PRINCE AMONG THE SHEEP

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 198, 21 August 1920, Page 6

PRINCE AMONG THE SHEEP

THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF HIS

TOUR

SYDNEY, Aup._ 11

The Prince of "Wal<?s at this moment is up in tho north-west of tho State among the great sheep stations. He is to-daLy the guest at Miowera Station, which comprises 380,000 awes and carries 120,000 sheep. He is making a first-hand acquaintance with sheep-shearing, buck-jumping, shooting, and picnics to which they have to ride 20 and 30 miles. All agree* that His Royal Highness is happier than at any time since he landed in Australia. He will not have anything to do with the fine motor-cars which are at his service; he spends all the time he has on horseback, rides .everywhere, 'and insists on even/ opportunity on a madcap gallop over the green country. If the Prince lias to thank _ tho heavy rains for cancelling the wishedfor ride across country from Queensland int.) New South Wales, he has also to thank the rains for transforming this wide north-west , from a howling desert into a region of rivers and grasslands. Six months ago tho whole countryside carried scarcely a llnde of grass,1 and the sheep were djing in thousands un-.ler the pitiless drought. To-day the place is one vast meadow. Shearing is proceeding briskly on tho station, and the Prince is deeply interested. A fey sheep are_ being shorn by hand, jmst to show him the old method, but most of the work if; done by machinery. Ho has followed the wool from the sheep to the press and the waggons. He is,on the best of terms with, every shearer and rousei-bont. They are a particularly "tough" lot. these men of the western' shearing phods; but they have succumbed to the Prince's charm and Lnmannoss a,« completely as the impressionable flappers of the' Sydney and Melbourne ballrooms. There was a "sp&ll-o" for tea. just after be arrived in the sheds. The Heir to the Throne ensconced himself among the shearers and had tea with them. He drank a pannikin-full of the "dinkum" black stuff, dipped from tho common billy. There are fifty husky n:en on Miowera. Station who will tell you, in forbidden but emphatic words, that "Teddy" is "one of the test." The Prince was out riding with a couple of iiis friends, when he sa.w a kangaroo* He went after it, helter skelter, but tho big brown ammalgot away into a rough gully. The incident gave the Prince boyish delight; while somewhere in the backblocks them is a puffed-up kangaroo who beasts that ho has been hunted by the future King of England. Hunting, shooting, picnics, and riding comprise the Prince's programme for the next day or two. —Post correspondent.