294 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTiI. 



overbalanced by superior energy and enterprise. Tbe Anglo-Anstrnlian 

 will, to say the least of it, meet his full equal in these particulars. And, 

 on the other hand, there is not a rational doubt that the vatural and other 

 present advantages of all kinds arc on the side of the Anglo- American. The 

 portion of North America included in the proper wool-growing zone ii 

 immensely greater than in Australia ; our climate, all things considered- 

 considering the occasional terrible drouths of Australia — is .he best ; oui 

 lands are cheaper, and will certainly average as good, including our whole 

 Atlantic coast, and including only our territory between the Apalachianw 

 and the Rocky Mountains, our land will average by far the best ; labor is 

 not dearer among us ; we are not a quarter as distant from the English 

 markets ; the wool from all parts of our immense interior, instead of be- 

 infir dragged long and expensive journeys in "bullock drays," is already 

 whirled along by steam, or l)oated on canals or rivers to the seaboard, at 

 a comparatively trifling expense. * It would be difficult to name a particu 

 lar, excepting in the two-cent duty, in which large portions of the United 

 States have not the advantage over Australia for supplying the English 

 wool market, and in other European markets we have perhaps every ad- 

 vantage over that Colony. 



The Australian Wool Trade* — [By Wm. Westgarih, Esq.] — The importance at 

 present assumed by the Australian wool trade in the lists of British Commerce, demandi 

 some desrree of attention in the history of an Australian settlement. I shall, therefi)re, de- 

 vote the present chapter to a short account of this branch of Commerce, in its capacity both 

 of an export fiom the Australian Colonies and an import into the British market. 



In the year 1836. the quantity of wool exported from Sydney amounted to 3,700,000 Iba. 

 weight. The proportion for the Port Philip distinct, included in this amount, could not, at 

 so early a period of her existence, have exceeded 60,000 lbs. weight. Five years afterward 

 the annual produce had attained to 1,57H.000 lbs.; and the lapse of a similar period, bring- 

 ing us dov^m to the year 1846, exhibits the astonishing quantity of 7,400,000 Ibs.t During 

 this interval of ten years the quantity of wool exported from Sydney, exclusive of any from 

 Australia Felix, had increased from three and a half millions to nearly twelve millions of 

 pounds weight. 



The importation of wool into the British market appears, indeed — like the rise of the Aub- 

 tralian Colonies — to be but a business of yesterday, and one, among numerous other in- 

 stances, of the wondei-iiil extension of Modern Commerce. In 1820, the quaiitit>' imported 

 was under ten miUions of pounds weight; in 1845, it had risen to seventy-six millions. The 

 proportion from the Australian Colonies in the fonner year was the one-hundredth part ; it 

 now forms nearly one-half of the whole importationt , and at the steady and rapid ratio of 

 the present increase of Australian wool, the lapse of a few years will exhibit a quantity far 

 greater than the united total of the wool at present imported into Britain from every quar 

 ter of the world. The following Table exhibits the respective averages, in round numbers, 

 for each period of five years from 1826 to 1845 ; the numbers representing millions of 

 pounds weight : 



Average of veara. Foreign Wool. Colonial Wool. Total 



1826-30 25 2 27 



1831-35 31 4 38 



1836-40 44 10 54 



1841-45 36 22 58 



1846 34 30 64 



This Table illustrates the extraordinary progress of the colonial production, three-fourtlw 

 of which are derived from Australia and Van Diemens Land. 



The periodical public sales of colonial wool, which now occupy so important a poeitioa 

 among the commercial occurrences of the British Capital, date their origin only so lately a« 

 the year 1.817. The prices at that time, and for some subsequent period, vtere only from 

 2d. to 3d. per lb. ; and it was not until twelve or fourteen years afterward that any important 

 advance took place in the value of this commodity. The fine quality of the Australian wool 



• From a new work in the press, on Port Philip. 



t The wools occasionally sent from Port Philip by way of Sydney, and appearing m the Customs' letumi 

 w Sydney exports, are here allowed for. The season or year is taken as ending on the lOth October, m 

 Ihe usual date of Slst December falls in the midst of the wool shipments, and cannot fairly represent tha 

 quantities and ratio of progress of each yew. u- , 



f Jn 1946, the relative quantities imported into Britain were, in round numbers, thirty-four miUioni Ot 

 pounds of foreign wool and thirty millions of colonial. For the present year the colonial may be Mfalf 

 •Bsuined ut somewhat more than half the importation. 



