54 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTBALASIA 



in 1821 he received the extraordinary price of IO5. 4:d. 

 per lb., while the bulk of the Australian wool that 

 reached England brought no more than two shilhngs a 

 pound, and from one to two shilhngs was a common 

 price. His merits were recognised at Home. Early 

 in the twenties McArthur was presented by the Society 

 of Arts in London with two gold medals " for importing 

 into Great Britain wool, the produce of his flocks, 

 equal to the finest Saxony." 



The real significance of the struggle between McArthur 

 and the Government, as embodied in Governors King, 

 Bhgh, and Macquarie and in successive Secretaries of 

 State, was the struggle between two ideals. The 

 Ministers and the Governors, who represented them, 

 stood for Australia as a convict settlement, with the 

 reformation of the convict for its final cause ; while 

 McArthur, violent and unreasonable though he often 

 might be, was the living embryo and anticipation of 

 the new Austraha, free, pastoralist, and patriarchal. 



