Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/31

pounds of sugar a week: and Van Dieman's Land first flour was selling at £11, and seconds at £10 per ton. Under such circumstances it is the prevailing opinion that it does not pay to grow wheat on the squatting stations, even for their own consumption. This depends in a measure on the trouble and expense of grinding. It is necessary to send the corn to Melbourne to be ground, the charges for which are very high, or else to use a hand-mill, which takes a great deal of time. When labour falls to £10 or £12, and when greater facilities are given for the purchase of land, so as to induce persons to become agricultural farmers, it is most probable that wheat will be raised on cheaper terms by persons who apply themselves wholly to this pursuit than it can be by the squatting stockholders of the present day, and that mills will be established through the country. There are indeed some farmers of this description in the neighbourhood of Geelong and Melbourne; but they are always complaining of bad prices. This has, however, I believe, been the characteristic of farmers from the days of Horace down to the present.