Extracts.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 503, 29 August 1857, Page 3

Extracts.

DECREASE IN N.S. r WALES WOOL,

(From the Empire, July 17.) The serious' decrease in the amount ■of colonial produce shipped this season has been several times brought prominently before our readers. The ?approaching close of the wool season: enables <us to estimate ; with tolerable precision the amount of deficiency in the' staple. We subjoin a few statistics relating to this branch of commerce, the accuracy of which may be relied on. ■ We premise that on our sheep stations the operations of washing and shearing usually commence in September. The large area of many of the squatting funs and the number of the sheep often extend these operations over several months, from which cause, as well as from the length and difficulty of the journeys, teams are bringing down wool every month in the year. Shearing not unfrequently commences on a station before the whole of the previous clip has been removed. It is consequently impracticable to exhibit the exact quantity of the clip of any season. The figures before us, referring to the shipments of thecurrent year, will give a sufficiently close approximation. The firstvibales of the new clip arrive in Sydney in October, and the first vessel in which they are shipped leaves during the following, month. Commencing with the Maid of Judah, which cleared oh the 27th of November last, we find that up to the present date the number of bales shipped at this port has been 41,400. The Omar Pasha and the John Bunyan—the only ships now loading for London—will together take about 1500 bales. Making every allowance for the lateness of the season, the effect of detention by the flood, and the produce yet to arrive from the Northern Districts —all the Southern and Western wool having come down—the maximum quantity that can arrive within the next four months is 7000 bales. Judging from the present rate of arrivals, it is scarcely possible that more than 5000 bales of these will be shipped before the middle of November; we will suppose, however, that the whole quantity is shipped. The amount at present in Sydney is not more than 500 bales, and a similar quantity: may be set down for the bales of skin wool to be made in the next four months. The total export of the staple for the present • season, therefore, stands thus: — Bales. Shipped from Nov. 15,1856, to date 41,400 Ditto per Omar Pasha & John Bunvan 1,500 To arriye from date to Nov. 15, 1857 7,000 Skin wool " " " " " 500 Quantity now in Sydney 500 Total shipped year ending Nov. 15,1857 50,900 Ditto " " " June 1,1856 63,354 Deficiency, 1857 . 12,454 ' This decrease in our staple product is a very formidable amount, and we have taken the most favourable view. There will not of course be« a corresponding decrease in the value of the export, owing to the advance in price ■-;•. but reckoning these 12,454 bales to average 350 pounds in weight and Is. 9d. in value, the deficiency is no less than £382,403 15s. sterling. Our export of wool last year amounted to £.1,231,306 ; the above figures show a falling off in value of more than 30 per cent! The deficiency is ascribed to three operating causes. The first of these is a devastating, but hitherto inexplicable, disease which has visited many of the sheep stations in the Southern and Western Districts. The reluctance of the settlers to admit their losses, as well as the sequestrated nature of the industry, have prevented the actual mortality from being known; but the individual losses reported have been most disastrous. In some cases entire flocks have died; in others the loss on a single run has been from fifteen to twenty thousand sheep. The sickness is generally known as the.Cumberland disease; the sheep it visits die almost immediately, and so contagious is the virus that shepherds have caught the complaint and died in attempting.to preserve the skins. Although its ravages date back several months* both its cause and diagnosis are wrapt in mystery. The greatest ■ mortality has been in the Western; Districts,1 on the stations upon the-Big Kiver tnd the Castlereagh, and.throughout the country to the north-west of Bathurst. The disease has extended northward as far as the Liverpool Plains, and southward to the Murrumbidgee.

