Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/57

. This also was a ruinous system. The failure of the settlers of these two classes has thrown so many sheep into the market, that it has had the effect of making them fetch less than they are entitled to do, reference being had to the profits to he derived from them; and I have not the slightest doubt that a reaction will take place. The present state of things is, however, an advantage to the newly-arrived settler, who can buy his stock now for less than they are intrinsically worth; and any man of common sense and industry who could land now at Melbourne with £2,000 in his pocket, might secure to himself and family a comfortable independence, and, if he chooses to run the risk of laying out about £100 in building a good hut and offices, and making a garden at his station, might live as comfortably as he could in any part of the world, as long at least as government leave him his run. Two young men as partners, with the same, or even a less sum, might of course do the same. In the first place, they could buy 4,000 clean sheep, with station, for £1,000; bullock dray, bullocks, horses, and other expenses would amount to about £200 more. The remaining <d6800 ought to be put into the bank at 3 per cent bank interest, so as to be at hand to buy stores, pay wages, and meet contingencies of all kinds. The following is, as nearly as I can give it, a fair statement of the expenses and returns of such a station for two years, without exaggeration on one side or the other.

We will suppose that the stock (4,000 in all) consists of 2,400 breeding ewes and 600 hogget ewes, which would form three flocks, the remaining 1,000 consisting