The Australasian pastoralists' review : a monthly journal and record of all matters affecting the pastoral and landed interests throughout Australasia

Call Number
NL 338.1 PAS
Created/Published
Melbourne : Twopenny, Pearce and Co., 1891-1901
Issue
Vol. 6 No. 6 (15 August 1896)
Images
62
Notes
Printing error - page appearing after p.316 should be p.317. pages appearing after p.319 should be p.320 and p.321
Page Notes
Printing error - page appearing after p.316 should be p.317. pages appearing after p.319 should be p.320 and p.321
View Catalogue

Contents

THE AUSTRALASIAN PASTORALISTS’ REVIEW: 1
The Victorian Stock Tax. 1
Editorial Notes. 2
Review of Pastoral Situation. New South Wales. 3 , 4
Victoria. 4 , 5
Queensland. 6 , 7
Northern Queensland. 7 , 8 , 9
Central Queensland. 9 , 10
South Australia. 10 , 11
Western Australia. 11 , 12 , 13
Tasmania. 13
New Zealand. 13 , 14 , 15
Argentina. 15 , 16
South Africa. 16 , 17
Great Britain. 17 , 18
Advertising 19 , 20
Obituary. 21 , 22 , 23
Lincoln Flocks. 23
News Jottings. 24
Advertising 25 , 26 , 27
Australasian Pastoralists' Review. The Proposed Trade in Chilled Queensland Meat with the Southern Colonies. 27
New South Wales Scrub and Improvement Leases. 27 , 28
Furze and its Future as a Fodder Plant. 28 , 29
Wholesale Ringbarkingh 29 , 30 , 31
How Australian Producers are Handicapped. 31
Shows. Toowoomba and Brisbane (Q.) Shows. 32
Stock anD Station Notes. 33 , 34
Rainfall Tables. 34
Light Literature. Pitman’s Trust. 35
Riding the Buckjumper. 36
Our Book-Shelf in the Bush. 36 , 37
Advertising 36
Pluke. 37
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. Dropper Fencing. 38
Land Reforms in New South Wales. 38
The Functions of the P.U. 38
Rabbit Prevention in Victoria. 38 , 39
Irrigating Natural Pasture. 39
The Fairbairn Pastoral Company. 39
Worms in Sheep. 39 , 40
Labour Union Notes. 41
The Wool Trade. 42 , 43
Our European Letter. 43 , 44
The Rabbit Pest. 44
The Development of the Tick. 45
The Tick Pest in South Africa. 45 , 46 , 47 , 48
new publication. 48
Advertising 49 , 50
Meat Erport Trabe. Frozen Meat. 51 , 52 , 53 , 54
Graziers’ Meat Export Company of New South Wales Limited. 54
Proposed Meat Export Association. 55
Meat Items. 55
Produce. 56 , 57
Interview with Mr. Chas. R. Valentine. 57
Sheepskins.—Defeetive Skinning. 57
Legal. The Mercadool Case in Banco.—Regina v. Young and Others. 58 , 59
Recovd. The Pastoralists’ Union of New South Wales. 60
United Pastoralists’ Association of Queensland. 60
Pastoralists Association of South Australia and West Darling. 60 , 61
The Pastoralists’ Association of Victoria and Southern Riverina. 61
Artesian Boring Notes. 62
Publishers’ department. 62
Advertising 62

Text

THE  

AUSTRALASIAN PASTORALISTS’ REVIEW:  

MONTHLY JOURNAL AND RECORD  

Of all matters affecting the Pastoral and Landed Interests throughout Australasia.  

No. 6.  

AUGUST 15, 1896.  

You. YI.  

The Victorian Stock Tax.  

During periods of depression such as the present, it is our  

duty to discover, and, if possible, remove every avoidable  

factor in such results. Droughts cannot be fought against,  

nor are they entirely malevolent. The gentle rabbit has  

no friends, and no lack of physical or mental endeavour  

has been shown in checking his advances. Another enemy  

to all New South Wales pastoralists, and by far the greater  

portion of Victorian ones, was spiritedly attacked on its  

first appearance, but of late has had but little hostile treat-  

ment. We refer to the Victorian Stock Tax. The number  

of stockgrowers whom this benefits is small and consists of  

large Victorian graziers who had little to do with its  

imposition. We do not propose to attack it from the  

points of view in which it is held by meat consumers  

generally, butchers, stock agents, and other enemies,  

though they have innumerable and reasonable arguments  

in favour of its abolition, but to treat of its effects upon  

New South Wales and Victorian graziers and their flocks  

and herds.  

