The big brown wingless bird much the size and shape of the ostrich, is
quite unable even to jump, but runs as fast as a horse can gallop, and
when pursued will charge a barbed wire fence so hard as to break its way
through, its feathers protecting it from being seriously torn. It is on
this account not beloved by the squatter, but it is seldom shot. The
Prince brought away with him two newly hatched emu chickens, creatures
the size of ducks and prettily marked in shades of black and fawn. Their
quarters on the _Renown_ were in a roomy cage on the superstructure,
where they soon established a reputation as quiet, sober and
well-behaved members of the ship's company.
On several of his expeditions the Prince was given a meal in the bush
camp fashion. One of these was on the shady banks of a stream
twenty-five miles from a station, from which he had ridden out in the
morning accompanied by sons of his hosts. Here quantities of dead
gum-tree trunks were quietly burning, and were made use of for grilling
chops and making billy tea. The latter is quite unlike and, to the
hungry rider, infinitely preferable to the teapot variety. A tin-can is
filled at the nearest water-hole and is carried to a burning tree trunk,
on which it is gingerly balanced, usually with the aid of a stick, the
tree trunk being as a rule too hot to reach without one. The water boils
with extraordinary rapidity and the pot is quickly hooked off the fire.
A generous handful of tea is thrown into the water before it ceases to
boil and the resultant brew is drunk from any utensil that happens to be
handy. Nobody inquires what becomes of the tea leaves.
One of the sights on the Canoubar run was sixty thousand sheep recently
returned from stations in well-watered districts, in one case five
hundred miles distant by rail, whither they had been sent to stay over
the years of drought. These sheep had all been carried by the state
railways of New South Wales, at extraordinarily low rates, and with
surprisingly few casualties. They offered a concrete example of what had
been done on a very large scale throughout the State, where the railways
were able to save for the squatters hundreds of thousands of valuable
sheep, which must otherwise have perished when the fodder supply gave
out. The Prince was so interested in what he saw that there was no
getting him away before dark. By the time he was back in the station he
had ridden over sixty miles without leaving the run.
XXII
AMONGST THE SHEEP
Within the memory of men who have not yet reached middle age,
sheep-rearing in Australia was a gamble. At one time large fortunes
might be made, at another the fruits of long years of thrift and labour
might be swept away by causes which appeared to be outside human
control. Now the industry has become a science. The settler may make
more or he may make less, according as the world price for wool is high
or low. He has his welfare in his own hands, however, and has only to go
the right way to work to make certain of a living.
The removal of the rabbit-pest has been particularly complete. The
Prince saw wire fencing, extending in some cases in unbroken stretches
for thousands of miles, which is at once so high and so deeply embedded
in the ground that rabbits can neither burrow beneath nor climb over it.
Once a paddock, fenced in this way, has been cleared it remains
permanently free. The principal measures for clearing are the systematic
ploughing of every warren, which effectually stops the burrows, and
thereafter the driving by dogs and horsemen of such rabbits as are above
ground to the fences, where covered pits, led up to by long converging
lines of wire netting, have been prepared in advance. The rabbits
follow one another through drop entrances into these pits, thousands
being sometimes captured in one night on a single run. The operation has
only to be repeated, in one paddock after another, to free an estate
completely. The value of the rabbits and their fur covers most of the
cost involved. One may meet gigantic crates on wheels, each drawn by a
dozen horses and sometimes containing twenty thousand rabbits, _en
route_ to factories where the skins are cured and the flesh prepared for
export. By these means many runs have been completely cleared, while
others are in course of being similarly dealt with.
As regards methods of fighting drought, in addition to the help given by
the railways in moving sheep from drought-infected areas, to regions
where the grass has not dried up, the storage of fodder in good years to
make up for deficiency in bad ones, is a further measure adopted.
Artesian borings, even where they are inadequate for irrigation
purposes, will water millions of sheep where the surface supply is
defective.
It was at one time feared that the tapping of the subsoil water over
tens of thousands of square miles in New South Wales, where the
geological formations are such as to render this class of enterprise
remunerative, would gradually exhaust the supply. Experience over a
number of years, including prolonged periods of drought, however, has
not confirmed this apprehension. The Prince was shown wells which had
been running for twenty years without intermission. In some cases, it is
true, fresh borings have had to be made, but it has been discovered
that the failure of the old ones is almost always due, not to any
deficiency in water-pressure below ground, but to the silting up or the
corroding of the pipe itself. Fresh bores yield full supplies, close
alongside those that have given out. Restrictions are rightly imposed by
Government upon the sinking of more than what is considered a reasonable
number of wells in any one area, and up to the present, in the entire
sheep region visited by the Prince, this arrangement has allowed
sufficient supplies to be forthcoming for the watering of all stock,
even in such periods of prolonged drought as that from which this part
of Australia had very recently emerged.
