CHAPTER V 



THE GOVERNMENT AS A PASTORALIST 



The Government, in New South Wales, being then the 

 only capitalist, was the first pastoralist. The first 

 cattle and horses in New South Wales were brought 

 by Governor Phillip from the Cape of Good Hope in the 

 First Fleet. David Collins, the first chronicler of the 

 new settlement, regularly records the rise and fall of 

 the public stock. In December, 1792, the Government 

 owned 3 bulls, 15 cows, 5 calves, 11 horses, and 105 

 sheep. It made large importations of both cattle 

 and sheep from India and the Cape of Good Hope. 

 Travelling by the Cape in 1795, Lieutenant King 

 selected 53 young cows, of which only 28, with 3 

 bulls, were landed, at a price of £35 a head. In 1801 

 Governor King contracted for 150 young cows from 

 Bengal at £28 per head. The authorities needed the 

 command of many head of stock. Exercising paternal 

 — or, as we should now say, socialistic — functions, the 

 Government of Captain Phillip gave to each immi- 

 grant settler, each settler from the Marines, and each 

 settler from the Sirius one ewe and as many she- 

 goats as could be spared. Special services were by 

 this means rewarded ; the Governor presented John 

 McArthur with 100 fine ewes, and gave a cow to one 

 Squires for introducing hops. Long afterwards, con- 

 tinuing as late as the forties, a free loan of cows from 

 the Government stock was one of the many gifts that 

 immigrant settlers might expect from a benevolent 

 State, 



29 



