3 sheets pf photos of the Sir Titus Salt statue medals (see A1-144-147)
Booklet: 'Address at the Grave of Sir Titus Salt by Rev. J. Robertson Campbell (1876)
photocopies of two poems: 'The Lord of Saltaire' + 'The Village of Saltaire' by Ralph Stennett (1876) from Bradford Local Studies. The Lord of Saltaire is 103 24 , the Village of Saltaire is 29 87
Photocopy of booklet: 'Internationl Exhibition of Art-Science & Industry - Saltaire 1887
B1-375a: Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1904
Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1904
B1-375b: Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1905
Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1905
George Salt: an engine at Saltaire Mills
B1-375c: Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1906
Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1906
B1-375d: Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1907
Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1907
Salt, Titus, Sir: Portrait photograph of Titus Salt in later life
B1-375f: Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1909
Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1909
B1-375g: Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1910
Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1910
B1-375h: Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1911
Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1911
B1-375i: Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1912
Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1912
350 h. p. Compound Engine at Saltaire Mills
B1-375j: Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1913
Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1913
B1-375k: Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1914
Salts Mill. A Collection of photocopies of items relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1914
The Bradford Exhibition (Fancy Woollen Looms)
??A Collection of articals relating to Saltaire from the 'Engineers' magazine 1859-1915. Some notes on the early machinery??.
Photocopy of Booklet: 'Some Causes of Defects in Textiles' by Albert M. Chapman (1898)
C2a-142b: Saltaire Village; Images (People)
1 photograph print copy of a photograph of the Thornton family of 31 Titus Street
C2a-143a-b: Salts Mill dance at Victoria Hall
1 photograph (a) and 1 enlarged portion of the photograph (b) of 'Salts Mill Spinning Dept. Dance at Victoria Hall c. 1920s
Victoria Hall, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
C2a-144a: Saltaire Village; Images (People)
1 large laminted copy of photos of the Thornton family of 31 Titus Street.
C2a-145: Saltaire Village; Images (People)
Laminated copy of info sheet on the Thornton family of 31 Titus Street
C2b-210b: Railway line through future Saltaire
1 photograph-print of the railway line through the site of the future Saltaire 1844
Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Plan of Saltaire
1 coloured photograph-print of Saltaire Station with a steam train
Railway Station, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
1 Black and White photograph-print of Saltaire Station with passengers on platform
C2b-213a: Saltaire train station with bridges
1 Black and White photograph-print of Saltaire Station showing footbridge & roadbridge
1 Black and White photograph-print of Saltaire Station showing footbridge
C2b-215a: Railway line at Hirst Wood, Saltaire
Black and White photograph (print) of the railway line from Saltaire going through 'Hurst Wood' (may be a miss spelling of Hirst Wood) with several people waiting at a crossing. Three people sat on a the top of a gate. A steam-train is in the distance.
Hirst Wood, Shipley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
C2b-239: Saltaire village Images (Places)
Album of photographs of the Saltaire History Club Meeting 16th April 2016
C2b-240: Jamie Roberts visit with alpacas
Album of photographs of Jamie Roberts' visit to Saltaire with his alpacas on 6th August 2013. Jamie Roberts is a decendant of Sir James Roberts
Jamie Roberts visit with alpacas: Page 4 - On Albert Terrace
Jamie Roberts visit with alpacas: Page 9 - In Roberts Park near Sir Titus's statue
Jamie Roberts visit with alpacas: Front cover
Jamie Roberts visit with alpacas: Page 12 - Close up of three alpaca heads
C2b-241: 'Saltaire in Hull : Two buildings connected to Sir Titus Salt & H.F. Lockwood'
'Saltaire in Hull : Two buildings connected to Sir Titus Salt & H.F. Lockwood'
C2b-246a-d: Saltaire village Images (Places)
4 print copies of sections of 'Saltaire Stories Display Board designed by Ian Watson
C3b-272a-b: The Land Acquisitions of Titus Salt in Shipley & Baildon
The Land Acquisitions of Titus Salt in Shipley & Baildon
2 copies of booklet: 'The Land Acquisitions of Titus Salt in Shipley & Baildon' by Ian Watson
Content available under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA licence
