Wool Wealth

Feilding Star, Volume IX, Issue 84, 14 February 1888, Page 3

Wool Wealth

♦ : — - ■ 7 And: what is now the wool-wealth of Australasia ! la 1820 there were not more than 10,000 sheep oi" a* good sort" in new South Wales ; and in the same year wool from the Colony was . sold in London at an average of 38 7d per lb. This led to the circulation of fabulous reports of the profits to be made out of sheep; and there was quite a run for some years on squatting lots. In 1848 some Australians started sheep running, in New Zealand; and by 1860 the sheep in these islands had increased to 2,400,---000. In 1865 the number there had grown to 5,700,000; in 1870, t0.9,---500,0 aud ia 1877, to 14,800,000. Ia 1886 the pastoral wealth of the whole of the Australasian colonies stood thus: — Number of Sheep. New South Wales .. .. 37,820,906 - New Zealand .. ..' 16,677,445 Victoria .. .. .. 10,681,837 Queensland .. .. .. 8,994,322 South Australia .. ... 6,696.406 Western Australia .. .. 1,702,719 Tasmania .. .. .. 1,648,627 Total . .. .84,222,272 At only 10s per head this represents a capital of over forty-two millions sterling, without counting the value oi the land. But now as to the yield of the fL>cks. Our latest complete figures are for 1884, and are as follow.:— -* Pounds of Wool. Value. IJ^ Wales .. 171,612,179 £8.895,543 Ngw^Zealand . . 82,136,718 3,:i42;509 Victoria .. 61,369,000 3,87«,520 S. Australia . . 47.296,784 1,82:*,431 Queensland ..' 35,525.978 •. 1,889.504 Tasmania .. 8,215,101 453.587 W.Australia .. 4,272.948 249,255 Total .. 410,430,807 £20,532.429 The London prices of " Australian greasy wool" have thus varied : In 1850, lid per lb; in 1858, 9£d; in 1860, Is 2d ; in 1869, Is 6£d ; in 1871, 2*d; in 1872, Is; in 1884, lid. In 1874 the price of Lincoln wool in the same market was lOd per lb. The total importations of wool into Englaad in 1885-6 were 1,819,182 bales, of which no fewer that 1,139,---842 bales, or nearly thre- fourths of the whole, came from Australia. The rest came from the Cape and Natal, 227,289 bales; India, 101,770; the the. Mediterranean, 79,433; Eussia, 65,027; other European countries, 47,655 ; China, 2393 ; and the Falkland Islands, 6614 bales. — Chamber's Journal. '. ■' '