AMONG THE SUGAR-CANES.

WE

E had some passengers on board the "Egmont," bound from Brisbane to the northern ports of the Colony, with whom I soon made friends after my custom. Imprimis, a couple of dogs chained up in the fore part of the ship; a nondescript, said to be a colley and of high repute with cattle, and a small black and tan. The bigger dog, as usual, took his troubles philosophically, and surveyed the surroundings, let them be rough or smooth, with big brown eyes that could not probably be other than placid. The toy dog, used, no doubt, to endless petting, yelped and pulled at his chain night and day, troubled at the absence of his young mistress, who lay very sick, with a pillow supporting her weary head, on one of the saloon skylights. Deserted by their owners, these passengers hailed my approach three or four times a day with boisterous delight. A couple of swans in a gigantic coop would return no demonstration of friendship, though, puzzled as they must have been under such circumstances, they suffered one to touch them. There are probably not a dozen white swans in all Queensland, and the novel appearance of these strangers was abundantly proved by the curiosity of a family of colonial boys and girls who now for the first time saw the birds which had previously existed for them in picture-books only. These swans on the second night were deposited at Rockhampton safely, and the circumstance was thought worthy of special articles in the morning newspapers, welcoming them to the public gardens, and thanking the curator of the same for procuring them in Sydney and bringing them through so long a voyage successfully. On the lower deck I found other friends in three blood-horses and a couple of hacks, bred on the Clarence River, New South Wales, and destined for a northern station. Horses, even if they are not sea-sick, never seem to enjoy a sea voyage; these were remarkably meek, if not depressed. The young stud horse had life enough left to nibble feebly at the tarpaulin manger under his nose, but he and his companions in misery had left their food untouched, and looked wofully like roysterers on the morrow of a hot revel. I think these fellow-voyagers are worthy of introduction here as living examples of the determination of the

colonists, by extending the useful hand-in-hand with the beautiful, to make their adopted home, so far as in them lies, a copy of the old country.

On shore it had been hot. It was nearing the end of October, and summer had set in early, with promise of roasting weather, though shortly afterwards it changed its mind, and left for 1879-80 a season of coolness-the more enjoyable because it was out of all rule. At sea it was pleasant as yachting in the Solent in June when the sky is blue and the wind westerly. Along the shore, appearing as a hedge of clouds to the far left, as we headed north, the fiery serpents of heavy thunder storms were playing for two days, but the ocean and the islands out at sea were sunny and calm. It was an undesirable termination of such a voyage to arrive at Flat Top Island at two in the morning, and be transferred to a small tender, upon whose dewy decks we had to pass five hours under the glare of a moonlight which rendered caution in sleep necessary. The tide came at last, and then we steamed up the Pioneer river to the port of Mackay, which is contending at present with the drawback of a river curiously channelled and shallowed by sandbanks, and agitating for the Government-by cutting through the dunes at one point where there are but a few hundred yards between river and sea-to give it free access to the watery highway of the world at large.

It

Mackay is the metropolis of a great sugar-growing district. was born of sugar, lives by it, and is a thriving specimen of a small colonial town. It is within the tropics and, being flat and bare, would be a very warm spot but for the trade winds which blow with blessed regularity during the summer. Even with this advantage, Mackay is not the town, nor is any second-rate colonial town, the place one would choose for a residence, without a special reason. If people in this quarter of the globe would plant shade trees as soon as the streets are laid out, and let an abundance of green foliage grow simultaneously with houses and wharves, all the conditions of life would be altered.

Upon the adjacent sugar plantations life is infinitely more enjoyable than in the town, and I could almost have fancied that a latent jealousy which I detected in the townspeople against the planters had something to do with this state of things. Be that as it may, the planters know how to reduce the discomforts of tropical life to a minimum, and in matters of comfort, and even luxury, are excelled by none and equalled by few classes in the colony.

It seemed strange for a time not to hear the ordinary conversation

and the drivers were invariably "boys"; and "boys" still would meet the eye in every nook and corner.

Three years ago I published an article in the Gentleman's Magazine, upon the Polynesian in Queensland, repudiating the idea that he was a slave, pointing out that he perfectly understood the nature of the contract which, according to law, he makes with his employers under the eye of a Government agent, and maintaining that he is contented, happy, and fairly dealt by. Close observation since and many visits to sugar plantations, great and small, have confirmed those opinions. The South Sea Islanders engage to serve for three years, and then are sent back to their islands in the Government labour schooner. From the moment of their engagement by the recruiting agent on the beach of their island homes to the moment when the boat lands them upon the same spot on their return, they are under the watchful protection of the Government and under the equally watchful eye of the European colonists who are hostile to Polynesian labour, and ready to pounce upon and magnify their ill-treatment. The accusation is indeed sometimes made that the Government evinces more anxiety for their welfare than for that of European immigrants. I have been amongst the Kanakas on board the newly arrived schooners, upon their plantations after they have settled down to their term of service, and in the Brisbane streets, when, dressed more sprucely than a white artisan, they have purchased their guns and axes, and et-ceteras, with their recently received wages on the eve of their departure, and my impression has always been that they are as happy a class as any in the colony, and more happy than the majority of white working men. They suffer from pulmonary complaints, and show a high rate of mortality, but still they are anxious to come, and numbers of them voluntarily remain after their contract has expired, or return a second and third time from the Islands.

