30 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



It soon began to be felt in England that the Govern- 

 ment of New South Wales was plunging too deeply 

 into matters that properly belonged to the individual 

 citizen. The Secretary of State, Lord Hobart, accord- 

 ingly instructed Governor King to diminish the amount 

 of cultivation carried on by the Government, and this 

 would involve a decline in the number of stock bred 

 and kept. King mildly protested, representing it as 

 unavoidable in the then state of the Colony, and stock- 

 keeping, at least, was continued by the Government 

 for many after-years. It further encouraged pas- 

 toralism bj'^ being the chief purchaser of cattle for the 

 Government stores, and it regulated the market by 

 fixing the prices of meat. 



The Government also took an interest in the improve- 

 ment of wool. Governor King engaged an expert wool- 

 sorter in order to derive from his suggestions the means 

 of improving it. In September, 1805, Mr. Wood 

 reported that, wherever in New South Wales he found 

 sheep bred, there was a prejudice in favour of weight 

 of carcase, while in England the manufacturers were 

 interested solely in the fineness of the wool. King 

 himseh admitted that the wool continued to ameliorate 

 beyond belief. Yet he refused to appropriate public 

 labour or public money for the work. He held that 

 it would thrive better in private hands. Compulsion, 

 he rightly beheved, would not be beneficial. 



We do not complain that the Government of New 

 South Wales did not itself carry on the breeding of 

 sheep and cattle on a large scale ; that would have 

 been a grave error. Government in general takes up 

 a social institution that has been originated by indi- 

 viduals and perfected by associated activity. In 

 Australia, owing to peculiar circumstances, the oppo- 

 site course was adopted. The Government of New 

 South Wales initiated the pastoral development that 

 has made Australia great. Having given it a start, 

 it left the nascent growth severely alone at times, while 

 at others it thwarted and fettered, or favoured and 



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