THE LAND ACQUISITIONS OF TITUS SALT by Ian Watson 1 Ian Watson (2011) 2 3 INTRODUCTION The basic story of Titus Salt building up his textile empire in Bradford, and then, at the point when he might have been expected to retire, deciding to start a whole new project, developing a gigantic mill and model village, is well known. What does not seem to have been covered within the general literature on Salt and his mill, is the story of his property purchases in this area. In particular, there is little reference to his, quite substantial acquisitions in Baildon; which, as I will show, were not only on a larger scale than his purchases in Shipley, but in one instance pre-dated them. Also, few of the authors who have covered the story of Saltaire mention Dixon Mill Lane. Neither Balgarnie nor Cudworth refer to it at all, and those authors who do mention it, do so only in passing. There is also an assumption, by some authors, that the old lane, seen in the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map, was upgraded and widened and became Victoria Rd. The evidence presented below disproves that assumption. It details the chronological developments relating to Dixon Mill Lane and Victoria Rd, and the bridging of the River Aire. This occurred between the survey for the first edition Ordnance Survey map, published in 1852 and the next series, surveyed in the 1880s, by which time the building of Saltaire had been completed. This report concentrates on previously unpublished information on the development of the village and tries to avoid repeating those well-known aspects of its history. Most of the information regarding Titus Salt’s purchases in Shipley and Baildon comes from the collection of deed copies held in the Registry of Deeds at the West Yorkshire Archive Service Office based at the West Yorkshire History Centre in Wakefield. The Registry is the place where property owners could have details of their freehold property and mortgage transactions recorded and covers the years between 1704 and 1970. One of the problems with these deed copies is that it is very unusual for the early ones to have any maps or plans attached, as do some of the later ones. This means that, in some cases, the precise boundaries of the purchases are not always easy to determine. 4 The description of the properties transferred in the deeds tend to be lists of field names, so I have tried to relate the information in the deeds to the details shown on the tithe maps of Shipley and Baildon, which date from the mid-1840s. However, some of the boundaries of the acquisitions that I identify may not be a hundred percent accurate, as it is not always possible to make a perfect match between the two sets of documents. A second source of information comes from the collection of Shipley and Baildon papers that can be found within the West Riding Quarter Session records, also held at Wakefield. These Quarter Sessions courts were the main system of county administration before the introduction of County Councils in 1888. Among the many issues considered by these courts were the applications to approve the transfers of public rights of way from old roads to new ones. The information contained in these records has proved particularly informative. The papers relating to Baildon [the QT series] are part of the Quarter Session papers for the Liberty of Cawood, Wistow and Otley. As the parish of Otley, of which Baildon was a part, was a ‘Peculiar’ of the Archbishopric of York, their Quarter Session records were administered separately from rest of the West Riding until 1864, when the ‘Liberty’ was brought within the West Riding. As a result, on their arrival at Wakefield, these records were recorded separately. They are now searchable via the West Yorkshire Archive Service web-site (http://www.wyjs.org.uk). The files relating to Shipley [the QS1 series] can only be accessed on- site at the Wakefield office. Many of the plans used as source material for this study have been in storage for over a 150 years. As such, they are often creased and dirty. Consequently, the illustrations used below reflect the non-pristine condition of these plans. The plans reference to the Quarter Session papers [the QS and QT series] are reproduced here by the kind permission of the West Yorkshire Joint Archive Service, who own the copyright. In addition, I would like to thank the following people and organisations: The archivist and volunteers of the Midland Railway Study Centre, Derby, and Julie Woodward and the management of Shipley College for permission to copy and reproduce documents held with the Saltaire Archive Collection. Ian Watson 2011 5 THE SHIPLEY PURCHASES The full extent of Titus Salt’s land purchases in Shipley is highlighted with this aerial view. Salt’s Shipley Acquisitions (taken from Google Map) The area within the purple border, which extends from Hirst Mill and Hirst Lane in the west, to part way down Saltaire Road in the east, shows the whole of Titus Salts acquisitions in Shipley. The northern boundary is the River Aire, while the southern boundary is Bingley Road. This can be compared to the area occupied by the mill and village, which is shown in orange. Here, then, is evidence that Salt bought well over twice as much land as he needed for the village. The orange border also marks the boundary of the Saltaire World Heritage site, on the Shipley side of the river. Though Roberts/Saltaire Park, across the river in Baildon, is also included within the SWH boundary. The yellow oblong marks the one piece of quarry land, situated behind the Alms Houses at the top of Victoria Road, that was bought by his sons after Titus Salt’s death . 