The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-12-19
WHERE HORSES ARE CHEAP.
queensland Farmers Pay FOR Having rhein
4. Killed.

4
Queensland Farmers Pay FOR Having rhoin
&. Killed.
NO one can buy q horse In tits civ.
says the Washington STAR which is ct
for any purpose. for less than ono bnn.
ared dollars, a bro.xcn-down car horse
is worth nearly this amount. A horse
fora groccr's cart in New York, Chi
cago. or San Francisco will cost from
one hundred and fifty to two hund red
dollars. In Queensland, Australia. how
ever, tho horse market is away down.
a sound, we'll broken animal can be
bought for live dollars. Farmers in the
anterior cannot afford to send horses to
-Brisbane for sale, because ordinary
stock will not bring more than one dol
lar and seventy-fivc cents head They
shoot them instcad And. what is still
moro startling, they pay at the rate of
siXty-two cents a head for having them
shot!
all OF these statements are strictly
correct. The colony of Queensland is
now seriously discussing the ADVISABLE
ty OF passing law imposing tax on
all stations and authorizing the np-
pointment of inspectors to see that all
unlicensed animals are killed. All over
Queensland they are going to keep
down horses as we keep down
the superabundance of dogs in the city
of Washington.
Horsc-brecding in Australia was for
many years remuncrativc business.
A great demand was created by the
taking up and occupying of new coun-
try, from the opening up of the new
gold fields and for the prosecution of
the sugar industry.
Everyone who had land began breed
ing horses Now tho demand has
ceased, the sugar industry is declining,
the mining is stationary and the owners
of what was formerly new country are
sellers instead of buyers The consc-
qucncc is that the whole country is
ovcrrun with unstable horses. They
cannot bc eaten like sheep and cattle,
and boiling-down factory for the
manufacture of glue and other products
failed after consuming fifty thousand
animals.
Now, in 4 scmi-wild state, they over.
run the entire interior of the COLONY.
The best of them bring at auction not
moro than thirteen dollars or fourteen
dollars dozen. Property holders in
New South Wales have relieved them
selves of the burden on their grazing
lands by shooting them. On the Bar
won river. within two years, between
sixty thousand and seventy thousand
head were destroyed, at n cost to their
nominal owners of twenty-five shillinrs
six pence IL head. Queensland has now
the same trouble to fight. A law en-
titled The Morsupials Destruction
Act" is now in force, directed against
the kangaroos, to check the increase of
these noXlous animals. But kangaroos
skin is worth three dollars and seventy
five cents in the open market ut Bris-
bane.
How much more need is there, then,
for n destruction act when horses are
larger animals, eat more, are more
numerous than kangaroos and are
nearly worthless! This is the question
which is agitating the property holders
of Queensland at the present time, rs is
learned from the recent bulletins of
the department of agriculture of that
colony: Will it pay Australians to ship
these horses to the United States? The
passage to San Francisco will take
twenty days. The Pacific ocean ut
certain times is almost smooth. One of
the Australian steamships will probably
carry from seven hundred to ono thou
sand horses Mt trip. The import duty
on horses and mules at present is thirty
dollars head. 1t resolves itself into
a question of water carriage.