242 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



in the New World to the company-stations in this 

 southern world. 



A station-trust is hardly in sight. Yet the various 

 pastoral associations, which act and sue hke legal persons, 

 reveal an organization that perhaps better answers the 

 same purpose. The nationalisation of stations, which 

 is the trust carried a stride further, has been proposed, 

 at least in regard to the Native reserves in the Far North 

 and North West. In those remote wilds, where alone the 

 black now seems to thrive, still cattle and sheep ranches, 

 together with the growth of rice, cotton, sugar, tobacco, 

 rubber, and tropical fruits, might all, it is believed, be 

 carried on by the State, in the interests and by means 

 of the natives. From Native reserves, thus aggregated 

 under Government, to private or company-runs, simi- 

 larly massed, there is but a step. 