6 The original owners The above plan identifies all the individual blocks of land that Titus Salt bought in Shipley. The land now occupied by the mill and village was originally owned by 8 different land owners. In addition to these purchases, Salt bought land on both the east and west side of the future village from a further 6 individuals. Making a total of 14 separate purchases between 1850 and 1874. All of the fields shown in the plan, with the exception of the land between Saltaire Road and Bingley Road, consisted of conventional farmland at the time of the purchases, and contained a range of arable, pasture and grass-meadow. The fields between Saltaire Road and Bingley Road, though, had been created out of rough moorland by the Shipley Enclosure Act (1815-1825). This land contained good quality sandstone, which was suitable for quarrying. It is almost certain that, having obtained permission for quarrying from the Lord of the Manor, stone from this site, and quarries in other parts of Shipley and the surrounding area were used in the construction of the mill and village. 7 First Shipley Purchase 1850 According to the information in the deed of sale, the first purchase in Shipley appears to have been in late December 1850 when Titus Salt bought around 22 acres of land from William Crompton Stansfield of Esholt Hall, for £12,000. There appears to have been no public notice of this land being placed on sale, so it may have taken place through a private contact. This land ran between the Shipley to Bramley Turnpike Road, later Saltaire Road, and the river. This purchase, highlighted in red in the above plan, included most of the fields on either side of an ancient track called Dixon Mill Lane, along with the old corn and fulling mill down by the river. It also included a tiny piece of land on the Baildon side of the river. There had been a mill at the bottom of Dixon Mill Lane since 1635, when William Dixon had bought or leased the land on the south bank of the Aire, along with the small plot on the north bank in Baildon. This, I presume, would have been a standard requirement when someone needed to build a water-driven mill, as they would have needed control of at least some land on the opposite side of the river in order to build the weir. Following the purchase, Dixon built a water-powered corn mill and a fulling mill on the site, along with the weir and a goit. Fulling is one of the final processes in the manufacture of woollen cloth. Fulling stocks consisted of large wooden hammers, which were driven by the power from a water-wheel. They were used beat the woven cloth in order to blend the short woollen fibres together and produce a firm hard- wearing cloth. 8 The main part of Dixon’s Mill was built over the gap created by the cutting of a goit (a man-made cut) along the length of a gravel bank that lay roughly parallel to the south bank of the river. This goit allowed water to be drawn under the mill to power the water-wheels. It then ran out along the goit. A surviving plan of the complex (see page 11) shows that the mill complex consisted of relatively small buildings, and, as such, would only have employed a limited number of workers. th By the beginning of the 19 century there was a corn mill, a fulling mill and a woollen mill operating here. The whole complex was run through the power of three water-wheels; one running the corn-milling stones; one running four fulling stocks and one running the carding and scribbling, a processes involving the disentangling of the woollen fibres, prior to spinning. As the deed of purchase shows, however, at the time that Salt bought it, only the corn mill and the fulling mill were operating. The corn mill was being operated at that time by John and Joseph Knowles, and the fulling mill by James Davidson. Dixon’s Mill and the cottages 9 Just four years prior to Salt’s 1850 purchase, the new railway line from Shipley to Colne had been cut through Dixon Mill Lane. The plan above shows how the land on which the future mill and village would be constructed looked in the mid-1840s. The construction of the railway would have required some alteration to the lane as it approached the intersection with the line. It would seem that the levelling of the bed for the rail track as it passed this section had created a shallow embankment on the southern side of the line, and this would have needed to have been breached to allow the old road to descend to the track level. A level crossing was constructed at the intersection with the lane, and a cottage was built on the north side of the track for the crossing-keeper. In 1851, the crossing was manned by Joseph Goldsborough. Immediately to the north of the crossing-keeper’s cottage was a long row of cottages running parallel to the lane. It is likely that they were built sometime after 1837, following Crompton Stansfield’s purchase of the land on the west side of Dixon Mill Lane. Prior to this time the land had been owned by a wealthy Bramhope man, Christopher Driver. By 1837, it had passed into the hands of a John Morley of Dishforth, and it was Morley who sold it to Crompton Stansfield. Salt’s deed of purchase says that there were eight cottages in the row, though the census, taken in March 1851, shows that there were 11 families living in the houses. The heads of the households included a clothier, three wool combers, a cloth miller and a cloth fuller, all of whom, presumably, would have worked in the nearby mill. There was also a maltster, who might have worked in any of the many beer-houses in Shipley, two stone-quarrymen, who would probably have worked in the quarries off ‘Saltaire Rd’ and two coal miners, who may have worked in the pits of nearby Moorhead and Northcliffe. One of the cottages was occupied by a William Craven, who had nine children, which, along with his wife, meant that there were 11 people in that one small cottage. 