342 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



pastoral estates. The high price of wool and the 

 deficiency of labour have made such farms still more 

 profitable than agricultural farms. It stands to reason 

 that grazing is most successfully carried on on a large 

 scale. But there are times when it is profitably con- 

 ducted on a small scale. 



In all pastoral countries the transition to agriculture 

 is on foot, and sometimes with curious similarities. 

 The New Zealand " cocky," or cockatoo, has his homo- 

 logue in the American " nester." The nester nestles 

 on a small plot of land adjoining a ranch, as the " cocka- 

 too " perches on a small farm cut out of a run. To the 

 incurable grievance of their mere co-existence the 

 nesters, hke some of the Austrahan cockatoos, add the 

 wrong of steahng cattle from the ranch. The tran- 

 sition obviously has its questionable sides. Yet the 

 free-selector is not seldom, as Mrs. Campbell Piaed 

 shows, the equal of the runholder and an acquisition 

 to the local community. In any case he is necessary. 

 If people are to be brought together and no longer live 

 in isolation ; if a society is to be created in place of 

 the inorganic union of the pastoral stage ; if social life 

 and the conditions of existence are to be expanded and 

 improved, the advent of the agricultural farmer is 

 indeed inevitable. And those who facihtate that advent 

 may be truly described as makers of Australasia. 



