £6 8s. became £8,000 — John Shaqi
A Settler's 35 Years' Experience in Victoria, Australia: And how £6 8s. became £8,000Hulme, E. (Edward)
History
A Settler's 35 Years' Experience in Victoria, Australia: And how £6 8s. became £8,000
Hulme, E. (Edward)
Hulme, E. (Edward), 1818-1904; Immigrants -- Australia -- Biography; Victoria -- Biography
Cr. £113 0 0
Dr. 42 11 4
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Profit £70 8 8
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I (the reporter) asked Hill what wages weekly would have been equal
to this. He seemed astonished at such a question, and confessed that
no reasonable wages could have placed him in such a comfortable and
independent position.
This is a modest affair, and yet the tenant was most contented and
happy.
In concluding this section, I must say I would very much like to see
in Victoria, a small model farm of say 25 acres of tillage as a dairy
farm; everything to be consumed on the farm; that is, all the produce
from the land--hay, straw, fodder plants, roots, etc.--and the whole to
be under the direction and supervision of the Minister of Agriculture,
and the Government Agricultural Chemist, ---- Martin, Esq., and
everything carried out under an intelligent tenant and his family, and
a strict balance-sheet kept.
A Glimpse at the Future of Australia.
I am not so sanguine as many that Australia, in the near future, will
have such a very large population, and particularly a European one.
There is not temperate climate enough. I have already stated that
wheat cannot be profitably grown beyond 30 degrees of latitude north,
and we may say most of the European products also, and the climate,
beyond another 20 degrees, is not suitable for European constitutions
to labor in. If we, therefore, draw a line at 30 degrees across the map
of Australia, we shall see the insignificant portion there is left in
the temperate zone; we shall find it not one-fourth of the continent.
Take it through Western Australia, and there is just a little corner.
What, then, is the future of the enormous country north of 30 degrees,
and which is only suitable for tropical and semi-tropical products, all
of which will grow to the greatest perfection? The question then is,
will Europeans grow these products? I think not. At least, not European
labor. It must, and no doubt will be done, by large companies, by
employing Chinese, Coolie, or Kanaka labor, under the superintendence
of Europeans. These hotter regions, otherwise, will never be utilized.
Therefore, it is my belief that instead of persecuting and expelling
these races as the fashion now is, we shall be glad to invite them
to assist in developing this vast territory. I think this conclusion
will strike everyone as correct, who calmly reflects upon the subject.
Besides, the products of these districts, such as sugar, rice, tea,
coffee, etc., require so much hand labor, that to compete with these
with other countries which have cheap labor, will be impossible. Even
at the present day, neither Englishmen nor Europeans will do the
necessary work in the northern districts, and even in Victoria our
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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