Minor enemies of the squatter are the black carrion crows, creatures
justly execrated by every back-block man. They are not unlike English
rooks, but have the diabolical habit of attacking sick sheep and
newly-born lambs, not infrequently pecking out their eyes. They are also
charged with poisoning the wounds they make, so that a sheep may die
which appears to have been only very slightly pecked. The harmless
looking galahs, white parrots with pink breasts, make themselves only
one degree less objectionable by eating the grain. Both of these pests,
however, are being got under, with the growth in the number of sportsmen
with scatter guns in each district. The Prince shot several galahs, and
if his bag did not include any carrion crows this was chiefly because
the good work of shooting them had already been so efficiently done.
Another trouble of the squatter, the silting up of his fences with
leaves and dust in the hot weather, until they disappear and sheep and
cattle stray over them unimpeded, is also being successfully overcome.
On one estate enormous machines like snow-ploughs were shown, which were
periodically pulled by horses along the windward side of fences subject
to this mishap. Floods come only occasionally, but the squatter has
declined to allow himself to be defeated by them. The Prince saw the
bones of many a stray sheep that had been drowned in the last visitation
of this kind. It is indeed extraordinary that such a thing should occur
upon a table-land two thousand feet above sea level, where rain is
ordinarily so scanty that drought is continually feared. The very rarity
of heavy rain, however, makes the conditions such that the water-courses
may be inadequate to carry off any sudden downpour, with the result that
the flooding, when it does occur, may easily be very extensive, as the
country for hundreds of miles on end is almost absolutely level.
Motor-cars have been used successfully to convey thousands of sheep,
three or four at a time, from flooded areas to banks where they could
exist until the water subsided. In other cases boats have been brought
from incredibly distant rivers to carry stock to safety. Much has also
been done upon men's backs, for the squatter does not allow his sheep to
perish if anything within human strength can help them.
In this part of Australia the grass is so thin that from two to five
acres are required to support each sheep. This accounts for the immense
size of the runs, which extend in some cases to hundreds of thousands of
acres. One of the results of so much grazing space is that epidemics are
almost unknown. On one of the runs the Prince took a hand, with
power-driven clippers in sheds, where one man shears, on the average,
more than a hundred sheep in a single day, the wool fetching up to
twenty-two pence a pound. Fleeces so ticketed indicate the neighbourhood
of the wool millionaire, and he was to be met in all stages of opulence.
A run carrying fifty thousand sheep, each yielding a profit of ten
shillings in the year for wool alone, is by no means uncommon in this
part of Australia, men who had established themselves in pre-war days,
in quite a modest way, upon land leased from the State, not infrequently
finding their incomes multiplied a number of times over as the rates for
wool increased. The greater part of these profits has remained in the
country, and much of it has been put into the development of the runs,
and the improvement of the breeds of sheep, horses and cattle on them.
In one of the stations a five-thousand-pound bull had recently been
bought, and cows were valued at a thousand pounds apiece. On another,
three rams were shown to the Prince which were considered to be worth
six thousand pounds, being an average of two thousand each.
The methods of development adopted varied according to the financial
position of the owners. A squatter with a long-established run who had
paid off his mortgages, and had money in hand, would ordinarily keep
more sheep upon a given area than his less prosperous neighbour, for the
reason that he could afford to move them by rail in years of drought.
The man more recently established, with whom money was not so plentiful,
would keep his land more sparsely stocked. In one case only six thousand
sheep were being raised, though the run would have supported twice that
number in an ordinary season. Here the owner did the whole of the
routine work of the place, with the assistance only of his two eldest
sons, lads in their 'teens, and occasional hired hands for shearing and
fencing.
The run possessing the five-thousand-pound bull was worked upon more
expensive principles. It employed highly paid managers, overseers and
stockmen all the year round, and was regarded as so up to date in its
methods as to be quoted as a state model of efficiency and a sort of
competitive Elysium for jackaroos. Both methods of working seemed to be
successful, and both estates were making money.
The heavy drop in wool prices that is now taking place will no doubt
reduce the amount of the profits presently to be made. There is no
reason to apprehend, however, that the industry will not adjust itself
successfully to the new state of things. Fortunes in the future may be
harder to make than in the past, but the necessaries of life are assured
to all engaged in an industry so self-supplying as is that of
sheep-farming. The area suitable for it is still practically unlimited,
and the open-air life it offers will continue to attract young fellows
anxious to get away from the confinement of the town and the office.
