"There's a great deal in a name," said Doctor Bronson, "especially when wines are to be considered. No doubt we have your Australian common wines in America under the name of Bordeaux or Burgundy, just as we have our own products. Thousands of casks of California wines are sold every year on the Atlantic seaboard, but not under their own name. Offered as California wines they would not find a market, but as Bordeaux wines they have a ready sale."
"And I have been told," said Mr. Watson, "that the Californian, although very enthusiastic about his own State, will not drink its wine. Am I right?"
[Illustration: CHINESE LABORERS IN A VINEYARD.]
"According to my observation, you are," the Doctor replied. "I do not think I ever saw a bottle of native wine on the table of a resident of California. Hotel-keepers in San Francisco have told me that those who order California wines at dinner are invariably strangers; a Californian would almost consider himself disgraced if he should do so."
"Well, it is pretty much the same in Australia," said Mr. Watson. "We are proud of our country and what it produces, but we prefer French champagne to our own sparkling wines, and Spanish sherry to what comes from our vineyards and wine cellars. And not altogether without reason, I must confess, as we have not yet reached perfection with our fine wines."
From wine-culture the conversation naturally turned to the labor question, which Mr. Watson said was one of the perplexities of Queensland. The climate is too hot to permit the white man to work in the fields and other places where severe manual exertion is required, with the exception of the elevated regions of the Darling Downs and some other comparatively cool places. Consequently there has been a necessity for imported labor, and in endeavoring to secure it Queensland has had a great deal of trouble.
In previous chapters we have alluded to the Polynesian labor-trade, much of which was carried on in the interest of the sugar-planters of Queensland. There were many abuses in its early days, but at present the trade is under so many restrictions that the laborers have little cause for complaint. The natives are brought to the colony for three years; the master is bound to give them food and lodging, thirty dollars a year wages, and then pay their passage home in addition to the outward passage which he has paid to the ship-master who brings the laborers from their islands.