its commencement, that (making every allowance for the expenses of slaughtering, boiling down the fat, packing, freight, duty, &c.) the probable value of sheep of the ordinary average condition will be about five shillings per head. I see by some of the late Sydney papers, that tallow in Sydney is only quoted at £26. per ton; some of it has, however, lately arrived in London, it was much approved of, and sold as well as the best P.V.C. tallow, the prices obtained for it being upwards of £40. per ton.[1]
It will be easy to show, that this suggestion of Mr. Ebsworth, joined with the present moderate rate of shepherds' wages, has again rendered sheep a most profitable and safe investment for capital; but as many persons, especially in England, consider it the greatest folly to kill sheep for their mere skins and fat, when such a large sum is derived yearly from their wool, I will first make a few observations in defence of the practice of "sheep-boiling." Among those who ridicule it, is the editor of the late Sydney Gazette, who, in the Colonial Gazette, in a long article on the state of New South Wales, deprecates the plan of slaughtering sheep for tallow in the following terms. "As drowning men are said to catch at straws, so have many flock-masters caught at the trap of killing and boiling down their sheep
- ↑ It would be, perhaps, more profitable to the colonists of New South Wales to convert their tallow into stearine, and send it in that form to England.
