CHAPTER II 



DETERIORATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN HORSE 



It is now well to notice the complaints to the effect 

 that the Australian horse has greatly deteriorated. 



These are universal, and have been rife for several 

 years past throughout Australia. The old stock- 

 horse of the forties and the fifties, which was 

 celebrated for his staying powers, and could almost 

 out-Arab Arabs, has departed. Most of these old 

 stock-horses were largely imbued with Arab blood, 

 imported into Sydney and Tasmania from Bombay, 

 before the time of steamers, and when the voyage 

 from England was such a terror. 



I can speak to a certain extent as to this from 

 personal knowledge. I was a stock-keeper from 1847 

 to 1850, and I assert unhesitatingly that you cannot 

 nowadays ' get the likes ' of the old overland stock- 

 horse, either for love or money. They had nothing 

 but the native grass, and 'could go for ever.' On 

 one occasion in 1847, at Kingsford, six miles beyond 

 Gawler, just as dinner was being laid — the dinner- 

 hour was at one — the late Mr. Stephen King, a well- 

 known stock-owner, afterwards Special Magistrate, 