As regards the climate, all that I can say is that as far north as the
Prince's travels extended, the winter conditions then prevailing were
delightful. The nights were sharp, and the days full of sunshine, and of
a temperature that induced to outdoor work of every kind. Never have I
seen healthier looking people than those who make this part of the world
their permanent home. The children that the Prince found assembled in
surprising numbers at every stopping-place, were sturdy and well
developed. That the summers on these breezy uplands are sometimes hot
was testified to by occasional underground chambers constructed so as to
afford shelter in the middle of the day. Every one agreed, however, that
the nights were cool, and the health and longevity of the community
phenomenal. The interesting claim was also made that the very warmth of
the sun in summer was itself an important factor in keeping down disease
alike in men and sheep.
The lowlands along the coast of Northern Queensland, where such tropical
staples as sugar-cane, plantains and coco-nuts are grown in quantity,
were hardly reached, though Brisbane, the most northerly seaport visited
by the Prince, was upon the outer fringe of this important region. In
Brisbane the climate was distinctly hot, though the inhabitants looked
strong and full of health. Further north, where the temperatures grow
higher, we were told that numbers of Italians are settling in and doing
well. They have found conditions not altogether dissimilar from those of
their own country, and are developing labour able to deal to some extent
with the difficult problem of sugar-growing.
On leaving Myowera the Prince proceeded by train to Sydney. On the way
civic receptions were held in his honour at a number of centres. He
stopped off at Dubbo, where white-dressed V.A.D.'s, each with a wand of
yellow-flowering wattle, made a bower over his head as he passed from
the railway station on the usual inspection of returned men. At
Wellington he found a crowd waiting to cheer him beneath flowering
orchards shivering in wintry rain. Blayney, although situated upon the
chill slopes of the Canobolas mountains and said to be the coldest place
in New South Wales, produced amongst its guard-of-honour a cavalry
officer from India in the turbaned uniform of the Fifteenth Lancers, who
had returned to his home in Australia when peace was declared. Another
place visited was Bathurst, where a procession through the town took
place, and where the decorations and receptions were on a very extensive
scale. In the course of his reply to a civic address, presented in this
city, the Prince said his visit in the interior had given him a glimpse
of real Australia. He had seen the richness of the country and had
learnt the desolation that drought and floods could produce. "Many," he
added, "have suffered losses, and while sympathizing with their hard
fortune, I trust the next few years may be years of plenty and bring
them all they desire."
On arrival at Sydney the Prince went at once to the _Renown_. Later in
the day, his official tour having ended, he drove unescorted to the
races, which he enjoyed like any private individual. The courtesy of the
large gathering of race-goers was such that, although everybody wanted
to see him, and much cheering took place, the stewards had no difficulty
in preventing any inconvenience.
Before finally sailing, the Prince spent four days in Sydney, saying
good-bye to his friends, and receiving them in the _Renown_, which he
made his home. Amongst those he entertained were the Commonwealth
Governor, the Prime Minister, the New South Wales Governor, the State
Premier, and the principal Commonwealth and State Officials. His staff,
meanwhile, was kept busy receiving and dispatching his replies to a
mountain of warm-hearted farewell messages, of which the following, from
M. Fihelly, acting Premier of Queensland, and head of the most advanced
Labour Government in Australia, may be taken as a sample:--
"Your Royal Highness's visit will always be gratefully and
affectionately remembered by the Government and people here, who
found the greatest delight in your presence amongst them, and who
will henceforward regard you as a new link uniting the British
peoples. We hope your Royal Highness will have a safe and pleasant
homeward voyage, and that long life and uninterrupted happiness and
good health will be yours. You came to our land as His Majesty's
most effective ambassador to us and we ask you to be our envoy to
him, bearing renewed assurances that the lofty ideals which inspire
our race are a living active force in Australia to-day."
Amongst the individual replies dispatched by the Prince perhaps one of
the happiest went to the Royal Australian Navy, which, after expressing
thanks for escorts and other services, and wishing good luck to all,
ended with the characteristic request that the main-brace might be
spliced.
In his general farewell message His Royal Highness said:--
"I am very sorry that my first visit to Australia is at an end, and
I wish on leaving to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to
the Government and people of the whole Commonwealth for the
pleasure and happiness which they have given me during my all too
short stay. I have been deeply touched by the open-hearted
affection shown to me everywhere, and I hope that Australians have
realized how much the warmth of their welcome has meant to me. It
has made my first visit an experience which I can never forget and
which will always bind me to Australia as a real southern home.
