Townsville — Separation — The Frozen Meat Trade — James Morril

NEXT morning, by ten o’clock, we were within sight of Townsville, the far-famed, and also widely advertised capital of Northern Queensland when separation shall be granted. They are a pushing, ambitious people these Townsvilleites, almost American in their go-a-headness. And certainly they deserve to succeed. Considerable rivalry exists between Cairns and this latter place; each seems to fancy that the other is endeavouring to steal a march upon her. However, Townsville may certainly claim to be the most important town of the north; in fact, it may also claim the supremacy (if one excepts the capital, and perhaps Rockhampton) in all Queensland. It has, besides, many advantages over other competitors, and is not slow to turn them to the best account. Of these advantages more anon.

Situated in Cleveland Bay, and sheltered by the bold outline of Cape Cleveland on the one hand and Magnetic Island on the other, Townsville commands a fine expanse of natural harbour; while, now that the breakwater has been completed, vessels of large tonnage will be able to find a safe refuge inside the artificially-constructed one.

The town itself is not picturesque, being built on the banks of an insignificant stream, called Ross Creek; but Castle Hill, where the fashionable suburb is growing up, presents a very agreeable appearance, and, if one can forget the exertion entailed by the climb to reach it, must be a pleasant spot in which to live.

As soon as we come to an anchor, and have collected our baggage, we descend to the launch and steam ashore. Arriving at the Wharf, we are persuaded to try the Imperial Hotel, and thither we accordingly direct our steps. One thing strikes us immediately: it is hot; a muggy, steamy, oppressive heat, more like that of Singapore than any other, and almost insupportable. We express our opinion on the matter to a resident who accompanies us, but he immediately commences an elaborate explanation to prove that although the heat is — well, perhaps warm — nevertheless, there are so many other advantages about Townsville that such a small matter as the climate is hardly worth taking into consideration. We have heard the same argument before.

The Imperial Hotel proves all that can be desired, a commodious, pleasant place, admirably situated and managed. Like the majority of buildings in Queensland, it is constructed almost entirely of wood, a material which is found to be cooler, and of course much less expensive than either brick or stone. Fires, fortunately, are not of frequent occurrence, but when they do come along, half the town, as a rule, has to go.

There is an open-handed hospitality about Queenslanders that one seldom meets with elsewhere; a simple introduction, and often not even that, is sufficient to serve as a pretext for showering kindness after kindness upon visitors. Before we have been an hour in the place we are made to feel quite at home, and have accepted numerous offers from kind-hearted residents to make our stay pleasant.

After lunch we walk out and inspect the town. The main street is a fine thoroughfare flanked by good buildings, in many instances of quite imposing architecture. It follows the windhigs of Ross Creek, and lies on the flat between that watercourse and Castle Hill. It is too steamy to hurry, so we stroll leisurely along, noting as we go how even in this little out-of-the-way spot everything is up to date. In spite of the much-talked-of depression in trade, business seems brisk enough; clerks hurry in and out of merchants’ offices, most of the shops seem to have their fair share of customers, telegraph boys run hither and thither at speed quite unsuited to the climate, a labour agitator is gesticulating wildly to an attentive audience at a street corner, while now and again bronzed and bearded bushmen loiter by with every sign of being down on a much appreciated holiday.

Thanks to the courtesy of a resident, we are introduced to numerous influential citizens, to whose ideas on important subjects affecting North Queensland, and more particularly Townsville, we listen with unending interest. One thing strikes us, and that is the wonderful unanimity that exists in every mind on the vital subject of Separation, of which movement, be it remembered, Townsville is the head centre. The word is in everybody’s mouth, and we, who are strangers and but little posted in such matters, wonder what on earth it all may mean. When we are more conversant with the subject it evolves itself into something like the following; but perhaps it would be better if I give the views of the special correspondent of the London ‘Times’ on the subject, who is better qualified to speak than I.

The politics of Queensland are so entirely the outcome of the development of its natural resources that to speak of them intelligently without first describing the country as it is, would be almost impossible. With few exceptions, the best men in the colony are employed in developing it. They are not in politics, and take little interest in political movements, unless the prosperity of the industry in which they are engaged is in some way affected. Most political questions have their origin in the material necessities of at least one section of the community. If these are or seem to be at variance with the interests of other portions of the community, the movement which springs from them becomes a subject for contest, which is more or less hotly and generally maintained in proportion to the number of people affected. No political interest is long sustained unless it involves material loss and gain. None can touch material advantage without becoming a matter of importance. A theory of federation falls dully on the public ear. The mass of the electorate is just as indifferent as it is willing to vote either way. But a question of coloured labour, which involves the life or death of the sugar industry, will bring a number of the most influential men in the country at fighting heat to the polls. Planters, of course, desire it; the mass of the mining population living and working in districts where white labour is perfectly possible are opposed to a practice which will, they believe, tend to lower alike the dignity of labour, and the rate of wages. The introduction of coloured races becomes a question between labour and capital, and is fought on that ground with certain modifications. Some of the labourers are beginning to promise the double advantage of encouraging a thriving industry which gives employment to a great deal of skilled white labour in the factories, and of passing individually from the condition of employed, in which they now are, to that of employers of the new cheap labour, which under the small fanning system they can easily become. On the other hand, some of the capitalists, who are not personally interested in tropical agriculture, are disposed to vote against the introduction of servile peoples upon a continent of which the population and the customs, notwithstanding the existence of a few aborigines, are for all practical purposes purely European. They fear that the small beginning may result in complications of such magnitude as those with which the United States are now called upon to deal.

