Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/229

 Conclusions ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 20;, These years have also been disheartening to the pastoralists. Owing to the droughts, and also to the ravages of rabbits, huge tracts of territory have been surrendered, and the wilderness has reclaimed its own. Many flocks have been literally decimated, and in some instances have been completely exterminated. The number of sheep in the Province has ominously decreased, and for some years the prices to be obtained for wool have been unprofitably low. In 1890-1 there were in the Province 7,004,642 sheep, 359.938 cattle, and 187,686 horses; in 1898-9 these figures were reduced to 5,012,620 sheep, 260,343 cattle, and 161,774 horses. The export of wool in 1893 was valued at ^2,001,277, in 1898 at ^1,167,181, and in 1899 at ^1,511,693, when wool exceeded all previous values in Adelaide, reaching to iS^^d. for greasy merino, I2i^d. for greasy lambs, 26)^2 d. for scoured merino, and i4^d. for greasy crossbred. Comparatively, there has been BiKu's Eye Vikw of Pokt Pirie as much suffering among the remote pastoralists as among the farmers. Some shrinkage in the volume of exports, accompanied by a reduction of prices, has caused the total value of exportable products of the Province to seriously diminish. Of the greater industries, copper and wine are the only items that do not .show a decrease. From this period, with the exception of 1897, the balance of value between imports consumed and local produce exported has been in favor of the latter. South Australia, by its position in relation to Broken Hill and the border country in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, gains very substantially. The total exports in 189 1 were i^' 10,5 1 2,049, while those of the produce of the Colony were only .2^4,685,313; in the same year the
 * /!^4,4 10,062 in 1890, the figures went down to ^2,487,009 in 1898. But throughout