A WOOL CENTENARY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12662, 23 January 1904, Page 4 (Supplement)

A WOOL CENTENARY.

THE BEGINNINGS IN 1804.

SOME OF THE PIONEERS.

A hundred years ago (says the “Sydney Morning Herald”) John Macarlhur was in London using all his efforts and whatever influence he possessed in the attempt to introduce Australian wool into England, and to secure Government help in the promotion of the wool industry in New South Wales. His visit was well timed. There was a Woollen Bill before Parliament, and deputies frpm the parts of the country interested ip the repeal of laws relating to woollen manufactures were m attendance in London, watching the progress of the bill. They had a particular trouble in front of them, and they caiingt forbear informing the Lords Cqmmjsioners of his Majesty’s Treasury o! certain facts “which, if a timely remedy be not applied, may ultimately cause great injury, if not destruction, to a very material branch of our woollen manufacture—that of fine cloths, These cloths,” they go on, ‘ are made entirely of Spanish wool (an article for which this country any P a ys to Spain more than one million and a-half); and so great for some years past has been the increasing scarcity and advanced price of Spanish wool that not only are large orders frequently rejected for want of the raw material to furnish the supPyj tfflt Hie exorbitant price of what Is tq be had, and tlje contingent exgenses pf the trade, make it almost impossible for qs.tq supply the Continental markets with any profit to ouraeives, If wc add to these consideration the apprehensions we entertain that our watchful and implacable foes, the Freneh. . . may eventually try to exclude us totally from that source of supply, we confess ourselves alarmed for the existence of this branch of our manufactures. To these worthy iil’PWmnpf) thus harassed came Captain John Macarthur from the other end of the world, ihitli proqf that Nqw South Wales had Spanish wool of th. necessary quajity,’ that' only required"help IQ Tflffkfi ip meet ths marFWWi :e !limfts pf (he "day, m Lords Commissioners of his Malays Treasury dqly forwarded this memorial to my Lords af the Committee of the Privy Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations, and with it a memorial from Captain John Macarthur, who set forth the value of New South Wales as a sheep-rearing country, and the nature and quality of the wool he had grown from his Spanish sheep. What Macarthur wanted was that encouragement should be given, by means of grants of land to a company, to the wool industry, which he had already proved by his owq oxorHW, 19 *»!• «■ promising character. P9‘fl e s!™d' u6 peenhiary aid."-' If the cpmniittep' approved (if‘ the forniation qf a company' could submit the names flf “many 1 sbns’> 'wh'6 had PWM lli l V ft/ )jo\Ygvpf., their U'iF.asmp s tq begin on a smaller scale, Ijp wguld most c|jeer|ully'undertake the work “witq aq allotment of 10,000 acres of land, and permission to select 30 convicts for shepherds.” The oommittep approved of the latter plan, and Mftflartluiv was granted 5000 acres in the Cowpaeturo (now Camden) district, As an additional help the Governor was recommended to provide mutton instead of salted provisions for the convicts, and to give a higher price for sheep with fine wool. This recommendation was dated July 14. 1804. It was over 10 years before this iMam fq? him: self that 1 the 1 qinlftte And land pt New South’ Wales were eminently ■ suited for : pastoral ■ purposes. ' .In 1797 ’ he imported eight Spanish sheep from the .Cape of Good Hope, 'arid his 'experiments in breeding were’ altogether satisfactory 1 — “the improvement became greater/’ he said, “than 1 his'most sanguine pmeotWiin? 'hgd'indricbd’Mlri, Ip 'c<ycu)afe upon.;; ' |ri 180). his flock consisted of more than ! 2qoQ'sheep/in 1802 pf 3000, and he, reckoned that his returns fpr J.BQ3 would shijw that he fSWJWi Jtyjj W 111? ? Y !’ I ‘. , J b.\ ft? J

