The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-01-27
HORSES FOR A DOLLAR.
Droves of Them In Queensland Which
Have Become II Nuisance.

Droves of Them In Queensland which
Have Become II Nuisance.
No ono can buy a horse in this CITY, says
tho Washington Star, which is fit for any
purpose for less than 800. A ~broken-down
car horsc is worth nearly this amount. A
horee for a e%rocer's cart in New York, Chi
\ cage or San Francisco will cost $3.50 to
$500. In Queensland, Australia, however.
the horse market is away down. A sound,
well-broken animal can be bought Tor $o.
q Farmers in the interior oan not afford TO
send horses to Brisbane for sale, because
ordinary stock will not bring more than
S1.75 per head. They shoot them instead.
And, what is still more startling: they pay
at the rate of 62 cents per head for having
them shot.
All of these statements are strictly cor
rect. The colony Of Queensland is now
seriously discussing the advisability of
passing a law imposing a tax on all stall
lions and authorizing the appointment OF
inspectors to see that all unlicensed ami
NILS are killed. All over Queensland they
are going to keep down horses as we keep
down abe superabundance of dogs IN the
city of Washington. The same state Of
affairs holds in some Of the other Australian
colonies.
Horse breeding in Australia was for many
wears a r~emunerative business. "A gient de-
mand was created by tho taking up and oc-
cupying Of new country, from the opening
up of new gold fields and for the prosecu-
ton OF the sugar industry.
Everyone who had land began breeding
horses. Now the demand has cea ed, the
sugar industry is declining. the mining Is
stationary, and tho owners Of what was
formerly now country are sellers lnstend 81
buyers. Tho consequence is that the whole
country is overrun with unstable horses.
They cannot be eaten like sheep and cattle,
and 4 boiling down factory for the manu-
facture of glue and other products failed,
after consuming $4,000 animals.
Now, in a semi-wild state, they overrun
the entire interior of the colony. The best
of them bring at suction not moro thai Sla
or $14 a dozen. Property holders in New
South Wales have relieved themselves OF
the burden on their grazing lands by shoot
ing them. On the Bnrwon river, within
two years, between 10000 and 10000 head
were destroyed, ut q cost to their nominal
owners of 25.6d per head. Queensland has
now the same trouble to fight. A law ell
titled 1.-The %matsupials destt uction act" is
now in force, directed against the kanRa-
roos, to check the increase of these nOxlouA
animals. But a kangaroo skin is worth
{. 75 in the open market at Brisbane.
How much moro need is there, then, of
a horse destruction act, when horses are
larger animals, eat more, arc more numer-
Gus than kangaroos and are nearly worth
less! This is the question which is agitating
the property holders of Queensland at the
present time, a. ID learned from the recent
bulletins of the department of agriculture
of that colony. Will 1t pay Australians to
ship these horses to the United States? This
passage to San Francisco will take twenty
DAYS, The Pacific ocean at certain times il
always smooth. Ons of the Australian
steamships will probably carry from TOO to
1000 horses at a trip. The import duty OH
horses and mules at present is $50 per head.
1t resolves itself into n question of water
carriage.