Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 479

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

therefore of late to to fall back upon our Northern districts; and their ability to supply our wants is ascribed by Mr Lang to the luxuriance of the last two seasons. But while this luxuriance has in one point of view been favourable to consumers in another it has been just the Contrary. While it has given us meat of excellent quality at Comparatively low prices it has made the Stock so fat as to tempt the owners to resort extensively to the boiling down pot,
seventy three thousand head having been sacrificed for the sake of the tallow.
But such seasons as these do not often occur. They are the exceptions to our general experience, & may be followed by seasons of drought. At any rate we may now look back for average seasons & what the results upon our meat Market will in all probability [?] be Mr Lang tells us as follows.
" Now mark the effect of the first average season, which we may expect next to be - We will be confined to the Northern Districts, & if thus
supply have when every thing is fat, is such as to realise from £5 to £7 per head, what will it be when the Casual water holes are dried up, & the Cattle limited to the Main waters, with pasture infinitely inferior to what it is at present. In former times the answer would have been that if confined to a small part of our former supply, the price must rise till the Consumption is limited to it but not so now.
The Victorians are not only Consuming their own breeding stock, and rapidly draining the South of its ripe Cattle, but have nearly drained the North of its spare Store Cattle - Numbers of men who Came up thinking to Get Cattle in thousands from the North, like buckets of water from the Ocean, have returned unsuccessful, & with difficulty I got half what I wanted {on the strength of these Calculations} at three times the price of twelve months ago. They are not there, and as the Victorians must have butcher meat, they will draw from our necessities & raise the price until it
forces the diggers to be economical in their Consumption. To Stand their mark & exposure they must have butcher meat in large quantities -
it is a necessity in California they pay as high as two dollars a pound, & if ours stop at two shillings per pound we will be very fortunate."
We have said that to some extent Mr Langs gloomy views are borne out by the final returns - This applies to horned Cattle only, not to sheep. We find that in four years 1845 to 1848 the increase of our horned Cattle was 420,600 head, or fifty per cent, while in the subsequent four years the increase was only 129,800 head -

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Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 479

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Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 479

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