The expenditure on loan account began with the foundation of the colony. At the end of the first quarter-century the public debt amounted to £16,570,850, exclusive of Government Savings Bank and Treasury bills obligations. In the first decade of the second quarter it had almost doubled, standing at the end of 1894 at £30,639,534. By the end of 1900 there had been a further increase of nearly 5 millions, and on 30th June, 1909, it stood at £41,568,827, or at the rate of £74 per head of the estimated population. But the railway net earnings alone of the last two financial years (1907-8 and 1908-9) have provided a mean sum of £884,616 per annum towards the interest charge.
LAND STATISTICS.
In 1860 there were 108,870 acres of land alienated in Queensland. In 1872 the area exceeded 1 million acres, the first quarter-century closing in 1884 with over 7 million acres. The 10-million-acre limit was passed in 1890, and the 15-million-acre limit in 1908, when the total area alienated was 15,108,439 acres.
The cash received at the Treasury from land sales up to the close of 1884 was over 4¾ millions, and at the close of 1908 exceeded 8½ millions sterling. In process of alienation there were then over 6 million acres. For the last ten years the total area leased or otherwise in occupation has been recorded. In 1899 the area thus occupied was 296½ million acres, and in 1906 only 247 million acres. Since then there has been some recovery in this respect, the total occupied area of Crown lands being now 273,180,864 acres. The unoccupied area in 1899 was over 131¼ million acres, and in 1902 only 121½ million acres. Since then there has been both an increase and a decrease, the area unoccupied in 1908 being almost 135 million acres, equal to nearly one-third of the total area of the State. This unoccupied land consists largely of rangy and waterless country, but a not inconsiderable area would be occupiable were water and transport facilities provided, and much of it is in what the geologists have delimited as the artesian area.
LIVE STOCK.
In 1860 the number of live stock in Queensland totalled—Horses, 23,504; cattle, 432,890; sheep, 3,449,350; pigs, 7,147. There was an almost continual yearly increase in horses until 1902, when drought reduced the number by 62,997, or at the rate of about 14 per cent. Not until 1907 was this loss recovered, when the total number of horses stood at 488,486, the number being still further increased in 1908 to 519,969. There was an almost uninterrupted increase of cattle until 1882, when the total exceeded 4¼ millions. At the close of the quarter-century the number was 4,266,172. In 1885 and 1886, owing to a drought, there was again a small decline in cattle numbers, but from that time there was a continued increase until 1894, when the total of 7 millions was recorded. But droughts and the tick pest had cut them down to less than 2½ millions in 1903. In 1908 the number had recovered to 4,321,600. The enlarged Australian consumption has been a factor in the shrinkage of numbers, but the large increase in prices fully compensated the owners for the diminished numbers of their herds. The increased price of wool during recent years renders the same remark applicable to the sheep-owners of the State; and it may be said generally that the pastoral industry was never in a more flourishing condition.
Sheep, which totalled fewer than 3½ millions in 1860, reached 7¼ millions in 1866, and 9 millions two years later. Thence till 1878 there was a series of fluctuations which brought the total in that year below 6 millions. But in 1882 the number had vaulted to over 12 millions, after which there was a descent to a little more than 9¼ millions at the close of the quarter-century. The year 1885 closed with a further decrease, but by 1887 the number had increased to nearly 13 millions. Three years later it reached 18 millions, and in 1892 it touched the record of nearly 21¾ millions. By 1900, which had been preceded by bad seasons, the number of sheep had dropped to 10⅓ millions, and in the second year of the twentieth century the low-water mark of less than 7¼ millions was touched. Since then there has been a rapid increase, and the numbers in 1908 had recovered to 18,348,851, or within 3,359,459 of the record number of seventeen years ago. It must be mentioned that, while scanty rainfall on the Western pastures was accountable for much of the depletion in stock numbers, overstocking and absence of possible provision for bad seasons had much to do with the losses incurred. However, the second quarter-century will close with flocks in number almost equal to those of 1892, and with fleeces immensely more valuable than the pastures then carried, and the stock-carrying capacity of the country has also been much increased by fencing, water conservation, and artesian wells.
Pigs are also becoming a valuable asset of the Queensland dairy farmer. In 1860 they numbered 7,147; at the close of the quarter-century, 51,796; and in December, 1908, 124,749.
HAULING TIMBER, BARRON RIVER, NORTH QUEENSLAND