THE PASTORAL INTERESTS OF AUSTRALIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 91, 2 October 1852, Page 9

THE PASTORAL INTERESTS OF AUSTRALIA.

That the gold discoveries have most materially interfered with the immediate interests of our * pastoral pursuits there can be no doubt whatever, and for an exemplification of this we need only look at the prices at present obtainable for our flocks, 8,000 first-class sheep having been sold no later than Friday last, running in the Hunter River District, at the low rate of

four shillings and threepence each, with a full fleece upon their backs, worth at least three shillings, and several thousand of the ewes about to lamb. The difficulty of retaining shepherds at any wages when the spring shall have set in, and the present impossibility of getting shearers, are questions which every buyer contemplates with great anxiety, and which he dare not even allow the tempting advantages he sees before him, in the increased ultimate value of his flocks, to outweigh. He is quite alive to the value which the carcase has already assumed in the sister colony of Victoria, and he is sanguine to hope that a considerable advance will take place in the price of wool —reasons which, with a tolerable supply of labour, would induce him to give large prices, but, with the present prospects of having even the few shepherds he has left taken away from him by the dazzling temptations of our gold fields, he contents himself by endeavouring to save what he has, rather than risk further purchases. Already, in some districts of the colony, the settlers, we are informed, are entirely dependent upon Chinese for the care of their flocks, a most uncertain kind of labour at best, and one which is in every way to be deprecated ; had it not, however, been for this class, we are most credibly assured, that thousands and tens of thousands of our sheep must have been surrendered to the native dogs, or otherwise only kept together at a ruinous loss. How the sheep in these districts are to be shorn, and the wool got to market, will in a great measure depend upon what our friends the woollen manufacturers of Yorkshire, and elsewhere may be doing for us, in the way of sending out shepherds and shearers.

What has been said by us touching the difficulties of sheep farming in consequence of the gold discovery, may be considered as shewing the most gloomy light that the picture will bear —we hope it may be so; but of two things, in connection with this subject, we are quite satisfied, the first of which is that the quantity of our wool will be much diminished; and the next is that the quality runs great risk of going back also. As regards the last of these assertions, we need only point out that increased wages, increased carriage, and increased general expenditure, can only be met by an increased value for the wool, and the manufacturers may be assured that unless they are prepared to give us another sixpence a pound for our wool, they will turn us from the quality of the fleece to the weight of the carcase, for which, as will be seen by the sequel of our remarks upon this subject, there is greater inducement than may be generally supposed. Estimating by the consumption of butchers' meat in Sydney, the average consumption of the colony, this being 400 lbs. per head per annum, and estimating our flocks here and at Philip at thirteen millions, and the cattle at two millions—(the number per last returns or thereabout) the average weight of a sheep being fifty pounds, and of a beast five hundred pounds —and presuming that we can only draw from our sheep annually, one-fifth of the whole, and from our cattle, one-seventh—which rates are about the ordinary yearly increase—a population of 700,000 people (being scarcely double the present population of Port Philip and New South Wales), would on the above calculation consume the whole yearly increase of the two colonies.

That this increase of population will very shortly be added by emigration and natural causes we have not a shadow of doubt, and in the mean time the number of our flocks is likely to remain stationary. And what will be the result, the moment that the population turns the scale and comes down upon the original stock ? One result only can ensue, namely, that the price of butchers' meat will rise, and in proportion to its rise, will be the inducement to grow for carcase, not for wool, unless as we said before, the English Manufacturers are

prepared to give us a considerably better price for our staple. If the foregoing calculations are correct, (and we take them from the figures made use of by a gentleman in the Legislative Council well informed in these matters,) it is quite evident that it behoves us to husband our flocks and our herds at almost any cost, and to implore those who have our cause at heart in England, to spare no efforts in sending us out herdsmen and shepherds, to aid in multiplying our sheep and our cattle, to provide food for those already here or on their way, as well as for the thousands of themselves who will surely follow;

and also to supply the woollen manufacturers of Great Britain with that abundance of our staple, upon the obtaiument of which they have so freely acknowledged so much of their prosperity depends.— Sydney Empire.