734 Journal of Agriculture. [9 Dec, 1907 



market the legitimate price is put up by the dealer a;gainst the botid fide 

 stores purchaser. The latter has the cost of his land to clear ; the former 

 has the roads for the cost of droving, and we know what tha;t amounts 

 to. Consider the raiding of the roads and the resulting enhanced difficulty 

 for the legitimate stock-owner in getting his stock to distant markets. 

 Consider the " absorption " of stock from the paddocks by the travelling 

 mobs in the hands of unscrupulous men. All that comes out of the stock- 

 owner's pocket. The evil has grown to huge dimensions and is now a 

 serious handicap. Is the game worth the candle ? I should say not, but I 

 am not a stock -owner. It seems to me, as an economic proposition, that 

 the results on the average are against the stock-owner. It should be 

 better for the stock-owner to secure legitimate values and face legitimate 

 losses rather than pay for the services of the dealer the price represented 

 by the margin of waste entailed by the support of the army of dealers 

 and hangers-on. 



As regards the other root, the " Greedy Grazier." By " Grazier" I 

 do not by any means mean " Squatter." In my experience anyway it is 

 not squatters' sheep that " hog " the roads. But the same remedy that will 

 clear the dealer off the roads will clear the greedy grazier. This remedy 

 would lie in travelling permits. Refuse a travelling permit to a man 

 who has not pasture to which to take his stock or who' cannot show that 

 he is consigning stock from his legitimate pasture to boiid fide sale. 



If a legitmiate stock-owner or breeder be forced to travel stock from 

 a dry district for pasture elsewhere, he should secure his pasture in 

 advance, otherwise he is stealing public grass. If he cannot carry his stock 

 at home and cannot rent pasture abroad, it is a bad position for him, 

 but he is just then holding bad property. In the long run the economy 

 in wiping out the army living on the margins would enable him to pay 

 for legitimate pasture and his position would be better. Next, on a 

 travelling permit, no drover should be allowed to make a contract on the 

 basis of finding feed and be paid for his work at per head of stock 

 delivered. This form of contract, though convenient to the owner ir> 

 immediate difficulty, sets a premium on raiding roads and " absorbing " 

 stock. The contract should be at daily wages and with obligation to hire 

 feed, and the hire of feed to be paid for spot cash. The drover could 

 be provided \yith cash or credit. As long as the present droving system 

 of payment by results is allowed the evil will grow. Honest men will be 

 forced by competition down to the standard of the lowest and least 

 scrupulous type of drover or travelling sheep cadger. Inspectors should be 

 empowered to direct that travelling mobs be paddocked forthwith if 

 their condition shows " starving," and failing securing paddocking, then 

 be consigned to the nearest sale yards for prompt sale, with appeal to a 

 Police Magistrate or Senior Inspector or some such officer. All this 

 involves restricting the roads to the legitimate user, with the certain 

 result of the disappearance of the dealer. He exists by reason of the 

 facility obtaining for illegitimate use of the roads. Make the wrongful 

 use of the roads unprofitable and risky, and the illegitimate operator will 

 be closed out, and, to the advantage, to mv thinking, in the long run, of 

 the legitimate owner and breeder. The moral is — " You cannot eat your 

 cake and have it." Continue the dealer and you must shut your eyes to 

 grass stealing and road-lifting of stock. If you want relief, give a 

 mandate that the roads shall be kept for their legitimate purposes. 

 Legislation to that end is easy to evolve, but its administration will entail 



