AUSTRALIA 25 



AUSTRALIA. 



At the present time in Australia, there are 10,500,000 cattle, 

 and 80,000,000 sheep, and in 1891 there were 11,522,000 

 cattle, and 103,260,000 sheep, but droughts, tick, red water, 

 and harassing legislation, have brought the numbers down 

 to the present level. It may be taken, however, for granted, that 

 given the State politicians do not persist in their antagonism to 

 the stock owners, the number of stock in Australia can easily be 

 increased very largely. In the case of cattle, this is particularly 

 so, because not many men are required to handle a cattle station, 

 whereas the amount of labour required on a sheep property is 

 large. 



Australia is a vast country, with magnificent grasses for stock, 

 and with a good supply of labour would be hard to beat by any 

 country in the world. The State ownership of railways is a 

 drawback, however, as under this system, unless continual 

 British loans are forthcoming, railway enterprise in opening up 

 new country is stagnant. Again, democratic governments never 

 think of constructing railways unless there are sufficient votes 

 along the proposed line to encourage them to do so. 'Tis votes that 

 count all the time under State ownership of railways. Nearly 

 £500,000 per annum is given the highly-paid railway and tram- 

 way employees in New South Wales alone, in the shape of free 

 passes and concessions. This is passed on to the producer in 

 higher freights. Another drawback is that it is almost impossible 

 to get Government employees to take care of live stock, and they 

 consequently depreciate enormously between their fattening 

 grounds and the meat works on the sea-board. The Australian 

 Railways are years behind the times in the matter of refrigerated 

 waggons, and to all appearance nothing will wake them to the 

 necessity of equipping their systems with means of bringing meat 

 down to the seaboard dead, rather than alive, also to the im- 

 portance of making country life more pleasant by transferring 

 perishable produce to the outback towns in refrigeraterl wagons 

 as is done in Canada and America. 



With the continued improvements in refrigerating machinery, 

 the chances of the chilled beef trade between Australia and the 

 United Kingdom become more promising. 



The chilled beef industry stimulates the bringing to a high 

 degree of excellence the cattle of the country from which the 

 shipments are made, for the primest beef is required for chilled 



