388 AUSTRALASIA, 



respect even before the United States, the Argentine Republic, and Russia. The 

 wool yielded by its twenty-four million sheep being of the finest quality, commands 

 the highest prices in all the markets of the globe, and represents an annual value 

 of about £20,000,000. The stock-breeders also own large herds of cattle, excellent 

 horses and swine, yielding for the export trade considerable quantities of hides, 

 suet, fat, tinned meats, and since 1882 frozen carcasses. The Australian dingo is 

 much dreaded by the sheep-farmers, for he regards the flock as so much game, 

 killing all he cannot devour ; whole folds have been destroyed by the depreda- 

 tions of this animal, which, however, is rapidly disappearing with the natives 

 themselves. The fox has also become dangerous ; but the great scourge of the stock- 

 breeders is the rabbit, which, once imported from Europe, soon found a congenial 

 home in the rolling, grassy, and flowering plains formerly tenanted by the kangaroo. 

 Here the coney has multiplied to a prodigious extent, and although at least fifty 

 millions are yearly destroyed by the shepherds and their dogs, he encroaches more 

 and more on the pasturages to the great detriment of the live-stock. To get rid of 

 this pest several plans have been tried or suggested, amongst others the complete 

 enclosure of the grazing grounds, and the systematic extermination of the does, thus 

 arresting the propagation of the species. Experiments have also been made at 

 Rodd Island, near Sydney, with " chicken cholera," inoculated according to the 

 Pasteur method, in the hope that the rabbits themselves will spread the contagion. 

 But fears have been expressed that the disease may thus be gradually disseminated 

 among the domestic animals. 



In 1888 the arable lands comprised a total extent of nearly 8,500,000 acres, 

 yielding a relatively high proportion of produce, which is largely required for the 

 local consumption. But Australia has already begun to take a prominent position 

 amongst countries exporting wine, sugar, and tobacco. Some of the vintages have 

 even acquired a certain reputation, and the burgundies especially shown at the 

 Paris Exhibition of 1889 were much appreciated by French connoisseurs. 

 Other classes of wine, such as bordeaux, chamj)agne, moselle, port, are also success- 

 fully grown ; but the vineyards have unfortunately begun to suifer from the 

 ravages of the phylloxera. 



Cereals and other alimentary plants are chiefly grown on small holdings, while 

 the Queensland sugar plantations, like the pasture lands of the Darling and of 

 other regions lying beyond the east coast-ranges, are for the most part in the 

 hands of large land-owners. Despite the laws limiting the extent of land which 

 one person may purchase, or rent for seven, fourteen, or twenty- one years, the 

 tendency in Australia, as in the mother country, is in the direction of vast 

 landed estates. In New South "Wales the smallest plot offered for sale is about 

 forty acres, but in some of the colonies allotments of 2,500 acres may be purchased, 

 and syndicates have been formed for buying or renting far more extensive holdings. 

 Certain estates, sheep-runs, or sheep-walks, as ihej are called, are laid out in the 

 central part with a park, gardens, and a magnificent residence with turrets, 

 galleries, and conservatories, for the squatter is the true Australian aristocrat, a 

 wealthy citizen, owning sheep by the hundred thousand, administering his 



