Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/409

Rh millions of cattle and sheep have perished in this way, and hundreds of owners were ruined.

"Compared with sheep-raising," said Mr. Watson, "the cattle business will return a high interest on the capital invested if properly managed and fairly successful, but does not afford the rapid road to wealth that many have travelled by a few successful years with sheep. Cattle require few men to manage them, and entail no great expense before they are sold and the money is obtained for them. A cattle-station has rarely an occasion to ask the banks for loans, while the sheep-raiser constantly requires money to pay for shepherds, shearers, and other laborers, and is under heavy expense for the carriage of his wool to the seaports.

"It is safe to say," he continued, "that the palmy days of sheep and cattle raising are gone forever. There is very little country suitable for grazing purposes that is not already taken up, and the holders want high prices for their titles and improvements. Formerly a man could go into the interior, find a good location for a run, enter it for lease, and then obtain a partner with the capital necessary for stocking it with a few thousand sheep. With half a dozen good seasons they would make their fortunes, partly from the sale of wool and the increase of stock, and partly from the rise in the value of the lease; but at the same time they might be ruined by two bad seasons of drought, disease among the sheep, or by the low price of wool."