Page:Advanced Australia.djvu/97

 not led, so far, to any perceptible immigration from Great Britain.

Another interesting development in land cultivation, which is perhaps more common on the Riverina than in Victoria, is the growing of wheat and other produce on the shares principle—the squatter providing the land and seed and the agriculturalist the plant and labour. This approximation to the metayer system has very great possibilities, being capable of extensive application in many parts of Australia, from the rich potato and onion soils of Colac to the sugar lands of tropical Queensland.

The system of co-operation is to be carried still further in the shipping of wheat to London. These developments, together with the increase of the export trade in frozen meat and other products, are giving the variety which the farmer requires, and he no longer has all his eggs in the one basket. The best will never be got from the frozen meat trade, however, until a higher standard is sought for in the quality. It is estimated that during the year 1897, for example, quite forty-five per cent, of the bulk shipped was defective in quality. Irregularity of supply is another source of weakness, and several efforts to secure united action, and so found a better system of supply, have failed. A few figures as to the pastoral and agricultural industries of New South Wales may be of interest. The area of land under wheat is extending rapidly; for whereas in 1895-6 there were 596,684 acres under wheat, this year there are 1,000,000 acres, though the crops, owing to dry weather, will be lighter than usual. As the land policy—under leasehold—is exceptionally liberal to the State tenants, the area of land under occupation should increase largely year by year. The latest agricultural returns for the colony show that 1,820,209 acres were under crop in 1898, giving the remarkable increase (on the 798,966