Transcription

[237]
[103]
NEW SOUTH WALES WOOL

reason that there might be so little prospect for obtaining such wool, that there were no Combers in the market; and if they were, they would make a heavy allowance for the general bad character of the Australian. The Settlers must Combine & assist one another. The Competition is not between the different Settlers in the Colony, but the Colony & other wool growing countries not between individuals but communities

At present there is an oversupply of inferior wools, which is likely to increase every year & to hold our ground the Colonists must either Compete in price or quality. We have come to such a pass that we must make our decision and either sell our wool at a price lower than the lowest that will pay for its production in Russia & South America, or compete with the very highest quality of the Germans"

 

WANT OF PROPER INFORMATION RESPECTING THE QUALITIES ESTEEMED IN AUSTRALIAN WOOL

Woolgrowing in Germany is reduced to a science, that every individual Ewe is strictly examined, and that as much attention is paid to every ram as to the selection of Sires for the first studs in England, while with them every ewe is bred from that which is not black. In australia very few of the Stockholders has any experience whatever in sheep or wool before Coming to the Colony, & unless at shearing time, not one Stockholder in ten has wool or sheep through his hands once in a month.

If the trade only reflect how many years they spent in acquiring perfect skill, & that daily & hourly practice is requisite to keep them at the proper pitch of discrimination they cannot be surprised that the settlers without original teaching or present practice, should have no skill whatever. A knowledge of wool is not to be acquired by galloping past a flock of sheep or squinting upon occasion at a sample the size of a whip lash. The managers to whom they have looked for guidance have either known as little as themselves, or have had experience in home sheep only, these are so entirely different in wool that any application of their experience must do infinitely more harm than the total ignorance which would leave the climate to itself.

 

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