SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



NOTE IN RELATION TO AUSTRALIA. 



Since the preceding Letters were completed, the exceedingly interesting 

 article from the (English) Farmers' Magazine, which is published below. 

 has met my eye. It will be seen from it that the conclusions arrived at 

 by me (see page 123,) in relation to the vast increase in the trans-Atlantic 

 demand for wool and woolens, are in a rapid course of verification. 1 

 wrote from statistics extending down to 1840. In that year the English 

 import of wool was forty-six millions of pounds. In 1845, according to 

 the subjoined authority, it was seventy-six millions of pounds. And this 

 rapid increase took place, notwithstanding the vast extension in the woolen 

 manufactures in other nations, particularly in Germany, France, Spain and 

 Belgium. The extract given from Waterton's " Cyclopeedia of Com- 

 merce," asserting the improbability of a much greater extension of the 

 English woolen manufactures, "unless new markets shall be opened," may 

 be true. But new markets are yet to spring up in Central and Northern 

 Asia, and even in Northern Europe, which will, in the aggregate, require 

 an increase of woolen manufactures which the boldest calculator now 

 scarcely dreams of. For the reasons for this opinion, see page 123. 

 Whether England is to supply a greater or less portion of this increasing 

 demand remains to be seen. If she continues as well prepared as sho 

 now is to compete with other manufacturing nations, doubtless she will 

 contribute her full share to that supply. 



It will also be seen, from the annexed paper, that what I predicted (see 

 page 121) in relation to the prospective competition (from the year 1840) 

 in wool-growing, between the densely populated countries of Western 

 Europe and those in newer settled regions, where land is cheap and popu- 

 lation comparatively sparse, has already come to pass. Spain, arid even 

 Germany, which in 1840 supplied England with nearly twenty-two million 

 pounds of wool nearly half of the whole import of the latter have now 

 been driven almost entirely out of the English market ! But, says the 

 Sydney Herald, Germany, Spain, etc., have renewed the contest in another 

 form : they have extended their manufacturing operations, and now manu- 

 facture their own wool. Admit this : but if German wools cannot com- 

 pete with others in the English market, which are brought from fifty times 

 the distance, they cannot compete with them even in the German market, 

 unless the latter are kept out by duties. The German manufacturer, then, 

 in working up home wools, pays more for his raw mateiial than the Eng- 

 lish manufacturer, and he cannot, therefore, compete with him in foreign 

 markets, nor even in the home one, without a protective Tariff which 

 would raise the price of the English to that of the German article. 

 Tariffs materially enhancing the cost of the necessaries of life will not long 

 be tolerated by the consuming millions, in regions where civilization has 

 penetrated. 



It seems that Australia and Van Diemen's Land are the successful com 

 petitors which have driven Germany and Spain from the English wool 

 market. The views set forth by me in Letter IX. in relation to the ad- 

 vantages of the former for woe 1-gro wing compared with those of Hungary, 

 Southern Russia, North and South America, remain the same ; indeed a 

 careful review of my positions has served to farther convince me of their 

 correctness. The character of the population, and the better commercial 

 regulations of Australia, have given her a present advantage over new ri- 

 vals in the Old World ; and America has not yet entered the field of com- 

 petition. When the Anglo-Saxon of North America enters the lists with 

 the Anglo-Saxon of Australia, natural advantages will not, as now, be 