10 Dixon’s Mill yard -The path to the stepping stones Beyond the cottages, a swing-bridge carried the old lane over the Leeds and Liverpool canal. (The base of this bridge can still be seen on the south bank of the canal, just to the east of the present canal bridge) Dixon Mill Lane, being, presumably, part of an ancient cross-valley route between Shipley, Baildon and Eldwick, was a public bridle way and public right of way. Once over the canal the public pathway led through Dixon’s Mill yard, and then towards the river bank, where a set of stepping stones allowed traveller to cross the river. (The public right-of- way is shown on the above plan by the black line) Once on the Baildon side, the traveller would then have had to wade through a shallow ford, before fully gaining the northern bank. The most famous user of these stepping-stones was the Airedale Poet, John Nicholson, who drowned at this spot in April 1843, while crossing the river, on his way to Eldwick. 11 The second Dixon Mill Lane A short time after Titus Salt had completed the purchase of this land he started the construction of a new road, that ran, more or less parallel to the old Dixon Mill Lane. In order to complete this new road, which initially became the second Dixon Mill Lane, Salt also built a set of bridges over the railway, the canal and the river. Prior to this he obtained permission from the Quarter Session Magistrates to close the public right of way on the old lane and stepping stones and transfer the rights to his new lane and bridges. (The above plan, incidentally, gives a slightly misleading impression of these roads, due to the fact that the original plan was folded and crumpled, and proved impossible to smooth out when taking the photograph of it). Salt must have recognised the necessity of constructing a new road and building bridges over both the canal and the railway, in order to facilitate the expected heavy traffic following the opening of the mill, and avoid the obvious problems of using the level crossing and a swing-bridge, 12 However, the cast-iron bridge over the railway line required the approval of two railway companies before it could be built: “We the Leeds and Bradford Railway Company being the owners and We the Midland Railway Company being the occupiers of land over and near which the Extension of the Leeds and Bradford Railway from Shipley to Colne passes, being part of the lands described in the plan hereunto annexed, through and over which part of a certain highway lying between the Shipley and Bramley Turnpike Road and the River Aire is intended to be diverted and turned, in consideration of Titus Salt of Crownest in the township of Hipperholme cum Brighouse in the Parish of Halifax in the West Riding of the County of York Esquire, his heirs or assignees, making and for ever hereafter maintaining such new Highway and the bridge by means of which the same is to cross the said railway, Do hereby consent to the making and continuing such new highway through and over the said Lands and Railway Given under our respective common seals this twenty eighth day of April One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two”. (QS1/191/10) The construction of the new road would have involved the demolition of the cottages lining the old lane, and the relocation of their tenants. It is not known what happened to the majority of these people. Census records show that by 1861 one of the hand wool-combers, Mr Else and his family, had moved to Briggate in Windhill; while Mr Goldsborough, the level-crossing keeper, had become a gardener, working at Holling Hall, at the top of Moorhead Lane. The corn miller, Mr Pickard, who had been living in Dixon Mill yard, was in the same occupation in 1861, though now living in Providence Rd, at nearby Dockfield. 13 In order for the new road to go over the railway, at the height required to allow rail traffic to pass safely under the bridge, an embankment had to be constructed to raise the road. This embankment appears to start just north of Caroline Street and increases in height as the road approaches the railway, while at the same time allowing the road to drop very gently, at the rate of seven feet between Caroline Street to the start of the bridge. The rear of the lower Victoria Road shops The extent of this ramp can best be seen by looking from Albert Terrace along the rear of the Victoria Rd shops, and noting the differing heights of the basements (see illustration above). The natural fall of the hill can be seen in the slope of the back lane. The road on the north side of the railway bridge is supported on a much shorter ramp, designed to carry the road down at a steeper angle to bring it down to the level of the mill yard within a short distance. The canal was then crossed by another new bridge, 68 feet long. (Evidence of the canal company’s approval for the canal bridge, which would have been required, has not, as yet, been located). 