SHEARING THE SHEARERS.

Southland Times, Issue 755, 27 November 1867, Page 3

SHEARING THE SHEARERS.

(Prom the Pastoral Times.) Shearing is approaching — the squatters are about to shear their sheep — and afterwards the public will shear the shearers. Ifc may be estimated in the whole of Riverina, bounded on the north by Queensland, and on the south by Victoria, that about 8,000,000 of sheep will be shorn — giving, on a rough estimate, 32,000,000 lbs of unwashed wool, or about 4lbs on each sheep, or 2|lbs of wool when properly washed. This enormous quantity of unwashed wool would weigh 14,285 tons ; if sent in the grease to market, and estimating the carriage at about £7 per ton, the squattera would pay for carriage alone £99,995. If all the wool was properly washed at. the stations, the carriage would be reduced by nearly one half, and would amount to between £53,000 and £60,000. I Estimating the cost of shearing at 20s per 100 sheep (about the average charge) there would be paid for shearing alone about £80,000. Perhaps the cost of shearing and carriage combined may be approximately given at £150,000. The magnitude of the squatting interest and its productive power may thus be seen at a glance. . Estimating in the same manner the value of each fleece in the Riverina territory at 3s (the minimum) the gross value of the wool would be £1,200,000. Nearly the whole of this wool will be exported to England, where it is looked forward for with considerable interest by the manufacturers of soft goods. The wool from Riverina — comprising more than one-half the colony — is the most valuable portion of the article. The improvement in the breed of sheep in the salt-bush country, during the last three or four years, is manifestly great. Large sums have been paid by some of the settlers for superior rams, and we shall expect to hear of a corresponding value in the returns from London sales. We may also hope, now that water is abundant throughout the inland country, that but little wool will be exported, or indeed sent away from the stations unwashed. We cannot help thinking that, making allowance for past droughts, some of our settlers have displayed culpable negligence in the preparation of their wools for market. We hear of one lot (containing a large proportion of dirt) lately sent to Melbourne from the interior, that fetched only 4fd per pound. This may be an exceptional case ; it is hoped that it is, as such wool could not possibly pay the producer. After defraying the cost of shearing, and for carriage, the settler's share would be small. We see contro versies going on in the public journals on the subject of wool- cleansing, and no doubt the matter is occupying a large share of attention in the minds of those chiefly interested. We need not say that too much attention cannot be paid to this subject. It will be seen by reference that the difference in amount to be paid for carriage on washed and unwashed wool is a very considerable item ; the squatter not only loses the cost of the carriage (in effect, he is paying for carriage of dirt) but he loses caste in the wool market — his brand, in effect, becomes tabooed, and a character, once lost, is not easily regained. The quality of the wools is becoming a national question. It is evident that we shall have to regard it as of the highest importance, and we cannot too often impress this upon our settlers, if only from motives of economy. To hold their own they will have to economise in all the departments of their outlay. The profits on sheep farming are now becoming so small as to necessitate every care and great watchfulness in the getting-up of the wools. The intelligence of our settlers is, we are sure, equal to any emergency. Australia will have to depend for generations chiefly on wool, tallow, hides, and prepared meats for exportation, and we must bear in mind that we have in these matters competitors in all parts of the world who are determined to put us on our mettle. We must go on improving until we attain a relative perfection in all the branches referred to. If we stand still we shall soon be passed in the race for pre-eminence, and our existence as a wool-growing country must become imperilled, when every colonist will more or less suffer. If we cannot give British shipping return cargoes in such an article as wool, the freight of all goods imported from England will be considerably increased in price. This would be one of the results, among others more disastrous in their effects. Our existence, therefore, as an embryo commercial nation is involved in this matter, and it behoves our people and our Grovernment to encourage the wool-growing industry by every legitimate means, so as to give it the necessary stability, and we may compete with any country entering the list against us. This is the first view of the shearing season. The other is a much more gloomy picture. What will become of the large sum of money earned by the shearers ? They will earn — and earn well — some £60,000, or perhaps £70,000, the great bulk of which will, it is feared, as hitherto, be spent in debauchery — in fact, in grog. Earning their money, as the saying goes, like horses, the ahearers spend it like asses. The last days of shearing bring with them a degree of nervousness to the bulk of the shearers — a desire to be off to the nearest public-house where the shearers have to undergo a process somewhat similar to the poor useful dumb animals shorn of their wool by the " lords of the creation." Are these Bhearers " lords " by courtesy — or what are they ? Wherein is the difference between them and their employers — the hard-working, thrifty, careful, industrious squatters, who toil all the year round, who husband their resources with the view of " making both ends meet ?" The money earned by the shearers should be as much to them as the produce of the wool to the squatters themselves. The shearer has not, or should not have any liabilities to meet; he is generally a bird of passage, and, when his "hat is on, his house is

thatched." The majority of these men have to be " fleeced " as well as the sheep, and in the shearing they, like some of the sheep, will receive sundry (juts and bruises. They will be no wiser after the shearing than they were before it, though some of them will, in the course of a few weeks or a couple of months, earn from £20 to £40 or £50. If appealed to at the shearing sheds for contributions to the neighbouring hospital or church, some few of them will give 10s or £1, but the majority of them being wayfarers, " wanderers," or " waifs,,' will refuse to do so on that plea. " I have no interest in your hospital," one will say. Another will take refuge in the plea — " I never go to church." The first in many instances may prove to be incorrect. After their spree, and having knocked down their shearing money — " knocked down" their money " like a man," though in fact and in deed very unlike a man when properly defined, they disperse over the country. These men sacrifice their manhood, or so deface it as to be scarcely recognised. They sacrifice everything to a brutal lust. " Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof" for them. They have no care for the morrow. They are an enigma which may give us some difficulty by-and-bye to unravel. " Manhood suffrage," "Vote by ballot," and other great electoral privileges are nothing to them. Many of them will leave their bones in the wilderness, after having gone through the process of shearing and being shorn. Who can stop them? "That's the rub." If we could see an Australian Curtius giving himself up to trying to save these men, we would hail him as the man of the day — but Curtius fighta shy of the bush.