Queensland is to-day within measurable distance of ruin. The drought there is established, apparently for ever, in its ery worst and most blighting forth. There is hardly a blade of grass along all the old stock routes. Even on the coast the desolation is terrible and of what it is "outback" nobody, save those unfortunates who have the misfortune to live there, has the slightest conception. Mr. Philp, the Premier, thinks the only way to restore prosperity is to secede from the commonwealth. "A few years ago," he told an interviewer, "we had 7,000,000 head of cattle in Queensland. Now we have only 3,500,000 head. We had 21,000,000 sheep, and now we have only 10,000,000. The anti-kanaka. legislation of the Federal Parliament is inflicting serious injury upon the sugar industry, and what between the drought and ill. considered legislation Queensland is indeed in a bad way" Mr. Philp declares that at the next general Federal election, Queensland will "go solid" for separation. The constitutional way would be to return candidates who are pledged to vote for a resolution referring the continued inclusion of Queensland in the commonwealth to a referendum of the whole people. His complaint is that the Federal Government have no financial responsibility; they simply keep one-fourth of all they can get.
The Drought, To keep starving stock alive farmers from the Mallee and other waterless dis. tricts of this State are now trucking horses and cattle to the cooler slopes of the Eastern ranges in Gippsland, which has been comparatively untouched drought. An "Age" correspondent described his riding through the N.W. district from Mildura for Eeoireds of miles without seeing a man or a horse. Only the women and children were left. The country everywhere is in a Pitiable conn-and the price of provisions is consequently at famine rates. Sydney is worse off than we are. There they are eating horse. Butchers cheerfully pro-diet that things will become worse next Year, as there is no stock coming forward at all. The big hotels and Soardinghouses are feeling the hard times; they dare not raise their prices too much and their profits are all swallowed up in increased tradesmen's bills. At the annual me of one of our leading hotels it was shown that although the receipts had fallen off over a £1,000 since last year (the Royal visit year) the butcher's bill had increased by £300 and the total was over £8,000. Out. back there is absolutely no sign of vegetation; all edible scrub has long since vanished and the future must take care of itself. "How we can ever restock," says one correspondent, "is a mystery." Within the last few days, however, there has been a splendid rainfall throughout Victoria, the Mallee farmers are jubilant and all along the border the heavy storms will prove the salvation of the crops that are not yet hopeless.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.