14 The First Bridge across the river Once across the canal, the new road was carried over the river by a new, 450 ft. long, bridge, which crossed the river at a 30-degree angle to the road. There appears to be no logical reason for the decision to build the bridge at an angle, as it would have been a much narrower span if the bridge had crossed the river in a straight line, and there is no doubt that by this time Salt owned the land directly opposite. The bridge was a type of tubular girder bridge. That is, a bridge that was not a fully enclosed box, but where the tubular element was in the sides of the bridge and consisted of narrow hollow sections locked together by a hollow box on top of each side. As can be seen in the illustration below, the box-type top sections of the two sides are a feature of the bridge. Although there is no evidence to prove it, it is possible that the bridge was designed by William Fairbairn, who had played an important part in the construction of the mill. It is known that Fairbairn had done much of the early research into the structural properties of wrought iron, the material used in the construction of the bridge. The only known fact about this first bridge is that it was constructed by Messrs. Butler of Stanningley, a firm of bridge builders. 15 First Bridge-print The print above is of that first bridge, though the angle of the view gives the appearance that the bridge is straight. We know that it is the first bridge because of its stone piers. (This print differs from the plan submitted to the Quarter Session Magistrates, shown on page15, in that it only shows four buttresses; one on the north bank of the canal, one on the south bank of the river, one in the middle of the river and one on the north bank of the river; while the plan suggests that there were as many as six, with a double pair on the north bank of the river, and an extra one between the canal bank and the river bank). Following Salt’s application to the county authorities, two West Riding magistrates, Benjamin Thompson and Richard Dyneley Chamberlain came to Shipley in May 1852, to survey the existing arrangements, and to assess the planned changes. They reported back to the Quarter Sessions on the improvements that the new road and bridges would bring compared to the old lane and stepping-stones. “ … and we certify that the said proposed intended new highway or part of a highway is nearer and more commodious to the public … as it crosses the said River Aire by a wide and permanent bridge, whereas the (existing) highway … crosses the said River Aire by a ford and stepping- stones, and is often attended with danger and is altogether impracticable 16 in consequence of the flooding of heavy rain during a considerable part of the winter months … and that the said proposed bridge is of the width th of 27 feet.” (5 May 1852: QT3/4/11) This was followed by: “It is ordered that so much of the said mentioned highway (which leads_ from the town of Shipley …. (over) the ford and stepping stones over The River Aire … (is to be) diverted and stopped up... And in its place a new highway is to be set out and made”. rd (3 July 1852: QT3/4/11) Approval for the stopping up of the old lane and the transfer of the public right of way onto the new road and bridge was sought and given at a sitting of the Quarter Session magistrates at Bradford in June 1852. Although the records show that the road and the bridge were not officially passed for public use until October 1855, it is almost certain that both were in use prior to this time. The first bridge across the river stood for about 12 years. It was then demolished, and a new bridge was built to replace it. There is little information concerning the demolition and re-building. One of the few newspaper references to the changes taking place is a newspaper report referring to an incident in May 1868, when a man, named Henry Wood, working on the demolition of the old bridge, was killed. The accident was witnessed by Titus Salt Jr, who happened to be observing the work at the time. Construction of the new bridge, 327 feet in length, and running straight across the river this time, commenced in 1867. It was completed in 1868. The new bridge was supported by cast-iron columns. The reason for the replacement of the stone buttresses with hollow, cast-iron tubes is not known. It is more than likely that the top section of the old bridge was used in the new bridge, as old photographs show that the new bridge was also a tubular girder bridge. These old photographs also imply that the caps of the supports were re-used, though they were removed some time before this second bridge was demolished. 17 Reconstruction of the two Dixon Mill Lanes relative to Victoria Road It is important to realise that the new road that Titus Salt constructed to replace the original Dixon Mill Lane was not the Victoria Road that exists today. Using the plans from the various Salt applications to the Quarter Sessions and an undated plan of the village by Lockwood and Mawson, showing the village superimposed onto the early field layout of the site, it is possible to make a reasonable calculation for the line of the two roads that preceded Victoria Road. In the plan above, the outline of the original Dixon Mill Lane is shown in purple, while Salt’s first road, which became the second Dixon Mill Lane is shown in green. The top part of the original Dixon Mill Lane is now covered by the first few dozen yards of Exhibition Rd. It then ran across the area now occupied by the end houses of Titus St and Mawson St, the rear of Victoria Hall, and the middle of Lockwood St, finally, it ran under the site of the later Congregational Church Sunday School, now the Caroline St car-park. 18 The second Dixon Mill Lane started at the end of Harold Place, then cut through the site now covered by Titus St, Mawson St and the middle