Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

338 AUSTRAIASIA.respect even bffore the Unitud States, the Argentine Republic, and Russia. Thewool yielded by its twenty-four million sheep being of the finest quality, commandsthe highest prices in all the markets of the globe, and represents an annual valueof about £20,000,000.The stock-breeders also own large herds of cattle, excellenthorses and swine, yielding for the export trade considerable quantities of hides,suet, fat, tinned meats, and since 1882 frozen carcasses. The Australian dingo ismuch 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 depredationsof this animal, which, however, is rapidly disappearing with the nativesthemselves. The fox has also become dangerous ; but the great scourge of the stockbreedersis the rabbit, which, once imported from Europe, soon found a congenialhome 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 fiftymillions are yearly destroyed by the shepherds and their dogs, he encroaches moreand more on the pasturages to the great detriment of the live-stock.To get rid ofthis pest-several plans have been tried or suggested, amongst others the completeenclosure of the grazing grounds, and the systematic extermination of the does, thusarresting the propagation of the species. Experiments have also been made atRodd Island, near Sydney, with " chicken cholera," inoculated according to thePasteur method, in the hope that the rabbits themselves will spread the contagion.But fears have been expressed that the disease may thus be gradually disseminatedamong 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 thelocal consumption. But Australia has already begun to take a prominent positionamongst countries exporting wine, sugar, and tobacco.Some of the vintages haveeven acquired a certain reputation, and the burgundies especially shown at theParis Exhibition of 1889 were much ajipreciated by French connoisseurs.Other classes of wine, such as bordeaux, champagne, moselle, port, are also successfullygrown ; but the vineyards have unfortunately begun to suffer from theravages of the phylloxera.Cereals and other alimentary plants are chiefly grown on small holdings, whilethe Queensland sugar plantations, like the pasture lands of the Darling and ofother regions lying beyond the east coast-ranges, are for the most part in thehands of large land-owners. " Despite the laws limiting the extent of land whichone person may purchase, or rent for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one years, thetendency in Australia, as in the mother country, is in the direction of vastlanded estates. In New South Wales the smallest plot offered for sale is aboutforty 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 they are called, are laid out in thecentral part with a park, gardeins, and a magnificent residence with turrets,galleries, and conservatories, for the squatter is the true Australian aristocrat, awealthy citizen, owning sheep by the hundred thousand, administering his