dock, and wool-shed, to save them from other freeselecters. Not unfrequently he goes much further than this, and by calling in the aid of friends and dependents, makes large purchases, which are entirely opposed to the spirit of the act. For the land laws here, as in all these colonies, have been framed with the view of preventing,—though they have never succeeded in preventing,-the accumulation of large domains in the hands of territorial magnates. I have, I think, explained elsewhere the system of dummying, by which this intention of the laws has been evaded. I must add here that there are large landowners in the colony whose title-deeds are more ancient than any of the laws which now regulate the sale of lands. In the early days of New South Wales vast grants of land were made to early colonists who undertook the charge of convicts,-were made, too, sometimes under other circumstances not always with strict impartiality. These grantees, or more frequently their descendants, still own the estates thus conferred, and are exempt from rent, and exempt also from selecters. There are others, too, who have purchased large properties. But the bulk of the land of the colony is still the property of the colony. At the close of 1870, 8,437,638 acres had been alienated in the colony,-but there were still left 104,618,436 acres unsold.

In 1872 there were no fewer than 3,495 pastoral holdings, or runs held under the Crown, in New South Wales. It should, however, be explained that one squatter generally holds two or three of these runs, and not unfrequently one squatter or one firm of squatters will hold eight or ten. In Queensland there were in the same year 2,310. In Victoria only 973, the comparative smallness of the number being due to the fact that the greater part of the pastoral

land in that colony has been already purchased. In South Australia there are 778 runs. The small number is there due, as far as I could learn, to the fact that the land has been taken up in larger tracts than in the other colonies.

At the end of this volume (App. No. 2, vol. i.) will be found a digest of the present land laws of New South Wales, as far as they refer to free-selection. This is taken from MacPhaile's Australian Squatting Directory, published at Melbourne.

CHAPTER XVIII.

MEAT.

By the latest returns which I could get before leaving the colonies, I found that there were in Australia 4,340,638 horned cattle, and 41,366,263 sheep. In these numbers the cattle and sheep of New Zealand are not included. In Great Britain and Ireland, at the beginning of 1872, there were 9,346,216 horned cattle, and 31,403,500 sheep. The population of Australia then amounted, in round numbers, to 1,700,000. That of Great Britain and Ireland to 32,000,000. There was therefore for every 100 of the population in Australia over 250 cattle, and over 2,400 sheep, and for every 100 at home less than 30 head of cattle, and less than 100 sheep. In other words, every Australian has 2 head of horned cattle and 24 sheep to his or her own share, whereas every Briton staying at home has but a third of a bullock and one sheep. The price of meat ranges from 2d. to 4d. a pound in Australia, ranging perhaps from 8d. to 1s. in England. At the same time the wages of a labouring man in Australia are about double the wages of his brother at home. Consequently the labouring man, let his labour be what it may, eats meat three times a day in the colonies, and very generally goes without it altogether at home. That is a plain and, I think, a true statement of the case. In

The

regard to almost all other necessaries of life such great inequality of price and consumption is prevented by the easy transport of the article produced. price of wheat nearly equalises itself in all the great cities of the world. Tea, sugar, clothing, spirits, and tobacco are carried about so readily, that any difference in their prices is due rather to the fiscal necessities of the country importing them, than to the cost or difficulty of carrying them. But meat has hitherto been an exception to this rule,-from a cause that is manifest to every one. It becomes decomposed, and is destroyed by contact with the air. Hence has arisen the very important question,-important equally to the countries which have too much meat, and to those which have not enough,-whether the skill of man cannot devise some plan by which meat can be carried as securely, and at the same time as cheaply, as other commodities.

The glut of meat, or rather of meat-giving animals, in the colonies, has been so great, that for many years past flocks and herds have been boiled down to produce simply tallow,-because tallow can be easily exported. In 1870 there were, in the one colony of New South Wales, 48 boiling-down establishments, at which in the previous year 290,550 sheep and 246 bullocks were converted into 67,175 cwt. of tallow. The carcases of all these animals, for any other purpose than that of giving tallow, were absolutely wasted, while we at home were paying 11s. or 12s. for a leg of mutton, or going without the mutton because we could not afford to pay for it.

In circumstances such as these, the wit of man has, of course, been set to work to devise plans by which the meat might be taken to the market. Hence have arisen various meat-preserving companies, some of

which I visited in Queensland, and have spoken of them in my account of that colony. The difficulty of sending meat home that shall be eatable has been easily overcome. The sheep and oxen are slaughtered. The meat is cut roughly from the bones, and is cooked in closed tins. During the cooking the tins have a vent, which is closed when the cooking is done, and the meat comes out of the tins in England in a condition fit for use. But it does not come out in a condition pleasant to the eye,-nor, as regard flavour and nutrition, can it be said to be equal to fresh meat. The prices in England have latterly ranged from 44d. to 6d. a pound, and the pound of meat so bought is without bone. There can, I think, be no doubt that these preserved meats, even as they have hitherto reached the English markets, have been of great value to both countries. They have caused a marked rise in the price of sheep, for which, in regard to meat, there was almost no market at all in many parts of the colonies previous to the opening of these establishments; and they have added, at any rate, something to the very limited diet of the poorer classes at home. All the meat which could be exported from Australia, even were it as easy to export meat as flour, would not, at present, go far towards feeding the people of England. But the pastures of Australia are unlimited, and if the trade were fully established, the Australian flocks and herds would be multiplied for the supply of the markets across the water. Australia is not a corn-producing country. Her capabilities, at any rate, do not lie especially in that direction. But she is especially a grazing country. European animals have not only been acclimatized in the colonies with the greatest ease, but have proved themselves to be much more quickly procreative there