of Victoria Hall, before straightening up about the end of Caroline St. The remaining part of the present-day Victoria Rd, from the junction with Caroline St, down to the river, is the surviving part of that second Dixon Mill Lane. The reason for the unusual line of this first road is not easy to interpret. It is possible that it was laid out simply as a temporary road, in order to allow heavy traffic to have easy access to the site during the construction of the new mill and village. Though why Salt did not have the road go straight up the hill from the start, given that he owned the land as far as the Shipley to Bramley Turnpike, now Saltaire Road, is something of a mystery. The terrace of shops between the railway line and Caroline St, fronting onto the present Victoria Rd, were built around 1854. At the time of the 1861 census they were described as being in ‘Victoria Street’, and they would have been the only buildings in the road south of the railway bridge. It would appear that the second Dixon Mill Lane was only in existence for around ten years. In August 1863, Titus Salt applied to the Shipley Local Board to have the southern portion of this 1853 road, between Caroline St and the turnpike road, closed, as he intended to integrate the northern portion into another new road that he had laid down. Having by this time purchased the land all the way up to the Bradford-Bingley Road. The Shipley Local Board were in favour of the scheme, though they had to get the formal approval of the West Riding Magistrates in order to confirm their decision. This was done in the Quarter Session meeting at Leeds in September of that year. The process of closing roads and transferring public rights of way allowed for public consultation and the right to object to the plans. The law required that notices of the intention of a change of use had to be posted at either end of the ‘old’ lane, and that duplicate notices were to be fixed to the door of Shipley Parish Church for four successive Sundays st after the 21 August. It was also required that notices be published in the local press. This had also occurred in 1852, in connection with the first road and bridge. The Bradford Observer ran the formal announcement about the changes in Saltaire for four weeks, from the last week in August through to the third week in September 1863. The records show that there were no objections from either Shipley or Baildon residents to any of the proposals that Salt had planned, and the transfer of rights to the new road went ahead as planned. 19 The new Victoria Road, showing its relationship to the second Dixon Mill Lane The new road was integrated into Dixon Mill Lane at Caroline Street. The legal closure of the southern section of the lane, (marked in blue on the above plan) allowed it to be eradicated and subsequently lost, by the development of the houses that constitute the eastern side of Victoria Rd, the building of which commenced in 1868, and the building of the Institute (later Victoria Hall), opened 1871. This same period also saw the development of the Alms houses and the hospital. 20 Shipley Purchase 1852 Towards the end of 1851, one year after the purchase of the Dixon Mill site, Titus Salt bought another set of fields running from the turnpike road down to the river, (shown in green on the above plan). He also bought two fields between the river and the canal at this time from Dr. John Outhwaite of Bradford. Now this situation is interesting, in that, as we can see, he now had two blocks of land, separated by another piece of land that he didn’t own. And it highlights another of the big questions regarding Saltaire. That is, why did Salt start building the mill and the village before he had bought all the land that he needed for the construction? We do know that house building for the village started in 1853. The first houses to be erected were in William Henry Street and the lower eastern side of George Street. Shortly after the first few houses had been built, work stopped for some time. There are various theories for this stoppage, though it did coincide with the period before he obtained the middle block of land, which he acquired from the Earl and Countess of Rosse, the lords of the manor of Shipley, in February 1854. Following the recommencement of the work, building then proceeded slowly, up, and across the hill, for the next 21 years, as and when the various blocks of land were purchased. The implication of this second purchase with a gap between it and the first block, is that either Salt must have been very confident about his future purchases, or he was very flexible concerning the final development of the village. It is known that there was an original plan for a much larger development than the one that took place, with the village stretching across both sides of the river. If this is evidence that Salt changed his mind at least once, 21 the implication is, therefore, that he could have changed his mind on several other occasions. Shipley Purchase 1854 - 1856 In the same year, 1854, Salt bought land on the south side of the Shipley to Bramley Turnpike Road from two members of the Denby family. This land would be used for the future development of Dove Street, Jane Street and part of Gordon Terrace. In 1857 Salt bought several plots of land between the railway and the canal from the Midland Railway Company. Shipley Purchase 1864 There was then a gap of a few years before he bought the next plot of land from a Thomas Chambers of Brighouse. This consisted of the land that lies to the east of the present Albert Road, (marked in yellow on the above plan). 