A second cause of the falling off exists in the floods which have visited the Northern Districts of the colony. These disasters, Which have been most severe in Ihe Moreton Bay District and the northernf part of New England, prevailed throughout the

lambing season, the result of which was the perishing of a large portion of the lambs, and numbers of the ewes from constant exposure to the damp. A correspondent at Brisbane, who is thoroughly conversant with the state of the pastoral industry in the Northern Districts, recently wrote, in reference chiefly to the effects of the floods, as following:—" The decrease in the flocks has been very large. Within one hundred miles of this place the increase, and a large portion of the old sheep are gone. In New England- and the Clarence the loss has been greater still. On the black soil downs extending fifty miles by a hundred and twenty, there will be an increase, but very small; beyond that to the westward and northward there must be a decrease, though it is, new country and all are breeding as many as possible."

• Simultaneous with these disasters there has been an extensive migration of sheep, which has thinned the flocks in nearly every part of the colony. The demand for meat for the larger part of the sister colony has not only drained the stations in the contiguous districts, but has called for large drafts from the Darling Downs and the Burnett; the animals being driven a distance of four or five hundred miles. The value of the stock sent overland to to the Melbourne market is estimated at a million sterling per annuiri. The loss resulting from these circumstances will be further illustrated by the following table of the numbers of horned, cattle and sheep during the last three years. The returns for 1856 have not yet been officially published although made up on the Ist of January last. The returns from one or two places have not yet been received, but their figures will not materially affect the total amounts :— Cattle. Sheep. 1854 . . 1,576,750 . . 8,144,119 1855 . . 1,858,407 . .8,603,490 • 1856 . . 2,012,307 . . 7,369,502 It should be stated that the return for 1855' includes the increase of the last lambing, which has not been reckoned in former years : the actual diminution is, therefore, much greater than these figures represent. It is also to be noticed'that the causes referred to have been in operation, and indeed with augmented vigour, since the period whon the returns were made. ' The above figures show a loss of 1,233,997 sheep during 1856, and it is estimated that the decrease since the date of the return has amounted to another million. The departures for the Southern markets must necessarily decrease in quantity as the population of Victoria increases, and her own means of supplying them diminishes. In reference to the latter, it was lately officially stated in the Melbourne Legislature that the last returns of the number of sheep showed a decrease of nearly |thx*ee millions in (,wo years and a half. There i 3 little reason to expect that the forthcoming clip will be an improvement upon the last. The circumstances which have occasioned the present falling off have been in operation since the shearing, and are still so to some extent. Even should the mortality from disease and flood have terminated, and the flocks be blessed with their former prolific increase, it must be a considerable time before the pastoral interest recovers its position. The smaller losses may soon be made up, but where the decrease has been extensive, or included entire flocks, the reparation must be gradual, j The pastoral industry is not one which is j capable of indefinite extension. Our pasturages are affirmed by many to be fully stocked, and it is well known that our produce of tallow represents' the annual increase in the flocks, for the retention of which the runs would not afford adequate sustenance. The decline of the industry has not proved an unmixed injury-to the producers. The short supply of wool in the face of eager demands for the purpose of remittance, has stimulated prices at the produce sales: and this, together with the consequently favourable course of exchange, and the increasing value of the staple in the English markets, has more than compensated many-of the growers for their losses. The price of colonial produce has also been strengthened by the general expectation that a further advance will be obtainable at the London sales on receipt of news of the deficiency in the wool export from these colonies.

THE FUTURE OF THE COLONIES. PKINCE ARTHTTB, KING OF AUSTRALIA.

Some amusing speculations as to the future course of events in the British colonies have been put forth in a \vork recently published in London, entitled, " Imaginary History of the next Thirty Years." According to this prophet, Canada will be erected into a kingdom under Prince Alfred, who is to choose for his queen " a beautiful young lady, the

belle of the colony, and heiress to a fortune which would have enriched half the petty princes of Germany." Australia will follow in the wake of Canada.

