DAIRYING IN THE GOLD FEVER DAYS. 



Flour was 6s. per lb., butter 2s. 6d. per lb., cheese 2s. 3d. per lb., 

 maize 125. 6d. per bushel, bran 6s. per bushel, oats -us. per bushel, 

 potatoes is. 6d. per lb. It was impossible to obtain -farm laborers. An 

 instance is mentioned of a squatter having visited the goldnelds with 

 a view of obtaining labor to shear his sheep. After discussing the 

 situation with a party of diggers, having learned the current rate of 

 wages usually given by the squatter for shearing sheep, the diggers, 

 eight in number, offered the squatter 155. a day and tucker as cook 

 for the camp. 



In 1847 Governor Sir Charles Fitzroy arrived in the colony, and 

 shortly afterwards Lady Fitzroy was killed by accident at Parramatta, 

 which cast a gloom over the whole of Australia, and justly so ; but 

 such things, however sad in themselves, do not prevent the progres- 

 sion of a country such as New South Wales was in those days. Emi- 

 grants of the very best description continued to arrive from Great 

 Britain and Ireland. Many of these good people came to join their 

 friends in the lllawarra and Shoalhaven districts. The prices of dairy 

 produce fluctuated, but speaking generally there wa a good market 

 to be had for butter, cheese, and bacon throughout me forties and 

 fifties. 



No great changes took place in the methods of uairy farming in 

 New South Wales during the thirty-two years which otherwise 

 characterised the colony as being a period of its greatest development, 

 one of the chief of which was the enormous amount of gold won ifrom 

 the earth in a phenomenally short space of time, creating a demand 

 for milk to supply the chief towns and cities of the country, which 

 had sprung up like mushrooms owing to the great influx 1 of emigrants 

 into Australia from all parts of the world then known to civilisation. 



The increase in wages now earned by the working classes as com- 

 pared with the previous years rendered them better able to purchase 

 a regular supply of fresh milk, butter, and cheese, which, notwith- 

 standing their importance as an excellent diet for most adults, and 

 also most necessary to the healthy growth of children, was denied 

 them owing to the low prevailing rate of wages given to the working 

 classes and farm laborers. In fact, the very best mechanics had been 

 earning a low wage. The development of roads and railways enabled 

 supplies to be obtained from a widely increased area. On all arable 

 farms a number of cows were profitably kept, and butter and cheese 

 made and the skim milk used to advantage in rearing calves or feeding 



191. 



