THE WORLD'S SHEEP.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1736, 29 April 1913, Page 10

THE WORLD'S SHEEP.

SOME INTERESTING FIGUKES. f in the course of a paper on tho wool industry of .the British Dominions, read recently before Iho colonial section of tho Royal .Society of Arts by Ml'. C. li. AV. Beau, said .that-, 100 years ago Spain was tho only country in the world which did any great thido dli tho exporting of wool —at liny rate, to England. Tho Spnni- . nrds, out of a certain- black native sheep,, had ..developed a most valuable wliite-wooled sheep, known as tho "travelling sheep"—the. me'riuo. In tlio year 1802, of tlio 8,000,0001b. of wool which England imported from abroad, over 6,000,0001b. , consisted of wool, of this invaluable SpaHishJ.riierino sheep. Tho year liefore last. Australia alone sent to ling-, land ' 3U,517,0521b. and tho big islands lying 1200 miles.'from Australia—which .are.,now . tho Dominion of New Zealand, but which in had not tr sheep, .upon them—sent (an additional 189,G80,5511b. Tho .'Peninsular -War -started the downward, tendency.of, the old Spanish trade, and an English preferential tariff finished it.. -Thsi' duty 'imposed in 1802 was a duty on-all. imported-wool, colonial oivforeign, . but-in-1825 tlio -duty was taken off colonial ■\vqpl,. .irhijstn'it femained against foreign vool;'~.rpr ( -19 years colonial wool enjoyed 'jjre'ferenie," l tlie effect of preference being that in tlio.'.first year the imports.of colonjiil wool leapt from 351,6311b. to 1,242i0091b. The effect of the abolition'of 'the!prefo.rcn'eo...;hnil tho establdshfnent'of l'-reetrado' -was. that foieigh : imports in--cr-eaS&d.* -I Colonial wools, however, more , than kept'.tjio lead tlrey had gained under preference/and to-day by far tho most important, exporters of wool, not only to Great-Bytajjrii -but to America, Europe, and Japan"'-are the British' Dominions ■overseas/ .wliich .to-tljiy 'control the wool, trade of the world. The extent to which they, control it-may bo judged.'from thefollowing. ,fi'gufp!i:s-The whole world today contains, : as "far as tho statistics tell ..us, about .615,000,000 sheep—good, bad, and indifferent. Of these nearly 93,000,000 aro .in Australia, 24,000,000 are .in Now 1 7iealarid','..and''22,'0,t(0,000 wcoled sheep aro in South' The total for tho counf'ries wiHiiu- 'iliti. 'British Empire amounts .to . nearly "180,000,000. Although this excludes tlio'sheep of British India and the unwooled.'slieep of Africa, yet it amounts to nearly a third of tho world's sheep incumbers, and,very much more than fthat;-irf va:lug. _, •