22 But, even though by 1864 he now had virtually enough land for his village, he didn’t stop there. A couple of years later, in 1866, he bought the land on the south side of Saltaire Road, between the present Park Street and the rear of the top section of the present Victoria Road. Also, around this time he bought a large area of land to the east of his first acquisition from Matthew Wilson of Eshton Hall at Gargrave, one of the trustees of the estate of William Wainman of Cowling, whose family had owned Shipley Hall, now the Conservative Club in Otley Road. This new land stretched all the way down Saltaire Road to just beyond, what is now the Wycliffe Middle School, and included the site to the east of the school. Sir Titus sold the land for the school, following the 1870 Education Act. The school, which opened in 1876, was at first known as the Shipley Board School and later as Shipley Central School. In 1872, Sir Titus gave land to the east of the school to the Primitive Methodists, who built a large chapel on the site. Saltaire Road showing the Central School and the Primitive Methodist Church 23 Shipley Purchase 1871-74 That same year, 1872, Salt bought a large area of land to the east of Hirst Lane (coloured orange on the above plan), from the paper manufacturer, William Wright. The purchase also included Hirst Mill where Wright had had his manufactory. Much of this land was bought by Shipley Urban District Council in 1922 and used for the building of a new council estate. The land between the river and the railway was converted into playing fields and allotments around the same time. 24 In 1871, Salt had bought the very corner site at the junction of what later became Saltaire Road and Bingley Road. The buildings on the site, at the time of the purchase, consisted of a few cottages and a beer-house. These buildings may have included the old turnpike house, as this had been the junction of Shipley to Bramley Turnpike road and the Bradford to Keighley Turnpike, and there is some evidence of a chain bar being located in somewhere in this vicinity. But the absolute last piece in the jigsaw of Salts acquisitions of land required for the village, was the plot of land, on the eastern side of that corner plot. It had been owned by the Shipley Overseers ever since the enclosure in the 1820s and had been used for many years as a council yard, until Sir Titus obtained it from the Shipley Local Board in 1874. Corner Plot 1871-74 25 Gordon Terrace It was this final purchase that allowed Salt to complete the building of Gordon Terrace, Jane Street and Dove Street, the eastern sections of which had been built some 8 years earlier. This purchase marked the final stage in the building of the village of Saltaire, and indeed, the end of Salt’s land purchases in Shipley. In fact, Titus Salt died two years after this final purchase. The Salt’s mill company did acquire more land in Shipley after Titus Salt’s time, but that is another story. 26 BAILDON The origins of Titus Salt’s first purchase in Baildon lay in the decision of the Lord of the Manor, and the largest property owner in the township at this time, Miss Anna Jane Meek, to sell off the 750 acres of land, comprising her manor and farms in Baildon, in 1849. At the time of the sale, Miss Meek was in her seventies. In all probability, she had been born in Baildon Hall, but by this time she was not a Baildon resident. She lived in Kirk Hammerton, which lies between Harrogate and York, and so perhaps she had just lost interest in the area, or perhaps property prices were on the rise, and she decided to take advantage of the situation. Baildon Manor sale advert : Bradford Observer August 1849 27 In 1737, the lord of the manor of Baildon was Lt.Col. Francis Thompson. His Baildon lands included ‘Jowetts Farm’, now the eastern end of the Coach Road; ‘Hall Farm’, which spread from the banks of the River Aire and then up the hill between Cliffe Lane and Baildon or Barnsley Beck; ‘Brackenhall Farm’, on the Glen and the ‘Moor Farms’, better known now as Low Springs Farm, by the boundary with Hawksworth. The manor also included the possession of Baildon Hall and the Corn mill by Baildon Bridge. There were also a few isolated small farms and individual house properties scattered around the township. Thompson-Meeke-Meyer Family Tree Francis Thompson and his wife Nancy had one child Anna Jane, who had married a Paul Meyer of Pontefract in 1760. Following the death of Francis in 1741, in South America, at the battle of Cartagena, now in modern day Columbia, his widow, Nancy, married a William Meeke of Wighill Park, near York. They had a son also named William, who eventually inherited the Baildon manor and lands from his half-sister, Anna Jane, who was childless. But she left it to him, following her death in 1765, only on condition that he changed his name to that of her late husband, and he adopted the name of Meyer. th On the evening of the 18 October 1780, this same William Meeke, now William Meyer, shot dead a York court official named Joseph Spink. 