PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 31 



tical with, and caused by the same kind of tick. In 1896, a Tick 

 Conference was held by the Queensland and New South Wales 

 Governments, when it was shown that the whole of the northern 

 half of Queensland, taking a line from Longreach to Townsville, 

 was tick-infested ; and only a few years later, the cattle-tick reached 

 the northern boundary of New South Wales. The cattle-tick also 

 travelled westward, and soon infested most of the cattle-stations on 

 the north-west of Western Australia. 



Until recently, Redwater, or Tick-fever, was supposed to have 

 been introduced from India or Timor with the bulfalos; but later 

 investigations show that the buffalos are immune, and that the 

 disease was introduced from the Dutch East Indies with cattle 

 from that region. The bulfalos have made their mark in the north, 

 though seldom ranging far beyond the swamps and marsh-land; 

 but some idea of their increase and number is indicated by the fact 

 that 100,000 buffalo hides have been exported from the Northern 

 Territory during the last thirty years. 



In spite of periodic droughts since the industry of cattle-breed- 

 ing has been carried on in Australia, and the frequent losses in con- 

 sequence, and in spite of the devastating Tick-fever, the growth of 

 our herds has steadily increased. From the last returns available, 

 there are 11,744,714 cattle in Australia and Tasmania, of which 

 5,131,699 are in Queensland. 



The horse has followed the cattle, and without his aid much of 

 Australia would have remained unexplored for many years. The 

 horse thrives in all parts of Australia, under domestication, and in 

 many of the more rugged or timbered districts, horses escape from 

 the paddocks, and running wild, have-increased until they became 

 a regular pest on the runs. They were popularly known as "Brum- 

 bies," and in many places were hunted and shot for the sake of 

 their hides. On a large station in Riverina, in the early "seventies/' 

 over 2,000 wild horses were thus destroyed at a cost of three shil- 

 lings per head. At the present time, the number of horses in Aus- 

 tralia and Tasmania is set down at 2,146,049. 



The first sheep landed in Australia came from the Cape of Good 

 Hope with Captain Phillip's fleet, in 1788, and were 19 in number. 



