world. A year or two later the hill was sold at
a price equivalent to eight millions of pounds, and it is now reckoned
that it contains gold to the value of at least double that sum. What a
strange adventure for the man who owned it and reckoned it worth almost
nothing!

#8. Cotton.#--Throughout most of the colony the climate is either tropical
or semi-tropical, and it is therefore, in its more fertile parts, well
suited to the growth of cotton and sugar. About the year 1861 the
cultivation of the cotton plant was commenced on a small scale; but,
although the plantations were found to thrive, yet the high rate of
wages which prevailed in Queensland, and the low price of cotton in
Europe, caused the first attempts to be very unprofitable.

Matters were changed, however, in 1863, for then a great civil war was
raging in America; and as the people of the Southern States were
prevented, by the long chain of blockading vessels stationed by the
Northern States along their coasts, from sending their cotton to Europe,
there was a great scarcity of cotton in England, and its price rose to
be exceedingly high. This was a favourable opportunity for Queensland.
The plantations were, of course, still as expensive as ever, but the
handsome prices obtained for the cotton not only covered this great
expense, but also left considerable profits. The cultivation of the
sugar cane was introduced in 1865, and, after a few years had passed
away, great fields of waving cane were to be seen in various parts of
the country, growing ripe and juicy beneath the tropical sun.

#9. Polynesian Labour.#--The prices of cotton and sugar remained high for
some years; but when the American Civil War was over they fell to their
former rates, and the planters of Queensland found it necessary to
obtain some cheaper substitute for their white labourers. At first it
was proposed to bring over Hindoos from India, but nothing came of this
idea; and afterwards, when Chinese were introduced, they were not found
to give the satisfaction expected. But it happened that one of the
planters, named Robert Towns, was the owner of a number of ships which
traded to the South Sea Islands, and having persuaded a few of the
islanders to cross to Queensland, he employed them on his sugar
plantation. He took some little trouble in teaching them the work he
wished them to do, and found that they soon became expert at it. As the
remuneration they required was very small, t