AUSTRALIAN LEASES.
The Australian pastoral companies who have contributed so much to the wealth of Australia, through their development of the sheep farming industry, are still exercised regarding the question of continuity of tenure. At the meeting on Tuesday last of the Australian Pastoral Company, the Chairman, Mr. F..„, A. Keating, after referring to the terrible losses and great difficulties, due _to the drought of the last two years, referred to the 'Problems arising from the 1927 Land Act, a matter which, he said, had been dealt with by the Land 'Administration Board of Queensland in a manner which refieeted great credit upon the Board and upon Mr. Payne, its Chairman. But Mr. Keating considered that under the 1927 Act scant justice was done to the holders of the expiring pastoral leases, and that, subject always to the claims of closer settlement on lines specially suitable for the purpose, it would not only be more just, but more in the:interest of the industry so vital to Queensland that a more sympathetic attitude should be adopted to those who had done so much in the paid and who, from their knOwledge'of the country (Continued on page 142.) • and their larger financial resources, were likely to be able to Meet more successfully than any newcomers the ever-present Contingency of drought and to maintain the high quality of the merino flocks on which the prosperity of Queensland-and
5.T Australia so greatly depends. - _ A. W. K.
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