A certain
acreage of land was to be cleared for the cultivation of tropical fruits;
of vegetables for everyday use, and of maize and millet for poultry,
which we proposed to breed for home consumption. Bees were to be an
ultimate source of profit. There are millions of living proofs of direct
but vagrant descent from the Italian stock, with which we started,
humming all over this and the adjacent islands to-day.
How we went about the practical accomplishment of our plans; in what
particulars they failed; what proportion of success was achieved, and the
process of education in rural enterprises generally, it were idle to
account. Rather, an attempt must be made to give particulars of the
project as a whole as it stands after a period of nine years. Be it
understood that we depended almost solely on the aid of the blacks. Means
at command did not permit the employment of even a single white workman,
save for a brief experimental period. Indeed, there is yet to be found in
Australia the phase of tropical agriculture which affords payment of the
ruling rate of wages. The proximity of countries in which cheap labour
predominates counterbalances the minimum demand of white men in these
parts.
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