dence before the committee, he said that he knew of no other person in the colony who had paid any attention to the improvement of the wool, but he overlooked the Rev. Samuel Marsden, who at this time had 1200 .sheep, and was assuring Sir Joseph Banks that his endeavours had been to improve the quality of the fleece and increase the weight of the carcase. To the enterprise pf John Slacarfhur the ' staple industry ’ of South Watts pSyes (to birth, The samples which he showed English woollen manufacturers in 1803, and which impressed the committee of the Privy Council in 1804, have grown into an export trade from this State alone which was worth £7,306,810 in 1902. The few sheep he and the other settlers possessed there were only some 15,000 in the colony in 1804 have increased and multiplied until in 1902 there were 26,649,424. And the year 1902 shows the worst record of any during the past 23 years, to go no further back. The number ranged from 35,398,121 in 1880 to h1',831,416 in 1891, whence if steadily diminished for v£)vioqs‘ Reasons to 41,241,004 in 1898, Wheri the drought was being felt, and so to ‘41,857,099 in 1901, and to the 26,649,424, a heavy fall, in 1902. In the'same way the ’wool,' exports fpr 1880’'wafer'sß,o4o,62s, 'arid they wejp af bigV as £11,035,013 jn I$T; they wro 2 M02ff,?195 in 1899, £9;035,437 iq 1901,'Wpply £7,306,510" iq '1902! B,u( i&w elpquent is that “pqly” whep yye cpmjjare the day of small things a hundred years sample? to the manufacturers who were paying Spain £1,500,000 a year for Spanish wool, compared with the millions of pounds worth which have been exported since from New South Wales alone. We should not be unmindful of Macarthur’s efforts of a hundred years ago, when we note that the Commonwealth exported in 1902, £12,766,479 vygrto of wool in excess ovey ijnpprtf thV New gputh WalPg'ShSrp being about aoventwelfths, . Sir-Joseph Banks was the power in colonial matters behind My Lord Commissioners of his Majesty’s Treasury and My Lords of the Committee of the Privy'.Council, hnd his name should not be forgotten' in any comrqqrqovation of the foundei’B '.pur staple intinste djjp : insures d correspondent, presumably Macarthur, in’Mnrch, 1804, that he'(si ware 'thalt .the'success'of the “Npw 1 South’’ Wai'es sh’eep ad ! verithfe’. y will 'be '.‘sl iiffinite iriiprirtance ito the mwWw? $ # M. its

failure will not happen without much previous advantage to the infant colony.” He suggests that “the adventurers would be contented with a grant of a large quantity of land as sheepwalks only, resumable by the Government in any parcels in which it shall be found convenient to grant it as private property on condition of an equal quantity of lat\d being granted in' recempen.se as sheepwalks. Sir Joseph did not believe in “the propriety of granting land in perpetuity to a scheme which embraces nothing but the feeding of sheep.” His policy was to make the sheep retire as the colony increases, and he reassures Macarthur by prophesying that “the tops of the hills represented by Captain Waterhouse as such excellent sheep pastures (between Prospect-hill and the Nepean River) cannot be wanted for the plough in less than four or fivq, centuries.” Nor should Goyerfl,Qr. Philip Gidley King be fprgqtVevi. ’' His Excellency had-l\ad his little difficulties with Captain Macarthur, but he made them up when he had to deal with Mr Macarthur, returned after his momentous journey to London with his samples of wool. He informs flanks thaf hft offered Macarthur Ills hquitf' l hvhq very gratefully received p,” aqd “he i? now fgviper, shipowner, etc,” King gave every assistance to Macarthur, though he bogglqd at the allotment of 6000 acres, selected by that gentleman. He had already issued a proclamation reserving portions of land in convenient places for the pasturage of sheep and cattle, as being “necessary for the preservation and increase of the breeding stocks.” The whole development was a quick piece of work in those days of multiplied red tape in London," $ limited resources and in Sydney, qdcqntplished lietweei) S&ravihur’s departure from Pprt Jasisqn jjj IfiQl and his return in 1805. But it was in 1604 that the English manufacturers saw and approved of his samples of Australian wool, and that the committee of the Privy Council examined him and encouraged him. by the promise of a graiilj of land. It is 1804—a years ago—therefore, tnayPba regarded as the fK'e' establishment of. tire wo’ol export trade, on wbich( the prosperity of New .South Wales so largely depends.