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
When private enterprise invests many thousands of
pounds in the building of jetties and tram-lines to facilitate the
shipment of fruit, evidence in support of these statements is
unnecessary.
The prosperity of the farmer and fruit-grower in North Queensland does
not unhaply depend upon himself, but upon the existence of large
populations within reasonable range. Land of unsurpassed fertility and
meteorological conditions which represent perfection for the growth of
all fruits, ranging from the tomato to the mango, and, with few
exceptions, all the commoner as well as all the more delicate, but none
the less desirable vegetables are the heritage of the people. If the
coast of North Queensland does not in a few years support a large,
well-to-do, lusty, and therefore contented population, it will not be
because of the lack of any of the essentials, but because the population
has failed elsewhere, and that consequently there is no demand for the
easily grown fruits of the earth.
Each and all of the branches of cultured industry mentioned (with the
exception of the growth of sugar-cane) were at disposal for trial here.
Soil, climate and aspect are extremely favourable when not approaching
absolute perfection, while the advantages of direct communication with
the markets are unique. But my disposition, "that rash humour which my
mother gave," impelled me to disregard all the encouraging prospects of
fortune, and to easily tolerate circumstances and conditions under which
few would remain content. True it is that some few acres of jungle have
been cleared and various sorts of fruit-trees planted, that corn and
potatoes are grown, and that there are evidences of work; but no one is
better qualified than I to realise the insignificance of the results of
my labours in comparison with what they might have been, had the
accomplishment of them been undertaken with harder hands and more
determined purpose.
SOME DIFFERENCES
"The weather may be extremely fine; but not without such varieties as
shall hinder it from being tiresome."
What higher or better reward could be desired than the reflection that
one had attempted to assist in the dispersion of the mists of ignorance
which obscure some of the aspects of the land of his adoption? Australia
is vast and of infinite variety. The efforts of an individual isolated by
remoteness and the sea, must necessarily be circumscribed.
No Australian is able to affirm that his knowledge of the country is
entirely satisfactory to himself. There are some points upon which the
best informed stand to the correction of others whose general knowledge
may be admittedly inadequate. We who are scattered about in odd and
out-of-the-way corners, pick up in the school of experience scraps of
local knowledge, and may without presumption present them to others to
confirm and to conjure with.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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