The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1892-01-15
WHERE HORSES ARE CHEAP.
Queensland Farmers Pay for Having Them
KSl0afl.

Killed.
No one can buy horse in this city,
says the Washington Star, which is ft
for nny purpose. for less than one huns
t.rcd dollars. A brollen-down car horse
il worth nearly this amount. A horse
for grocer's cart in New York, Chi
cago, or San Francisco will cost from
one hundred and fifty to two hundred
dollars. In Queensland, Australia. hosv-
ever, the horse market is away down.
A sound, we'll broken animal can be
bought for five dollars. Farmers in the
Brisbane for sale, because ordinary
stock will not bring moro than ono dol
lar and scventy-fvc cents o head. They
shoot them instead! And. what is still
moro startling. they pay ut the rate Of
sixty-two cents head for having them
shot! '..,-'.=.
All of these statements arc strictly
correct. The colony of Queensland is
now seriously discussing the advisabili-
ty of passing law imposing tax on
oil stations and authorizing the ap-
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 superabundancc Of dogs in the city
Of Washington.
Horsc-brccding in Australia was for
many years remunerativc business:
A great demand was created by the
taking up and occupying of new coun-
try, from the opening up of tho new
gold fields and for the prosecution of
the sugar industry.
Everyone who had land began breed
ing horses. Now the demand has
ceased, the sugar industry is declining,
the mining is stationary and the owners
| of what was formerly new country arc
sellers instead of buyers. The conse-
auence is that the whole country ID
oyerrun with unstable horses. They
cannot DC 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 semiwild state, they overs
/ run the entire interior of the colony.
The best of them bring ut nuction not
more than thirteen dollars or fourteen
dollars a dozen. Property holders in
New South Wales have relieved them
selves of tho 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, ut q cost to their
nominal owners Of twenty-five shillings
six pence hcad. Queensland hes now
the same trouble to hgns. A law en-
titled "The Marsupials DestructiouS
Act is now in force, directed aSainats
the lsangaroos, to check tho tncfcasc q
these nnxlous animals. But n lsaagnfc0S
skin is worth three dollars and seve nty.
FIVE cents in the open market at Dris-
banc.
How much more need is there, thea,
for destruction act when horses arc
larger animals, eat more, arc more
numerous than kangaroos and arc
nearly worthless! This is the question
which is agitating the property holders
OF Queensland at the present time, us is
learned from the recent bs.Bgtins cs
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 at
certain times is ;:lmost smooth. One Of
the Australian steamships probably
carry from seven hundred to one thou
sand horses at trip. The import duty
on horses and mules at present is thirty
dollars o head. 1t resolves itself into
. question of water carriage.