If the conflict of interests between two sections of the community suffices to keep the question of coloured labour on the list of permanent political interests, and the same cause operates to keep reorganisation of the land laws and construction of railways to open the back countries also constantly before the public mind, it follows almost as a logical deduction that a question which involves the interests of all sections, no matter how much divided, of the community will rise to the rank of supreme and universal importance. There is but one such question in Queensland, and that one is the question of Separation. With the exception of perhaps one man, and that one the author of the Constitution Bill which has been just rejected by the Upper House, there is probably no one in Queensland who cares about the matter in the least on the ground of abstract politics. It is purely a question of practical interest, and in proportion as the interests of any influential body of the population are for the time being affected or not affected by the actual condition of affairs, Separation fever passes through its acute or falls into latent stages. The desire for Separation is always, and, so far as it is possible to judge, gains persistently in force and steadiness through the many fluctuations to which it is subject.

To understand the desire in its general lines it is only necessary to look at the map. Brisbane, in the southern corner, lying almost upon the boundary of New South Wales, decides the smallest details of government of Cape York. The distance is very nearly the same as that from London to Gibraltar; the time which it takes with the present means of communication to go from Brisbane to the furthest point within the colony is within a few hours the same as the time which it takes to go from London to South Africa. Anti–Separationists contend that time and distance are alike annihilated by the electric telegraph, and that for practical purposes Brisbane is within five minutes’ communication with Cape York and Burketown. It is hardly necessary to point out that there is an immense amount of business which cannot be transacted by telegraph. The fact that all Government stores are kept at Brisbane is in itself enough to indicate the serious inconvenience to which outlying centres are liable. And if distance alone could indeed be annihilated by the cheapness and rapidity of telegraphic communication, the map has still another natural cause of division to indicate. The tropic of Capricorn cuts the colony in two. No argument can unify the needs of a tropical and non-tropical community. Queensland alone of the Australian colonies has attempted the systematic development of the tropical part of her territory. She has, therefore, to deal alone with the questions which this development has raised, and it is not surprising if, in the endeavour to do so, she finds herself in opposition to the present experience of temperate Australia. Nor is it surprising if the tendency of the leading public men, cradled in Australian tradition, educated in Australian thought, should be opposed to the recognition of new necessities and the modification of constitutional customs which they seem to call for. It is with the utmost reluctance that such a man as Sir Samuel Griffith, whose mind is attuned to the Australian pitch, can reconcile himself to even the temporary admission of a class of labour which cannot claim or exercise the hitherto proudly vindicated Australian right of self-government. Concession in this respect has been forced upon him by the logic of facts. It is none the less distaste-ful. Any legislation which he might ft el called upon to initiate with regard to it would all be of the safeguarding preventive description which the spirit of compromise suggests. No boldly creative measure of the kind could ever be looked for from him or from any politician of his type and training. Tropical Australia has yet to breed its own public men, and this is very generally felt. Before it can do so there must be a tropical community. There will probably be many in the future. North Queensland claims the honour of being the first.

