PASTORAL LEGISLATION 326 



of another ; the intermediate land being equally divided. 

 Out of just such understandings grew the written laws 

 of later years. 



Such legislation was naturally concerned with the 

 primary interests of the pastoralists. In the early days 

 there were, as yet, no fences ; lonely shepherds tended 

 their sheep by day, and at nightfall drove their flocks 

 to fold. Liable to diseases to which all flesh, ovine and 

 bovine as well as human, is heir, sheep might contract 

 scab, catarrh, and foot-rot, and these wrought havoc 

 among the sheep. As a single sheep might stray into 

 another run, and infect a whole flock, the lack of isola- 

 tion might ruin a station. Many a law was passed to 

 protect the squatter against his neighbour, as in later 

 days to protect the cattle-owner against himself. The 

 new race of shepherds kept vigilant guard over the in- 

 tegrity of their flocks. Periodical musters were held, and 

 ever}^ herd counted. All animals were forcibly branded. 



To remedy trespass impounding laws were enacted 

 and continually amended. Laws were passed to regu- 

 late the slaughtering of cattle, killed by dishonest men 

 preying on their neighbours. Xone could slaughter 

 without a license ; in Queensland, so late as the nineties, 

 a slaughtering- Act was re-enacted. 



One of the most characteristic pieces of pastoral legis- 

 lation was brought forward by Went^orth in 1844. It 

 was carried successfully through the Council, and received 

 the Royal assent at the hands of the Governor. Its 

 object was to enable pastoralists to mortgage the wool 

 while it was still on the sheep's backs, and it was in- 

 tituled. The Lien on Wool Bill. It met -with a very 

 cool reception at the Colonial Office, which was then 

 controlled, as regards the future self-governing colonies, 

 by the masterful Sir James Stephen. It declared, in 

 sentences that bear the imprint of Stephen's pen, that 

 such transactions as were legalised by the Act were in 

 contravention of the spirit of English jurisprudence, 

 and the Office forbore to exercise the unquestioned 

 power of refusing or recalling the Royal assent, in the 



