Price Maurice,
BORN at Wrexham, England, November 16, 1818; and educated there at the Grove. Declined a commission in the East India Company's service, and came out to South Australia, August 9th, 1840, per "Caleb Angas," with the object of devoting himself entirely to pastoral pursuits, in preference to any other avocation. Began in a small way in 1843 or 1844, and eventually acquired leases from the Government of the runs known as Pekina and Oladdie, comprising 671 square miles in the north, where the greatest number of sheep and lambs shorn in one year was 118,000, yielding 2,003 bales of wool. These runs are now entirely occupied as agricultural settlements. Mr. Maurice became lessee of the Warraw, Lake Hamilton, and Bramfield runs, 943 square miles, on the Port Lincoln Peninsula, where the sheep and lambs shorn in one year amounted to 97,000, yielding 1,553 bales of wool. These runs are now cut up and devoted to agricultural and grazing purposes, and settled upon by selectors. On the gradual resumption of the runs, Mr. Maurice determined to adhere to the fixed purpose of his life and remain a sheep farmer, or squatter. In 1874 he took up a block of country, distant 270 miles north-west of Port Augusta, known as Mount Eba run, comprising 5,358 square miles of land. Here, the rainfall up to the present time has been uncertain, and in common with all new pastoral country in the interior, great difficulties have had to be surmounted; 83 wells have been sunk—36 of which yield a water supply. This run is in course of development at enormous expense. In 1870 Mr. Maurice introduced the Angora goat, and purchased, in the hills near Adelaide, the Castambul estate, for the purpose of establishing the breeding of these animals in Australia, on a scale sufficient to prove their adaptability, by forming a large stud flock. This estate contains 5,288 acres grazing land, abundantly watered, and possessing magnificent features of mountain scenery. Mr. Maurice, consequent upon incessant struggles in the early days of the colony, and battling with vicissitudes of seasons in outlying districts, was compelled when somewhat broken down by over-anxiety, to seek in England the change he so much needed. For some years he has been absent from the province, unable to return, owing to continued ill-health, but is in regular communication with this country, directing the various operations with which he keeps up constant interest. Every movement connected with pastoral matters and the development of the interior engages his marked attention—no other business but that of a sheep farmer, pure and simple, having been for forty-two years the aim and object of his life.