124 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



The middlemen in South Austraha were robbing 

 the farmer of his dairy profits; so in September, 

 1906, the government started a dairying estabhsh- 

 ment which in 1909 was turning out foui* tons of 

 butter a week. As soon as its success was demon- 

 strated $375,000 more was appropriated for exten- 

 sions to the plant. The butter is guaranteed to be 

 first-class and good prices are secured; also a wider 

 market, owing to the confidence in the state butter.* 



New South Wales has an export department and 

 government-owned port facilities at Sydney, but 

 up to 1903 did no selling for its clients as is done 

 in South Australia. The harbor trust of Sydney 

 shows a substantial return on a capital invest- 

 ment of $25,725,000, and the Melbourne harbor trust 

 made a profit of $302,060 in 1908. Both are state 

 institutions. 



Victoria pursues a similar policy. It receives, 

 grades, and ships fiTiits, butter, rabbits, tobacco, and 

 other things. It represents the shippers collectively 

 in making contracts with steamship companies for 

 freight, these contracts including the use of refrig- 

 erating-chambers. It arranged for the first di- 

 rect steamship communication between Victoria and 

 Manchester. Even as early as 1901 it had done so 

 much for the dairy industry that the mider-secretary 

 of agriculture was able to say: "Victoria is now 

 the largest exporter of butter except Denmark." 



* Avstralia's Awakening, W. G. Spence, p. 459. 



