During this period his love for the particular piece of
land by-and-by to become his own begins. More realistically than anyone
else he knows the quantity of his energy and enthusiasm, his very life,
the land has absorbed. It becomes part of himself even in the early days
of toil, and though when in the fulness of time and the completion of
conditions he may lease the land to Chinese cultivators, and become a
resident landlord, he cannot leave the place even for the attraction of
town life, for possibly the rent he receives does not make him
independent quite. At any rate he lives on the land. The alien race does
the hard work, and takes the greater portion of profit; but he enjoys the
luxury of possession, and must make sacrifices accordingly.
I am fearful of entering upon a description of the cultivation of maize,
or bananas, or citrus fruits, or pineapples, or mangoes, or coffee, or
even sweet potatoes, because experience teaches me that others know of
all the details in a far more practical sense.
Would it not be presumptuous for a mere idler, an individual whose
enterprise and industry have been sapped by the insidious nonchalance of
the Beachcomber, to tell of practical details of cultural pursuits--the
enthusiasm, the disappointments, the glowing anticipations, the
realisation of inflexible facts, the plain emphatic truths which others
have reason to know ever so much more keenly?
But it may be forgiven if I generalise and say that the minor departments
of rural enterprise in North Queensland are in a peculiar stage--a stage
of transition and uncertainty.
Pages:
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115