The Confessions of a BeachcomberBanfield, E. J. (Edmund James)
History
The Confessions of a Beachcomber
Banfield, E. J. (Edmund James)
Dunk Island (Qld.); Natural history -- Australia -- Queensland
Then, when the coffee
planter, self-taught, in each and all of the departments of culture and
preparation, glories in the assurance of his capabilities to offer to the
world an article of indubitable character, he discovers that the vulgar
world, for the most part, prefers its coffee duly adulterated; indeed has
become so warped and perverted in perception that the pure and undefiled
article is looked upon with suspicion and distaste. Its flavour and aroma
are quite foreign to the ordinary coffee drinker. The contaminated
beverage is regarded as pure, and the genuine article is soundly
condemned as an imposition, and the seller of it is liable to be accused
of fraud. It is in a similar position to the good grape brandy which
Victorians produce, and which drinkers of some imported stuff (described
as one part cognac and three parts silent spirit) fail to recognise as
real brandy. If coffee is not muddy and thick and does not possess a
mawkish twang of liquorice, it is suspected. The delicate aromatic
flavour, the fragrant odour, the genial and stimulant effects are now
almost unknown, except in limited circles. North Queensland is capable of
growing far more than sufficient coffee for the Commonwealth, but coffee
is not a popular Australian beverage, and as it entirely loses its
specific balsam and identity under the manipulation of manufacturers, it
cannot get the chance of becoming popular. Australian wines, Australian
spirits and Australian coffee might well be the popular beverages of
Australians. But preference is given to foreign importations, of the
genuineness of some of which there are strong grounds for suspicion; or
in the case of coffee its elements are so disguised by adulteration that
a revolution in public taste must take place before it can possibly find
general favour.
But there are other branches of tropical agriculture to which the settler
may devote himself. Rubber offers belated fortune. Cotton, rice, tobacco
and fibre--plants flourish exceedingly, and in the production of ginger
and some sort of spices and medicinal gums, profit may be possible. The
manufacture of manilla rope from the fibre of the easily cultivated MUSA
TEXTILIS may be a remunerative industry. It is amply demonstrated that
butter quite up to the standard of exportation is to be manufactured in
tropical Queensland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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