Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/53

 5s. to 7s. is now considered a very good price for any number of them, with station given in. Wedders then fetched about 20s. These now bring about 5s. or 6s. Wool was then bringing from 1s. 2d. to 1s. 6d. in Melbourne ; this year it has ranged from 8d. to 1s. But it was not the Port Phillip sheep farmers who reaped the benefit of these high prices of sheep, but those of Van Dieman's Land and Sydney. The former, on the contrary, were either purchasing, or at any rate doing all they could to increase their stock, in the futile hope that those high prices would continue. On the other hand, shepherd's wages were from £40 to £45 per annum. Flour varied from £28 to £40 per ton, and sometimes rose as high as £60. Sugar sold at from £36 to £40 per ton ; and tea at from £10 to £15 per chest of 64lbs. In January, 1844, shepherd's wages were £20 a year, and were likely to fall to £15; flour was £10 a ton; sugar £16 to £18 per ton; tea about £5 per chest. Wages were in fact less than one half, and rations one third what they were in 1840