With regard to sheep, Victorian growers in most districts  

are now of opinion that crossbreds are more payable sheep  

to breed than Merinos, and of the former sheep, one of the  

most valuable, from its all round excellence, is the half-bred  

Lincoln, or, as it is generally and erroneously described by  

■butchers and wool-buyers, the Comeback. To produce  

these sheep to perfection, the grower must have an even  

line of well-bred Merino ewes and, as evenness of type,  

both in wool and carcase, is an essential point in the cross-  

bred, the ewes used should be from one flock, and that an  

even one. Before the imposition of the Stock Tax, the  

almost universal custom of the Victorian farmer who  

desired to breed crossbreds was to get line of well-bred  

Merino ewes from good Riveiina flock, and if he then  

selected even and absolutely pure Lincoln rams to put to  

them, the result was an even lot of half-bred sheep. The  

trouble in crossbreeding from mixed lots of ewes is that  

the carcases vary too much to please the butcher, and the  

fleeces are too dissimilar to suit the wool buyer.  

Under existing circumstances, Victorian sheep growers  

find it extremely difficult to obtain line of good Merino  

ewes to breed from —the number of breeders of Merino  

sheep in their own colony being so small—and when  

obtained they cannot compare with the Riverina ewes in  

frame, quantity of wool, or freedom from disease.  

Buyers for fattening purposes are equal sufferers, for  

nothing paid so well to fatten as good lot of Riverina  

wethers, early shorn, large framed, sound, and even in  

wool and carcase. From such sheep the Stock Tax debars  

the Victorian buyer, and he too frequently fills their place  

with undersized, poorly-clad, unhealthy sheep, such as we  

see but too frequently in every Victorian saleyard, and  

which in the good old days would have found their way to  

the boiling-down establishments. The Stock Tax therefore  

tends to perpetuate disease, to reduce the character of  

Victorian wool, bring down the standard of butchers’ sheep,  

and benefit only few individuals.  

With regard to cattle, the importations were mainly for  

fattening purposes, and Victorian buyers, with country  

rich enough to fatten them, invariably preferred the even  

lines of heavy well-bred cattle produced north of the  

Murray to their own smaller and, as rule, rougher lots.  

The demand for these would be little affected by the  

abolition of the tax, as so many buyers are unable to  

fatten the larger framed Northern animals. As we are  

treating the subject generally and not as it affects one  

colony, there is no need to enlarge on such matters, as  

loss of freight or lack of employment, for which the  

revenue received is so inadequate compensation.  

The embittered relations between the colonies and the  

additional stumbling block in the way of early federation  

are, however, matters of general moment, and constitute  

strong objection to the continuance of the tax.  

The obstinate adherence to similar policy cost Great  

Britain continent, and though pastoralists almost unani-  

mously condemn the tax, they suffer supinely of late, and  

seem to think, as Professor Wallace does of the deadly  

tick, that, like the cattle, they may in the distant future  

fatten in spite of it, though meanwhile its presence causes  

them constant irritation.  

The deterioration in the quality of the flocks and herds,  

caused by the existence of the tax, is not confined entirely  

to Victoria, for many Riverina graziers are induced to  

overstock owing to the increased difficulty in disposing of  

their surplus stock, and as necessity are more at the  

mercy of the seasons.  

Nature has provided in the plains of Riverina the best  

breeding-ground for sheep in the world, and Victoria, by  

her short-sighted legislation, refuses to take her share in  

that material benefit to all southern Australia. Had it not  

been for the mistaken theory of the Victorian farmers that  

they must scramble for supposed assistance from the  

Protectionist policy of their colony, without any clear  

notion of what chance of benefit they might ultimately  

derive from it, the prohibitive duties would never have been  

imposed, and though it is so much easier to stumble in the  

mire than struggle out of it, more careful study of the  

effects of the Stock Tax should lead them and all who  

desire their own and the general good, to cast from the  

back of Victoria this self-imposed “Old Man of the Sea”  

and not continue to stagger under it without any united  

attempt for its removal.  

Cite

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http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-539996365

APA citation

(1891). The Australasian pastoralists' review : a monthly journal and record of all matters affecting the pastoral and landed interests throughout Australasia Retrieved August 19, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-539996365

MLA citation

The Australasian pastoralists' review : a monthly journal and record of all matters affecting the pastoral and landed interests throughout Australasia Melbourne: Twopenny, Pearce and Co, 1891. Web. 19 August 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-539996365>

Harvard/Australian citation

1891, The Australasian pastoralists' review : a monthly journal and record of all matters affecting the pastoral and landed interests throughout Australasia Twopenny, Pearce and Co, Melbourne viewed 19 August 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-539996365

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  |
  | title=The Australasian pastoralists' review : a monthly journal and record of all matters affecting the pastoral and landed interests throughout Australasia.
  | year=1891
  | section=v. : ill.
  | issn=0314-7096
  | issue=Vol. 6 No. 6 (15 August 1896)
  | location=Melbourne
  | publisher=Twopenny, Pearce and Co
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-539996365
  | id=nla.obj-539996365
  | access-date=19 August 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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