"Throughout the Commonwealth I have been impressed by the fact that
the Australian people as a whole have just the same free and
gallant British spirit at home which the Diggers showed so
splendidly during the war. Australia has appealed to me
intensely as a land where British men and women may make a new
nation as great as any nation of the past, and I shall be heart and
soul with them in their aims and efforts all my life."
[Illustration: EMU ON A SHEEP-RUN]
[Illustration: GOOD-BYE TO SYDNEY HARBOUR]
"I refuse to say good-bye. I have become so fond of Australia now
that she can never be far from my thoughts, wherever I may be; and
I look forward most keenly to the time when I shall be able to
return."
"My affectionate best wishes to her people, one and all."
The last official function attended by the Prince in Australia was an
investiture at Government House, Sydney, at which he conferred the
following decorations on behalf of the King:--
On Major-General Sir C. B. White, Commonwealth Organizer of the
visit, and Rear-Admiral Grant, Senior Officer of the Commonwealth
Naval Board, the K.C.V.O.; on Brigadier-General F. H. W. Lloyd,
Brigadier-General Dodds, Commonwealth Assistant Organizer, and
Commodore Dumaresque, commanding the Australian Fleet, the C.V.O.;
on Captain the Hon. B. Clifford, Military Secretary to the
Governor-General, the M.V.O.
The following officers, who were in attendance during the Royal
tour, also received the M.V.O.: Colonel F. B. Heritage,
Lieutenant-Colonel Lionel Robinson, Captain J. G. Duncan Hughes,
and Captain R. James, and it was also conferred upon the following
organizers of the Prince's visit in various States: Mr. Clifford
Hay (New South Wales), Mr. Whitehead (Victoria), Mr. Blinman (South
Australia), Mr. Steer (Queensland), Mr. Shapcott (West Australia),
and Mr. Addison (Tasmania).
Royal Victorian medals were also conferred upon seven motor-drivers
who had been in attendance throughout the tour.
Every newspaper throughout Australia meanwhile made the Prince's
departure its leading theme, the illustrated journals teeming with
pictures connected with his going. The Sydney "Daily Telegraph," on the
day of his leaving, said: "At high water the _Renown_ will carry the
Prince through the Heads, on the first stage of his homeward journey.
The Prince himself goes away on another high tide--of popularity and
goodwill."
"If ever there was danger," the Sydney "Morning Herald" said, "of
Australian opinion being misinterpreted through the utterances of a few
noisy and churlish malcontents, it has been dissipated once and for all
by the Prince's experiences."
On the 19th August the _Renown_ weighed anchor in brilliant sunshine, to
the sound of music, cheers, and salutes, every headland lined with
people. Flotillas of crowded steamboats raced alongside her as she made
her way to the Heads where the Prince's letters overtook him in a fast
Australian destroyer, which had picked them up from aeroplanes
dispatched especially from Adelaide. As a final courtesy it was a happy
touch, and if the _Renown_ had been a sailing ship would have cheered
her on with airs from home.
The Prince's visit was over. The unanimity and cordiality of his welcome
everywhere had been a revelation even to the people of the land, who in
the clash of local political creeds had hardly realized before how deep
and universal was their feeling of citizenship in the Empire, or how
warmly this feeling would manifest itself towards one who came to them
standing for that Empire and asking only to learn the glory of
Australia's part in it.
XXIII
EASTWARD HO
After leaving Sydney the _Renown_ made a record run, much of it at
twenty knots an hour, to catch up time. The Prince thus arrived at Fiji
punctually to his programme, in spite of having been delayed at Sydney
waiting for the mail. He landed at Suva, where he was received as
cordially and by as large and picturesque a gathering as had greeted his
first arrival at this port. His visit was informal, but he attended a
civic reception in the beautiful Botanical Gardens, followed by a ride
across country which was not without excitement. The party at one point
were on a narrow hill road, with a bank on one side and a steep drop on
the other. The Prince was in front when they reached a tree-trunk which
had fallen across the way, leaving no room to get past. H.R.H.
dismounted and scrambled over with his horse in lead. The Secretary to
the Governor, who was immediately behind, endeavoured to get across
without leaving the saddle, but his animal slipped in landing and went
over the edge. Its rider, although crippled by the loss of one leg,
managed to throw himself off upon the brink, where he clung precariously
while his horse went crashing through the bushes thirty feet beneath
him, rolling over and over as it fell. The Prince was the first to get
hold of his companion and help to pull him back unhurt into safety.
Oddly enough, the horse was able to carry him home, when eventually it
had scrambled back to the road.
The Prince rode for some hours after this incident, dismounting on the
way back, and doing the last eight miles on foot at a swinging pace. A
dinner and dance at Government House finished up the day.