" CLOSER SETTLEMENT" PROBLEM.
In fact, as one reads the exhaustive statement of the position and the appalling character of the drought in certain areas, it is impossible not to conjecture what would be the effect of such losses if they fell, not upon great concerns with large resources and reserves, but upon a few individual enter- prises with slender resources. In fact, it is very clear that while on many grounds there is doubtless much to be said for what is known' as the Closer Settlement movement in Australia, it is a movement which requires to 'be carried out with considerable caution and reserve and to the accompani- ment of a 'good deal of sound comMon sense. In a particularly interesting part of his speech.Mr. Williamson showed that the Value of the exports of wool from Australia now represents something like 50 per cent. of the entire exports of the country. It is obvious, therefore, that any. policy which endangerS the wool production of the company would be fraught with the most serious consequences. The Government of Queensland has, of course, recently appointed an independent commission to investigate the whole wool .positioh in its -bearing on the question of Closer Settlement, and an able and 'common- sense Report has been published. Unfortunately, however, having regard to the extent to which leases fall in within the next few years, the Government seems tardy in coming to a decision with regard to its policy.
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