Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/60

 amount of the price of the wool is not received for nearly a year after shearing; while wages, stores, &c. are expenses out of pocket, and that a man is in a far better position who can go with his money in his hand to buy his stores than one who deals on credit. The present system, too, of taking a large advance on wool when shipped is one which had better be avoided. The use of the money for about nine or ten months costs, between exchange and commission, about 5½ per cent on an average; and it would be far better, if the wool-grower could afford, to wait until the proceeds of his wool were remitted from England. Selling wool at Melbourne is very unsatisfactory. If sent home, it goes into a market where there is a fair competition, and it fetches pretty nearly its value, whether this be much or little; but in Melbourne, where there are but few buyers, a man is never sure of this.

I do not like at present to say much on the prospects of the cattle holder, because until salting, boiling down, or preserving meat in tin cases hermetically closed, or some of these modes of turning stock into cash is carried out on a good system, the profit likely to be derived from cattle cannot be calculated on with any degree of certainty. There is, however, so little expense and risk attendant on rearing them, and they can be purchased so cheap, (I have known some to be sold so low as 13s. a head,) that whichever of these modes or whatever combination of them be found most advantageous, I have no doubt that stock of this kind will yield a fair return. Making cheese and butter may, I think, turn out profitable; but it must be for export.