THE SUPERINTENDENT OR MANAGER 197 



skill a mob of wild cattle. Dash and courage were two 

 of his chief attributes. Humane he was, no less. He 

 would carry a lamb for miles on his saddle-bow, and 

 nurse a ewe through her first lambing. He was strict 

 with his men, and no skulker could hope to escape his 

 sharp eye. He was taciturn from his solitary habit, 

 but he had a keen eye for a bargain.* For such services 

 he received, with his keep, the modest salary of £80. | 



The station-superintendent yields a variety of types, 

 and a picture of the Victorian manager may supply 

 some deficiencies in the sketch of the Queensland 

 manager. J He has worked up through various stages 

 of bush-apprenticeship, and hopes one day to pass into 

 the ranks of the ' squatocracy.' He is a man of keen 

 intelligence and great knowledge of stock, commercial 

 shrewdness and a military tactician's power of com- 

 bination. He is in possession of the latest lights, and 

 himself invents improvements of various kinds ; and all 

 his appliances are of the most modern stamp. He is 

 deep in all the mysteries of wool, and can judge of the 

 fineness, freeness, density, and length of staple of the 

 ideal merino. He can tell how much the building of 

 a dam will cost, and how many men, working how many 

 days, and consuming certain quantities of provisions, 

 will be wanted to construct it. He is in his glory when 

 he is calculating, planning, ordering, and arranging. 

 He chooses out-stations, drafts and apportions stock, 

 selects the ration-carrier, and directs the making of 

 stockyards. He is noted for his perfect mastery of 

 every particular, his energy, his forecast, his rapid and 

 easy arrangement of a hundred jarring details, and his 

 prompt decision. All his plans have a knack of suc- 

 ceeding. He forgets nothing and superintends every- 

 thing. He trusts nobody ; he coerces, persuades, and 

 manipulates everybody. He has the terms of all con- 



* Abthxjb Nicol, Wild Life and Adventure in the Bush, pp. 

 87-90. 



t Gbant, Bush Life, i. 52-3, 72. 



X Rolf Boldrewood, The Squatter'g Dream, chs. iv. v. 