The elements of size and diversity of climatic conditions form the basis of the demand for Separation by the North and Central divisions. Before passing on to the details by which the demand is supported, it is worth while to glance at the map and realise that the subdivision which is asked for would create three colonies, each of them, roughly speaking, of about the size of France. Queensland, as it now exists, comprises 668,000 square miles. The proposed district of the Southern division would absorb about 190,000 square miles of this, the Central division would have 223,000 square miles, and the Northern division would take 255,000 square miles. Each division would have a share of sea-board and of back country, but the North, by its geographical conformation, would get from four to five times more sea-board than either of the other two divisions. The South would keep the rich agricultural districts of the Darling Downs. The North, by way of counterbalance, has the rich, though undeveloped, agricultural and mineral district of Herberton; and the Centre gets, behind Rockhampton, agricultural areas for which it claims that they are as good as any in the world. The respective populations of these three divisions are at present — South Queensland, 279,000; Central Queensland, 50,000; North Queensland, 81,000. Their relative representation in the Brisbane Parliament is — South Queensland, 45 members; Central Queensland, 11 members; and North Queensland, 16 members. On any question of taxation, distribution of revenue, expenditure of public money, raising of loans, land legislation, or other matters closely affecting the development of the country and touching the material interests of the electorate, the North and Centre can be out-voted by the South. This at first sight may seem fair, in view of the difference between the population of the South and of the other two divisions combined. But there is another aspect of the question, upon which the North and Central divisions lay great stress. They contend that, while the greater number of people live in the pleasanter residential quarter of the South, the wealth of the colony is produced in much larger proportion in the North and Centre; consequently that the North and Centre ought to have at least an equal voice in legislation which affects it. Here are the figures of the export trade by which this argument is supported:— The total value of the export trade of Queensland for last year was 6,890,861l. The value of the contributions from the different divisions were: from the South, 2,032,196l.; from the Centre, 2,232,446l.; and from the North, 2,626,222l. That is to say, the export trade of the South was not only relatively but actually smaller than that of either of the other two divisions. The total value of the import trade of Queensland was 4,592,357l. Of this the respective values were:— To the South, 2,956,406l.; to the Centre, 666,418l.; to the North, 1,200,059l. The exports, consisting generally of natural produce, either mineral, pastoral, or agricultural, are considered by the people of the colony as the wealth by which their bills are paid. The imports represent the objects for which the bills are presented; or, in other words, imports are the value received for exports. Considered in this light, the fact that the South contributes the smallest amount to the exports and receives the largest amount of imports, appears to the other two divisions as a very significant aggravation of their grievance. They hold that they are in their public capacity paying the cost of all those luxuries which contribute to make life in the Southern division more agreeable, and consequently more attractive to population, than life in the Northern and Central divisions of the colony, and that they are by this means forced to maintain against themselves the voting majority which ignores their necessities, cripples their trade, and lives upon what are still the indestructible results of their greater energy and wealth. The large proportion of the public loans which has been spent in the development of the South, the want of interest and lack of knowledge which are displayed by the Government at Brisbane in relation to the affairs of the North and Centre, and the damage consequently suffered by the industries of these two divisions, are the proofs upon which the accuracy of this view of the situation is based. It is impossible to travel through the North and Centre without realising the acute nature of the irritation to which the situation gives rise. The interests which are affected are too important to sit silent under the injustice, and, as they grow year by year in volume and vigour, it is presumable that they will be less and less disposed to tolerate the continuance of present conditions. The details of which the two divisions complain have been BO often embodied in petitions and addresses which have been laid before the public, that it is unnecessary to enter into them any further here. The matter of interest is the remedy proposed. None seemed possible but Separation, for the reason that it was not feasible under any constitutional form of English self-government to redistribute the voting power of the Queensland House of Assembly in such a way as to give equal influence to the small populations of the North and Centre, and the relatively large population of the South. The principle of a property or intelligence vote on such a scale is foreign to all our institutions. Communities of which the conditions are so dissimilar that it is within the power of 50,000 individuals in the one, to produce more surplus wealth for export than can be produced by 279,000 individuals in the other, evidently call for a different basis of representation. But the dissimilarity of conditions which exist between North Queensland and South Queensland is typical of a dissimilarity between tropical Australia and temperate Australia, which there is a very natural reluctance on the part of temperate Australia to face. Hitherto there has been only Southern Queensland and there has been only temperate Australia. The change which Is desired foreshadows a much greater change than is involved in a mere readjustment of balance between the interests of 81,000 people and 279,000 people. The creation and development of Northern Australia follows too evidently upon the creation and development of Northern Queensland for a politician of Sir Samuel Griffith’s Australian experience to ignore the importance of the difficulties with which it has fallen to his lot to deal. His Constitutional Bill embodied an endeavour to grant all the reasonable advantages of Separation without conceding a dangerous independence. In framing it there can be little doubt that its author regarded the subject from the standpoint of Australian rather than of merely local politics. It represents a fine attempt to conciliate the conflicting interests of a part of the community with the whole. It fails only because the interests of the whole are so much more dominant in his mind than those of the suffering part that it grants no remedy to the fundamental evil. It proposed to create, in the first instance, three, in its revised form only two, provinces, ruling themselves in certain local matters, but subject to a Central Government. The disproportionate representation of North, South, and Centre remains just where it was as regards the supreme Government, and when the Bill comes to be examined in detail it will be found that every matter of importance is reserved for the decision of the supreme Government. All that it offers to the provinces is municipal organisation of an extremely expensive kind. This did not meet their requirements, and a memorandum of objections, drawn up by the Townsville Separation League, shortly summarises the principal grounds for the rejection of the Bill. The right reserved to the central Government to borrow money upon the credit of the united provinces deprives each province of the right, which it would gain by Separation, to raise loans as a first charge upon its revenue for its own development, and lays it open to a continuance of the old injustice in the matter of the distribution of the benefits of public loans. The reservation of the control of the Customs tariff prevents any province from entering into such free trade conventions as would, it is believed, be profitable to colonies which have everything to export and nothing to............