" The colonies of Australia, after the discovery of gold, attracted for some years most of the young blood of the parent kingdom, as well as that of many other countries in both hemispheres. For a time the gold diggings and the commercial cities afforded abundant scope for the enterprise of the adventuring immigrants,- and many who had made fortunes^returned to their native countries. After the mania for gold-digging, however, had subsided, and the country was becoming rapidly enriched, many desired to make it their permanent abode, and to become landed proprietors. It happened, however, that before the mineral wealth of the country was known, certain rights had been conveyed to the earlier colonists, who were known as ' squatters, 5 to run their sheep over vast tracts of land, which rights they continued to claim when the circumstances of the colony had entirely changed. Eventually their claims were compromised, but the squatters continued to form a class widely differing from the later settlers in habit and sentiment. When Colonial Legislatures were established, the differences between the new and the old interests commonly proved so irreconcilable that the constitutions,' pretty ennou'gh on paper, would not work. There were continual ministerial crises, interregnums, dissolutions of Parliament, elections, and the same process over again and again, until at last all the Administrations fell alike into contempt. The machinery of the local governments obviously wanted a regulator, which was difficult to devise, the antipodal distance of the Imperial Government preventing that steady application of executive force which is ever felt to proceed from the Crown, even where its action is not seen. The Governors who acted as the proxies of the Crown were commonly most inefficient for the purpose, and altogether the political state of the colonies was eminently insecure. The turbulence of the new settlers was only equalled by the insolence of the old, and the leaders of both parties who were immensely wealthy and backed to any lengths by their supporters, continually coming into collision, the colonies appeared to be verging towards anarchy. The Imperial Government being utterly unable to restrain the excesses of the rival colonists, thelcolonists as naturally as unjustly laid all the responsibility of their own imprudence on the Imperial Government. In fact, the colonists having got into the habit of blaming the Home Government for every conceivable and inconceivable fault blamed it now for many things of which it was innocent. The social state of the country, however, was so unbearable, that it was obvious recourse must be had to some extraordinary measure, and the urban, commercial, and mining interests, being by far the most populous, were all for establishing a great Australian Republic—merging the several colonies into one, and all being represented in one Congress. As the squatting interest was much indebted for its influence to the uniform support of the Governors sent to the colonies from England, and under the existing constitutions had an influence derived from property rather than from popular election, it was anticipated that, by adopting the representative principle as the entire basis of the Government, the chronic political evils of the colonies would be got rid of. Nor was it unnatural that these colonies, grown so vast,in population, abounding in splendid cities, with large seats of manufactures rapidly , extending, fine harbours, rivers accessible to shipping for hundreds of miles, rich plains and golden mountains—combining, indeed,every advantage which a new country could desire— should be content to remain subject to a Government 15,000 miles away. One peculiarity of Australia, however, was that the people had never been accustomed to military movements. The few soldiers they had ever seen were always imported from the old Country, and withdrawn every few years. Disorderly, in fact, as the country had been it had always submitted to the policeman's staff. When, therefore, disjunction from Great Britain began to be seriously talked of, there was great acknowledged difficulty in the manner of effecting it. The Australians were fierce enough, but it was against each other, and in the newspapers; their constant reliance on Britain for the means of defence, and the generally peaceful nature of their pursuits, disinclined them from warlike preparations. If, then, the separation from England was to be brought about, it was apparent that it must be by negotiation rather than by war.

" The erection of Canada into a Principality solved the difficulty for the Australians, who at once formed the idea of converting their united colonies into a kingdom, and of inviting another member of tbe

