THE RISE AND FALL OF H. G.-S. AND A. M. C. 159 



down for soap, my recollection is that sevenpence-worth of soap was 

 extracted from each sheep. Merritt, however, was our stand-by ; he 

 never went beyond ninepence per head, but that sum was more than 

 the station could obtain otherwise. 



With a gross income of about 1300, the partnership of H. G.-S. 

 and A. M. C. only existed as long as it did because the owners spent 

 nothing on themselves, because there were almost no wages to pay, 

 because the price of wool remained high. 



Certainly the shortage of sheep at shearing-time, the miserable clip, 

 the more miserable annual draft of surplus stock, gave us momentary 

 pause, but I do not recollect that on one single occasion we talked 

 matters out or realised the danger towards which we were drifting. 

 Were it not for the entries of another and previous owner's diaries set 

 down in cold blood, and still to be seen as quoted, I should have said 

 that the idiocy of myself and partner was of a unique brand ; I should 

 have said it was impossible that one station should have carried so 

 many fools in shepherd's language, a fool to every 4000 acres ! We 

 realised the condition of our affairs no whit more clearly than in the 

 past had the Stuarts and Kiernan. 



The still extant station ledger is a model of original thought. I 

 remember its inauguration a few weeks after the purchase of the place. 

 A. M. C., who, by the bye, always breathed deeply through his nose 

 when excited, was the book-keeper of the firm, but I stood by ready 

 to assist, and to see that in this important matter everything was 

 done properly and correctly. I recollect the breeze my partner blew 

 it was like whistling whilst we debated whether the price of the place, 

 9750, should be entered on the debit or the credit column. There 

 seemed to be sound arguments for either course. What the devil ! 

 if we had paid for the place, how on earth could it be chalked up 

 against us ; it would have been better never to have started sheep- 

 farming than to have landed ourselves straight away with a 9750 

 debit. We might just as well have gone to Oxford after all. Yes, but 

 damn it all, we had not paid wholely for the place we had only paid 

 down 6000, unless, of course, we had made a regular bargain, and 

 gained 3750 straight off the reel. Well then, why not compromise 

 the thing, why not put down 6000 as a credit and 3750 as a 

 debit? That didn't seem right either, so the 9750 was accordingly 

 written down first as a debit, then as a credit, and each time a fresh 



