CHAPTER XXI 

 AUSTRALASIA 



THE position which the Australasian colonies 

 have succeeded in obtaining in the markets 

 of the world, and especially in the markets of 

 the Mother Country, has been secured only as 

 the result of a great amount of energy, enterprise, 

 and skilful organization. 



Australasia had her " agricultural crisis " in the 

 seventies and eighties, just as Europe in general 

 had, but under wholly different conditions. 

 With vast expanses of virgin soils, she was 

 capable of a productiveness far beyond the 

 powers of consumption of her very limited 

 population, and when the time came that the 

 supplies were greater than the local demand, the 

 agriculturists began to drift into a very depressed 

 condition indeed. Too often the fall in prices 

 was such that the settlers could hardly get any 

 return at all for their labour. Sheep were boiled 

 down for tallow ; butter had sometimes to be 

 kept for any period from six to twelve months 



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