Royal Family of England to the Crown. This proposal was approved of with an unanimity new in the history of a colony. The democratic party were convinced that, as in the OKI Country, the real power of the Government would be wielded by the middle classes; while the landed and monied interests looked forward to aristocratic honours. Addresses were accordingly agreed to in each of the colonies, both to the British Crown and Parliament, expressing the loyal attachment of the colonists to her Majesty's person, but setting forth that the peculiar circumstances of the colony, its singular history, and its vast distance from the seat of her Majesty's Government, had prevented that satisfactory working of the Colonial Governments which was to be desired; wherefore, without dishonour to the royal prerogative, but rather to the end that it might be magnified, they now prayed the consent of the Queen to the declaration of the independence of her Australian possessions, and their establishment into a kingdom, under the sovereignty of her Majesty's son, his Royal Highness Prince Arthur. In their addresses to the two Houses of the British Parliament, the colonists, after a like preamble, stated that, so far from entertaining any unfriendly feeling to the country from which they had sprung, they gloried in her greatness and venerated her fame, and it was because they admired her constitution, and saw in it a safeguard from the dangers to which the colonies were exposed, that they desired to copy it more closely than had hitherto been practicable. In seeking to become an independent kingdoih, they sought not a separation, but rather an identification of interests, not antagonism or rivalry, but rather imitation and emulation. By choosing an English Prince for their future King,they wished to signify Abe descent of the Kingdom, as well as the colony, from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the benefits from the establishment of Canada into a Principality, under Prince Alfred, with a Peerage also branching from the Peerage of England, induced them also to desire the settlement in Australia of a number of the young English nobility. The separation would in no way affect the prestige or resources of Britain, since the commercial intercourse of the colonies was too firmly settled to be affected by any changes of government, and the colonists desired that the first act of their King should be to enter into a treaty of alliance with her Majesty, offensive and defensive, in support of which they would at once proceed to the equipment of a fleet worthy of the Australian Kingdom, and stipulating that whatever tariffs might be imposed on imports or exports, British traders should be exempt from them.

" The facts exhibited in these addresses, appealing to the special interests of the several estates of the realm, was not altogether successful in obtaining for the overtures the same hearty approval with which those that had preceded the Canadian Principality were received. The Court hesitated to signify its sanction to an arrangement so advantageous to one of the Royal Princes, lest it might be suspected of a too grasping family policy. The Canadian movement, too, was a novelty; and political, like musical encores, never go off with the eclat of the first performance. This Australian proceeding was too much of a repetition to make a very remarkable sensation. Still, there was a large and able party—commonly known as the Manchester or cosmopolitan party—who, believing that Britain would be quite as prosperous and as powerful, and much more economically governed, without her colonies than with them, were glad of overtures for relieving the country from the charges of the Australian Government.

" The debates which the proposal elicited were chiefly remarkable for developing a new scheme for the extinction of the National Debt. One of the members of Perliament strenuously contended that Australia, so much abounding in wealth, should take a share of the enormous burden pressing upon the tax-payers. He contended that the colonies should be regarded as the children of the Mother Country, and that now they were growing up to man's estate they should relieve their parent of a portion of the responsibilities she bad incurred in rearing and protecting them. If it were not for the National Debt, it would be the cheapest instead of the dearest country in the world to live in, and the surplus revenue would provide for the construction of the noblest national works ever contemplated. His plan was that in Australia, Canada, India, and every other colony where there were unappropriated or waste lands, a certain quantity should be appropriated by the colonies, to be sold as opportunity might offer for the payment of the interest and reduction of the National Debt. In order, too, that fundhclders might

be induced to surrender their claims, he proposed that for every £100 of Consols land in the colonies valued at £l'2o should be granted, and that the warrants should be so easily transferable as to pass from hand to hand like common debentures. This scheme was naturally regarded with favour by the British tax-payers; the difficulty was in the carrying of it out. The overtures from Australia, however, afforded an opportunity for testing its practicability, and the Colonial Commissioners who brought over the addresses were asked whether they would be prepared on the part of the colonists to agree to the cession of 100 square miles of land in Australia, to be sold in the progress of time for the extinction of the British National Debt. They tele graphed the question immediately to the Provincial National Council at Melbourne, and en the following morning had a reply that the 'colonists would willingly concede 50 square miles in the heart of the country, and referring to the map for the boundaries of the locality, 'which was a considerable distance from the habited portions of the colonies, but which eventually proved one of the richest quarters for the produce of gold, and had besides several excellent agricultural districts. This concession on the part of the colonists removed whatever feeling of opposition there had been to the separation of the colonies from the ancient kingdom ; and all the preliminaries being satisfactorily adjusted, it was mutually determined that his Royal Highness Prince Arthur should ascend the throne of the first Kingdom in the Southern Pacific by the title of the King of Australia."