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INCREASE AND
to be worth five shillings, these would be worth six shillings.[1]
| 3500 ewes at 6s. | £1050 |
| 100 rams at 6s | 30 |
| Expense of forming stations, and purchasing working bullocks, drays, tarpaulins, &c. | 220 |
| Floating capital lodged in the bank to meet wages, rations, and other incidental expenses during the first year | 400 |
| Capital invested | £1700 |
To simplify the calculation, I will assume that the wool pays all the expenses of wages, rations, squatting license, assessment, woolpacks, &c. At the present low rate of wages, (shepherds' wages being, according to the latest accounts from Sydney, only from £16. to £18. a year with rations), I have no doubt that wool will henceforth cover all these expenses, and leave a surplus to be added to the profits. According to my assumption, therefore, the value of the increase will represent the true profit
- ↑ Since I wrote these remarks on sheep, I have seen Sydney papers of as late a date as last Christmas. From them I find that sheep have not risen beyond the value of three shillings per head. Nevertheless, according to contemporaneous advices from the neighbouring colony of South Australia, sheep are quoted there at from eight to ten shillings per head!! There are quite as many sheep in the latter colony as in New South Wales, in proportion to the population, and the South Australian wool is of inferior price in the home market to that from Sydney. I cannot, therefore, account for the discrepancy.
