for tallow, by which process they hope to realise at least 5s. per head for their surplus stock of sheep. It can be scarcely necessary to descant upon the ruinous absurdity of this scheme; for as long as the flock-masters can realize 7½d. per head for the fleece of one sheep, he must be an arrant fool to sell the principal, if I may so speak. Should this plan be persisted in for a year or two, as I strongly suspect it will, the aggregate stock will be so considerably reduced that we may expect in the years 1846 and 1847 to find sheep up to £1. or even £1. 10s. which will reproduce many of the evils under which the colony is at this moment labouring."
Now it is worthy of remark, that instead of being persons in difficulties, "drowning men catching at straws," those settlers, who have been the first to kill and boil down their sheep for tallow, happen to be men of the greatest wealth, intelligence, and experience, among the colonists, such as W. C. Wentworth, Esq. M. C.; Henry O'Brien, Esq., of Yass; Mr. Scott of Glendon, &c.
This writer also appears to entertain the idea, that wool, besides covering all the expenses of wages, stations, &c. yields a certain amount of profit to the flock-master, independent of that derived from the yearly increase of his flocks. Now wool barely counterbalances the cost of its production, leaving the increase alone for clear profit; and when the flock-masters were totally unable to dispose of this increase, it was high time to adopt some such
