Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 185
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DARLING DISTRICT.
to which they can be at present applied, viz the [depasturing?] of Stock -
there are eighteen hundred (1800) persons holding licenses beyond the boundaries and if we take £90 as the average charge of [indecipherable} upon each license (which I think will be found within the mark) we have this enormous sum of £162,000 which is to be squeezed out of the squatters, & this too at a period which as far as regards their impoverished status from prospects, has had no parallel in the history of the colony.
But to examine this charge a little more closely. It comes within my knowledge that such parties, persons previous to giving in their applications for leases, had the boundaries of their runs measured by a [profesional?] Surveyor at rates varying according to extent, from £5 to £15 - but in No Case have I heard of the latter Sum having been exceeded, & there is no reason to suppose that these runs were [ indecipherable] accurately or scientifically surveyed then [they?] could be done by the officers of the Survey department. Taking, according to this estimate £10 as the average for each run, we have as the total Cost of the Survey the Sum of £18,000 or one ninth of the exorbitant amount to be charged by Government.
If this charge was just, I have no doubt that the squatters would willingly Consent to the [unexpe?] balance from the assessment fund being applied towards meeting it rather than have any further demands made upon their pockets - This balance it appears is £7900; another year will probably Show an equal one, So that in little more than that time, an amount may be saved from this fund Sufficient to defray
the expense of a survey, not indeed according to the extravagant rate of Government, but according to one for which I have no doubt many private Surveyors would undertake to do it, in a manner amply sufficient for all practical purposes.
Considering that the squatters have for some time past been suffering from the effects of a severe drought - obliged in the remote districts to Pay high [?] or abandon their flocks - taxed with a heavy license fee besides [asesment?] - that wool and tallow are unprecedentedly depreciated in Value - that in fact hardly one station in ten is at the present moment paying expense of keeping it - It is absurd to suppose that they can possibly pay this enormous sum"
THE [?] IN THE SHADE IN DARLING & DRAYTON JUNE 1855
" On the 16th and 17th of December last will be days long talked of in these parts. After dry days with an increasing haze, the heat on these days reached 110 & 113 Fahrenheit in the shade and at some stations 118 the hot blast from an oven, the iron of the well handles blisters the hand The birds dropped gasping from the branches and many took refuge in rooms On Monday the thermometer was not above 64° at 2 P.M. On the [?] Saturday we had slight rains and were obliged to light our fires, Next week again dry and hot - Such is an Australian climate & such weather the Sign, it is feared, of drought Clouds without rain blown about by every wind"
On the 16th and 17th December last the thermometer indicated 103 & 104 in New England Elevation 411 feet