THE TECHNOLOGIST. 



ECONOMISING LABOUR BY MACHINERY.— DEVELOPMENT 

 OF COLONIAL RESOURCES IN AUSTRALIA. 



The application of machinery to the economising of labour in the 

 preparation of our natural products, whether mineral, vegetable, or ani- 

 mal, for the markets of the world, affords a most interesting and impor- 

 tant field for the employment of energy and capital, and one which pro- 

 mises a rich harvest to those who, possessing the necessary qualifications, 

 are willing to engage in it. 



Had any man a few years since proposed to employ expensive 

 machinery and elaborate mechanical appliances for the purpose of 

 slaughtering cattle and turning their carcases to account, in the shape of 

 beef, tallow, gelatine, and even as food for pigs, he would have been 

 laughed at as a visionary and a dreamer. Yet this is now being carried 

 out, and the result promised is precisely what Dr. Johnson said of the 

 tubs and vats of Thrale's brewery, — " a potentiality of creating wealth 

 almost beyond the dreams of avarice." 



New South Wales possesses, in round numbers, about 3,000,000 

 horned cattle, 300,000 horses, and 8,000,000 sheep. Horned stock have 

 increased of late in a more rapid ratio than population, and the conse- 

 quence is that the supply of beef is greater than the demand, and a 

 market has to be found for the surplus in other parts of the world. The 

 price of cattle is already commonly quoted " at boiling rates." In other 

 words, fat cattle will fetch no more from the butcher than can be realised 

 from their hides, horns, hoofs, tallow, &c, for exportation. Under the 

 old slovenly and shiftless system of sending cattle to the melting pot, it 

 is certain that from one-fourth to one-half of what ought to have been 

 profitably turned to account was wasted. The number of cattle in the 

 colony i3, as was observed above, about three millions. Now supposing 

 these to be worth fifty shillings per head, i.e., for slaughtering purposes, 

 it is plain that any man who could invent a method or devise appliances 

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