Report of the British Economic Mission to Australia

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 179824683X

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-182286

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the British Economic Mission to Australia

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Office

Year of publication:: 7th January 1929

Scope:: 63 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Supplementary memoranda

Collection:: Economics Books

3 point that the eyes of the (Government ought to be fixed and not on the ques- tion of the minimum from which an individual can extract a decent living. 13. By way of illustration of the foregoing it may be worth while to mention that we saw in Queensland several artesian bores, yielding some hundreds of thousands of gallons of water per day. The water is distri- buted over the sheep stations in shallow surface drains. This is no doubt a cheap method of distribution, but there must be heavy losses by seepage and evaporation. The cost of distribution by pipes to the points where the water is most required may be prohibitive to-day, but it suggests itself as an improvement. which capital might be induced to effect, given suffi- sient security of tenure, 14. In the case of cattle-ranching, the arguments for freehold tenure and large areas are even stronger than in the case of extensive sheep grazing. Cattle-ranching on a large scale, as distinguished from the more intensive occupation of breeding and fattening store cattle, is pursued in more remote and inaccessible areas than even the most extensive sheep grazing; and the history of most countries com- parable with Australia shows that it generally precedes sheep raising in such areas by many years and, in a sense, prepares the way for it. Cattle- ranching is practically confined to North-West Queensland, the Northern Territory, and the north and north- west of Western Australia. It is an undertaking which, properly con- ducted, involves very heavy capital ex- penditure on fencing and paddocking large tracts of country, and on the de- velopment of water supplies, and in- volves a long walt before profits can be expected. Indeed, we believe that the experience of most ranching com- panies is that profits in the end are to be expected rather from the appre- ciation in land values brought about by ranching operations than directly from the sale of ranch cattle. In our opinion, fresh capital is very unlikely to be attracted to cattle-ranching in Australia on a serious scale unless those providing it can be granted very larce areas with an option exercisable ifter a reasonable period, say, ten rears, from the commencement of their perations to obtain freehold at a orice fixed at the commencement. 15. Given these conditions, we see 20 reason why Australia should not ake her proper place among the sattle-ranching countries of the world, ut the industry appears to De languishing at the present time, and 0 be unable to support the large aumber of meat export works that rave been established to deal with its oroducts. These, indeed, seem to us 50 be excessive in number. We were somewhat astonished to learn from a nemorandum submitted to us by the representatives of the Queensland reef cattle industry that, whereas shere are in the Argentine Republic 30,000,000 head of cattle and 11 ex- dort works with daily killing capacities of from 800 to 4,000 cattle, there are ‘n Queensland the same number of ex- sort works, namely, 11 (several of hem, as we saw for ourselves, situated lose to one another on the Brishane River), with a total daily killing apacity of about 4,000, and only 3,200,000 head of cattle in the State. The average actual yearly killing for she period 1914 to 1920 in the Queens and export works was stated at 372,441 head of cattle, or rather more shan 1,000 head a day, representing only rather more than one-fourth of ‘he total killing capacity of the 11 vorks. It seems obvious that the cilling industry should be concen- rated either by the amalgamation of sxisting undertakings or by the slimination of the less efficient. 16. Lest it should be thought that we have too little sympathy with the deal of closer settlement we will ob- serve that we have laid stress in our nain report (Part II, paragraphs 40 ind following) on the desirability of he more intensive development of land ready settled or partially settled in Australia, rather than of further ex- ensive development. It is to the ‘ormer rather than to the latter oh- ect that we think that effort and rapital should be devoted. The spread of closer settlement should follow by 2 natural process. As the productivity nf Tand intensively develoned increases

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