52 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



his father's claims. Lord Bathurst had long ago 

 dealt sternly with McArthur, but he had no mind to 

 see the pastoralist denied his rights. Sparing no 

 emphasis, he peremptorily required the Governor of 

 New South Wales to place McArthur in immediate 

 possession of 10,720 acres on payment of a sum of 

 £2,850, or of an annual quit-rent of £142 105. An 

 extensive estate, it will be said, acquired on easy terms ! 

 Yet it was far less extensive than many a more than 

 lordly domain oAATied by the squatters of a later day, 

 and was well within the capacity of the first and most 

 capable of Australian breeders and squatters, while the 

 price paid was the conventional one of five shillings 

 the acre. Whoever in Australia may have acquired 

 land at " the price of an old song," it was not John 

 McArthur. The historic estate of Camden Park was 

 his at last, and it is his heirs' still. 



He was now able to resume his efforts and experi- 

 ments. They were met with many discouragements 

 and general indifference. So late as 1818 he wrote of 

 himself as pursuing in virtual isolation his " feeble 

 attempt to introduce merino sheep," which crept on 

 " almost unheeded and altogether unassisted." He was 

 not so completely unaided as he alleged. Governor 

 King had given him 100 of the best ewes belonging 

 to the Government, and convict labour had been as- 

 signed to him ungrudgingly ; though Mrs. ]\Ic Arthur, 

 in one of her letters, asserts that most of his servants 

 were paid by himself. Still, Government encouragement 

 was not, in the main, the kind that he either needed or 

 desired. Hunter recommended and I^ng appreciated 

 his endeavours. King gladly allowed that the gradual 

 change of the fleece from hair to wool, largely due to 

 Mc Arthur's experiments, " continues ameliorating be- 

 yond belief." Yet he would not apply pubUc (or con- 

 vict) labour and the cost of its support to such an 

 object. It would thrive better in private hands, he 

 wisely beUeved ; compulsion, said this disciple of Adam 

 Smith, would not be beneficial. 



