29 8 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



State at a time when there was only a pastoral demand for it. The opportunities 

 afforded to acquire large holdings tempted many capitalists to invest to an extent which 

 made borrowing a necessity. Bad seasons and high rates of interest have placed a heavy 

 handicap on the big freeholds. Hence springs the hope that the time is not far 

 distant when Riverina will have jnore farms than sheep-walks, and export as man) hogs- 

 heads of wine as bales of wool ; for high prices are required to keep the bank balance 

 of squattages on the right side. 



When travelling through New South Wales the visitor will be impressed by the 

 number of towns and villages ; the proportion of these being somewhat great when the 

 total population is taken into consideration. Despite the fact that nearly one-third of the 

 million of people who form the latter is massed in or around the metropolis, there are 

 in the country about five hundred centres which have about them the material necessary 

 to support a much larger number of workers than are at present available. The South 

 especially is very thickly clotted over with small towns, and this spreading of business 

 depots is a healthy sign. There is, at least in an industrial sense, the frame-work upon 

 which may be reared a large edifice. Regarding the present, however, it is to many 

 puzzling how some of the towns manage to exist. The proprietors of inns and stores 

 must have customers, or the shutters would not be down, and the blacksmiths and 

 wheelwrights need occasionally to work. It is necessary to explain to the inquirer that 

 the business done in most of these centres is of the intermittent class that there are 

 seasons during which a flood of business covers the settlement. In July the shearers 

 are on their way to the stations to gather the great wool-harvest ; in September they 

 are either going home or they are bound for other localities in which the clipping is 

 not begun until later in the year. The teamsters, too, are passing, so that they may 

 take part in conveying the fleece to the coast. The wool season lasts for more than a 

 quarter of the year, and before it has closed there is work to do in the cultivation 

 paddccks. The hay and wheat crops are ready for the reaping-machine, and the threshers 



follow in its wake. The nomadic workers 

 who assist farmers and wool-growers are 

 not economical in the matter of dis- 

 bursing their earnings ; they spend their 

 wa es freely in some cases lavishly. 

 Thus the towns have the harvest of the 

 harvests. Each place with any preten- 

 sion to importance has its jockey club 

 and its aericultural society, which pro- 



A FAC-SIMILE OF TIIK CLAIMANTS HAND-WRITING. 



vide the annual shows lasting three or 



four days, and during this time the inns are crowded. In a few years, when population 

 increases, the towns will have business of a more solid character vineyards and orchards 

 will occupy spots where now are to be seen only flocks of sheep ; there is plenty of 

 material to work upon, and the towns in their present condition may be regarded as the 

 survey-marks which usually precede extensive settlement. 



Returning to Junee Junction, from which point the branch to Hay went off, with 

 its sub-branch to Jerilderie, the main line to the frontier has to be followed. Its course 



