I 3 88 



A USTRALASIA II. I. ( r S TRA TED. 



English thorough-bred. These were crossed with the animals of the settlement, and the 

 type developed characteristics suitable to the country as it advanced. Some of these 

 horses would be ridden by stock-men one hundred, or even one hundred and fifty, miles 

 in a clay. The pace of the racing-horses is equal to that on the English turf. First- 

 class draught and light-horse sires have also been imported. The draught stock require 

 repeated importation to keep up size and bone, and the climate is evidently not suited 



for them. The lighter 

 sorts are in request 

 for the Indian market, 

 there being regular 

 shipments from dif- 

 ferent Australian ports. 

 Schemes have been 

 proposed for shortening 

 the sea voyage, by 

 raising horses in Cen- 

 tral and Northern Aus- 

 tralia, and shipping 

 them from Port Dar- 

 win ; but this is an 

 industry of the future. 

 The life of a squat- 

 ter in Australia has 

 always had a powerful 

 fascination for the 

 minds of those adven- 

 turous young -men of 

 family or means, who, 

 from time to time, 



were led to seek their fortunes at the antipodes. The free life of the open country, the 

 prizes of the calling, its element of romance and adventure in the primeval bush, and 

 even the very ordeal of " roughing it " that the new comer was then obliged to pass 

 through, invested the whole career with just that spice of wild freedom which was most 

 calculated to satisfy the straining youth of the " Old Land " at that period ; nothing but 

 life in the American backwoods in the early days could offer a comparison to it. The 

 first steps towards the formation of what has grown up into the squatting interest were 

 made towards the end of the first quarter of the present century, but it must be 

 confessed that the term "squatter" was then accepted as conveying a signification that 

 by no means belongs to it now. In those days, early settlement was confined to a few 

 spots along the coast, and the stock of the colony was carried only on land that had 

 been granted to, or purchased by, the holder. But as the flocks and herds of the 

 settlement increased, the population gradually threw off an erratic element that hung on 

 the skirts of the settlement proper. These enterprising pioneers went farther out and 

 selected suitable spots, well provided with the necessary grass and water, where they 





I.OADIM; \YOUL FUR SHIPMENT AT SYDNEY. 



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