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MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
or ten per cent - But then in the first of three periods there had slaughtered for tallow 94,700 head, while in the last there had been Slaughtered the enormous number of 212,600 head. Allowing, however, for this difference, that is, supposing no Cattle had been other Slaughtered for tallow or exported in the respective periods, the increase of the first four years would have exceeded that of the last four by 172,900 head or just one half - the number of Cattle in the Colony at the date of last return 1st January 1853 was less in proportion to the population than it was six years previously - The reverse seems to have been the Case with the sheep.
The animals boiled down in 1852 for the sake of their tallow were no fewer than 366,000 namely 74,000 Cattle & 292, 000 Sheep - this of Course is an evil that may be Cured by any large rise in the price of meat.
It will not be cured by mere considerations if philantrophy [philanthropy?] or public spirit - So long as boiling down is believed to be more profitable than selling to the butcher, the butcher will be disregarded, In the eye of the grazier, the question between beef and tallow is merely a question of pounds, shillings & pence & on that principle alone can he be expected to decide which of the two shall have the preference.
Until the discovery of gold, nothing was further from the thoughts of the people of Australia than that they could ever be incommoded by a deficiency of animal food - We were accustomed to regard it as a thing impossible that our population could relatively outgrow or Keep pace with our flocks & herds.
The discovery in 1843, of the intrinsic value of our stock, for the sake of their tallow, irrespective of beef and mutton, was hailed as the most important event that had ever occurred in our history, Since it opened a vent for our surplus, which the requirements of our food market has long Ceased to provide.
The tables according to Mr Lang were at length turned. And certainly there is too much reason to apprehend that what with the vast increase of consumption on the one hand & the comparative neglect of breeding on the other, especially in Victoria, the tables if not turned are turning.
the inference deducted by Mr Lang from all this is, that we must look well to our fisheries. "We have hitherto" he observes " had butcher meat as our