The sugar plantation is a pretty and homely object of our scenery. The mills, with their lofty chimney stacks, are generally on the banks of a river whose dense scrub has been cleared. At a distance the crops display the lovely tints of a young corn-field, and the narrow paths give an air of occupation and industry which at once strikes the eye accustomed to the open forest or half-cleared farms. The plantation crops are always green and, whether in the form of ratoons or fully grown cane, are delightful to look upon.

The carts were shooting out their loads of cane fresh from the plantation as we arrived on a visit of inspection. The Queensland planters have always aimed to secure the best varieties of cane the world could offer, utilising from time to time the experience of the

States, Java, and Mauritius. The heap before us was of a big yellow cane that originally came from Java, and was producing more than two tons and a half per acre-a remarkably good average when we remember that in the early days of sugar-growing here the planters considered they were doing well with an average of a ton and a half. A variety called the Rose Bamboo was also yielding a very satisfactory density. On the previous night the men, according to their custom, ran a fire through the cane ready for cutting, to clear it of dry leaves and other rubbish, and although the heavens had reflected the widespreading conflagration, the cane, now unloaded on the great heap, was practically none the worse for the ordeal, although it naturally had lost its exterior colour and bloom.

The heap of cane, denuded of leaves, was formed at one end of the open mill, and close to the machine, aptly called the cane carrier, incessantly supplied by the "boys" who deposited their burden into the sloping trough, along which it was carried by an endless revolving band up to a couple of Kanakas who fed the rollers. These powerful crushers drew the cane into their grip, expressing every particle of juice and throwing out, as they worked, the refuse, technically known as megass, which was at once seized by Kanakas and removed to be stacked for fuel. The juice-and the mill was just then pressing out 12,000 gallons a day—ran, somewhat the colour of dirty water, into the cast-iron receiver, and thence through a strainer, kept clear by a female Kanaka. By a powerful pump the juice was next pumped into a wooden gutter, which conducted it to the clarifiers, as required. In the clarifiers it was brought to boiling point, and around these vessels "boys" armed with paddle-shaped pieces of wood were skimming off the muddy-looking head of scum. Here the natural tendency to acidity in the juice was corrected, and subsequent granulation prevented, by the use of lime. In this process all impurities rose to the surface, to be at once skimmed off. Thus cleaned, the juice streamed through another wooden gutter into the batteries, two in number and each holding 1,800 gallons. The dusky ministering angels presiding over the amber-tinted seething liquid, now boiled into a bubbling foam, were, like their brethren at the clarifiers, occupied in skimming, with the difference that the scum removed at this stage was worth storing in a tank. The juice was boiled until it reached 22 degrees Beaumé ; time about three hours. Twelve feet below us four Kanakas were stoking at as many furnace mouths, and their coffee-coloured bodies and black heads contrasted well with the whitey-brown megass they thrust in, pushing themselves at the same time so well forward that they seemed in a fair way to become fuel

and the drivers were invariably "boys"; and "boys" still would' meet the eye in every nook and corner.

Three years ago I published an article in the Gentleman's Magazine, upon the Polynesian in Queensland, repudiating the idea that he was a slave, pointing out that he perfectly understood the nature of the contract which, according to law, he makes with his employers under the eye of a Government agent, and maintaining that he is contented, happy, and fairly dealt by. Close observation since and many visits to sugar plantations, great and small, have confirmed those opinions. The South Sea Islanders engage to serve for three years, and then are sent back to their islands in the Government labour schooner. From the moment of their engagement by the recruiting agent on the beach of their island homes to the moment when the boat lands them upon the same spot on their return, they are under the watchful protection of the Government and under the equally watchful eye of the European colonists who are hostile to Polynesian labour, and ready to pounce upon and magnify their ill-treatment. The accusation is indeed sometimes made that the Government evinces more anxiety for their welfare than for that of European immigrants. I have been amongst the Kanakas on board the newly arrived schooners, upon their plantations after they have settled down to their term of service, and in the Brisbane streets, when, dressed more sprucely than a white artisan, they have purchased their guns and axes, and et-ceteras, with their recently received wages on the eve of their departure, and my impression has always been that they are as happy a class as any in the colony, and more happy than the majority of white working men, They suffer from pulmonary complaints, and show a high rate of mortality, but still they are anxious to come, and numbers of them voluntarily remain after their contract has expired, or return a second and third time from the Islands.

The sugar plantation is a pretty and homely object of our scenery. The mills, with their lofty chimney stacks, are generally on the banks of a river whose dense scrub has been cleared. At a distance the crops display the lovely tints of a young corn-field, and the narrow paths give an air of occupation and industry which at once strikes the eye accustomed to the open forest or half-cleared farms. The plantation crops are always green and, whether in the form of ratoons or fully grown cane, are delightful to look upon.

The carts were shooting out their loads of cane fresh from the plantation as we arrived on a visit of inspection. The Queensland planters have always aimed to secure the best varieties of cane the world could offer, utilising from time to time the experience of the