192 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



ness, because they have led his hfe and gone through 

 his toils. He is no longer the large capitahst of Grey, 

 who was nevertheless a reality, but a fugitive one ; 

 nor is he the large squatter of the thirties and forties, 

 like " Joe " Hawdon and W. H. Brodribb, who is a 

 squatter first of all, and only makes himself an Over- 

 lander on occasion. He is shorn of the aureole of wealth 

 and independence with which Grey's imagination had 

 clothed him. He is now, in the sixties, but a small 

 capitalist, who purchases the stock of a large squatter, 

 or as much of it as he can bu3\ His object, of course, 

 is to drive it to some distant market where he may 

 dispose of it to advantage. It is a speculative trans- 

 action, as the journeys of the early Overlanders were 

 speculative. Like most of them, he invests his all in 

 the purchase, and, if he fails, he is ruined. Like them, 

 too, he drives his own stock. 



In the same decade there was a second class of Over- 

 landers, who stood on a very different financial footing. 

 These simply hired themselves to " take down " (the 

 phrase has now a very different signification) the stock 

 belonging to another. This class is, or was, by far the 

 more numerous ; in fact, the typical Overlander of the 

 sixties, as of the present day, was a drover on com- 

 mission, while the capitalist drover of the thirties and 

 forties has become virtually extinct. The occupation 

 is by many preferred to residence on a station ; it is 

 better paid ; it affords more scope and opens up pro- 

 spects of independence. The overlander of this class 

 often wins a name for himself, and, if he is successful, 

 he may amass a competence. He then reaches the 

 summit of his ambition and acquires a station. 



This new and now prevaihng type of Overlanders is 

 drawn from all ranks in society. Like the older type, it 

 includes men from the universities and the pubhc 

 schools, from the army and the navy. Many Over- 

 landers are bushmen or stockmen who have risen, and 

 again some of these may be of good family. 



The Overlander's occupation and responsibiHties de- 



