Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/43

 of Van Dieman's Land extraction, or from imported sires. I like them better than those which I have seen at Sydney. If the stockholder could reckon on £15 for the ordinary run of horses, and £25 for good ones, it would pay him well to rear them. The price at which the Indian government furnish horses to their cavalry officers is six hundred rupees, or £60. This is considered a boon to them, and allowed only under certain restrictions; but then they have the pick out of a large number of splendid colts. Still if £60 be a low price for horses in India, there is a good deal to work on between that sum and £25. One cargo of horses was also shipped this year from Sydney to Manilla, which realized about the same prices as those sent to India. Mauritius is also spoken of as a place to which it would be advantageous to send horses.

Mimosa bark has been for some time an article of export from New South Wales; but it is only lately that much attention has been paid to the mode of collecting it, so as to send it into the market in the best condition. The mimosa which yields this is the green wattle of the settlers. It is a beautiful shrub, or tree, growing to about twenty feet in height, and abounds in many parts of the district, chiefly in soils containing sand; it is pinnatifoliate with dark green leaves and clusters of golden flowers. Government charge £5 a year license for each labourer employed in stripping bark. This, together with the expense of labour in stripping, carting, and breaking the bark, and the cost of sheds to house it in, constitute the whole expense; and I am told that a large profit is reaped by those engaged in the business. At present the mode in which the bark is stripped is sufficiently rude. It is