

THE WORLDS MEAT FUTURE 



lies in bhe extreme north of the stale ; and. as a matter of 

 tart, the main North wot division, which has been discarding 

 cattle for sheep for many years, had gone hack in its numbers. 

 Kimberley is the cattle end of the country, as will be shown 

 by the following table : — 



Cattle at 

 Statistical Division. 31st Dec, 1917. 





958,484 



The figures show t hat East and West Kimberley now possess 

 073.!>7<» cattle, or more than two-thirds of the herds of the 

 State. The growth in Kimberley has been rapid, as at the 

 end of L907 the totals were 463,735 for the two Kimberleys, 

 so that the increase in the ten-year period has been roughly 

 50 per cent. 



Kimberley has been one of the most neglected corners of 

 the earth. Blest with magnificent soil and noble rivers, it has 

 been cursed by misgovernment and neglect. When freezing 

 works and canning plants years ago might have given the 

 country a market, cleaned up all the aged cattle, and en- 

 couraged the lessees to open out the country, the Kimberley 

 squatters have only been able to market some 25,000 cattle 

 annually, by shipment to Fremantle, six days' steam south- 

 wards, or to occasionally get rid of a few thousand store 

 bullocks to Queensland. 



The absence of markets has been pronounced, and has for 

 many years induced a condition of things closely akin to stag- 

 nation. Owners have kept down their breeding, as it was no 

 use going to the expense of improving the back country and 

 carrying more cattle till the runs earned more money than a 

 bare subsistence from the infrequent sales. And consequently 

 the country has never really been used, developed, or stocked. 

 All that the lessees have done, up to the present, is to run the 

 frontages of the rivers and leave development till later on. 

 The cattle seldom work back more than seven miles from the 