28 It appears that earlier in the day Meyer had been arrested by the bailiffs of York for debt. The Sheriff of York had signed the warrant, as Meyer owed £82 in an unpaid debt to a James Beckwith, which suggests that, despite his apparent wealth, he was living beyond his means. Following the arrest, it was the intention of the officials to take Mr Meyer to the debtor’s prison on the Ouse Bridge. But he managed to persuade the bailiffs to let him remain in his lodgings in Micklegate, in order for him to try and arrange bail. So, the bailiffs left him in the care of two of their staff, one of whom was Joseph Spink. Sometime during the course of the evening, Meyer persuaded his wife to bring him his pistols from another room, and on acquiring them, he threatened his guards. As they were trying to run away, Meyer fired, and Spink was hit in the throat. (National Archives: ASSI 45/34/2) He died of his injuries the following day, and both Meyer and his wife were put on trial for murder. His wife was found not guilty, but William Meyer, who had claimed in his defence, that he had only meant to frighten the guards, and that the pistol had gone off by accident, was found guilty. He was sentenced to death, and subsequently executed at th the York Tyburn on the 6 April 1781. On his death William Meyer left a widow and two children, William and Anna Jane. William was only 9 years old when his father was executed, and it can be assumed that the family estates would have been held in trust for him until he reached legal maturity at twenty-one. What we do know is that practically the first thing he did when he finally came of age was to change his name, presumably to try and avoid the embarrassment of being connected to his notorious father. As the London Gazette for that month shows, on March 18th 1794 he legally adopted the name of Thompson. Although he had no blood connection to the Thompsons of Baildon, he claimed it was a means of honouring the old family whose lands he now possessed. On his death in 1839, he left everything to his sister, the second Anna Jane Meyer. Though by this time she had changed her name back to Meeke, in order to inherit from her Meeke grandfather. (London Gazette th 29 October 1839) And it was this Anna Jane Meeke who placed all her Baildon property up for sale in August 1849. 29 The auction, held in Bradford in October of that year, was not a complete success, and only part of the property was disposed of. The unsold land was then advertised for sale in the February 1850 issues of the Bradford Observer. And it was at this second sale that Titus Salt bought his first Baildon property, according to the date in the deed, in July of that year, 5 months before his first Shipley purchase of Dixon’s Mill. st 21 February 1850 Sales advert of Baildon property 30 Salt’s 1850 Purchase The first blocks of land that Salt bought in Baildon covered the area between Baildon Road and Cliffe Lane, as well as a large area of land between Otley Road and the river. While the block of land that Salt bought down by the river does not correspond precisely with the above sales notice, it is close enough in description and size to suggest that this is the land that was advertised in the auction notice. Now, it’s interesting to note that the February sales notice made specific reference to the riverside land being suitable for mill construction; and it raises the question of whether Salt might possibly have originally planned to build his mill and village on the Baildon side of the river. According to Balgarnie, Salt approached Lockwood and Mawson, the architects, in November of 1850, and told them that he had purchased land, ‘near Shipley’, and that he wanted them to do part of the work. He explained that the Shipley based architect and land agent, George Knowles was also to be involved in the project (p.91 Balgarnie’s Salt, Barlo and Shaw (Nemine Juvante (Saltaire Publications 2003). This story presents two problems. The evidence of the deeds suggests that Salt did not purchase the Dixon Mill site until the end of December, also, as far as I am aware, there is no evidence that George Knowles had any connection with the Dixon Mill purchase. He did, however, have some connection with at least some of the land that Salt purchased in Baildon, as he was a partner of Bailey Blackburn (see below). 31 There is, therefore, just a hint of suspicion that the land that Salt was referring to when he went to see Lockwood and Mawson, was this land in Baildon. If this was the case, then it is likely that Salt only changed his mind when the more suitable location of the Dixon Mill site in Shipley, with its closer proximity to the canal and railway, came up for sale later that year. Of course, the real problem is our lack of knowledge on Titus Salt’s thoughts at this time. And I have to say that this is simply a speculative idea on my part. Although, what else he might have wanted this land for, given that, subsequently, he did nothing with it within his own lifetime, suggests that the theory might be worth considering. Salts 1851-2-Purchase The year after his first purchase, Salt bought another large piece of land to the west of Otley Road. (This is the area marked in orange on the plan above. The area marked in black is the Midgeley Wood and Thompson Lane area, bought the following year from Richard Paul Amplett, the son in law of the Ferrands of Bingley, who had originally owned the land.) This riverside land had been part of Miss Meeke’s first sale, and had originally been bought by Bailey Blackburn, a Bradford chemist and land speculator, who lived in Baildon. George Knowles appears to have advertised this land for sale in June th 1850 (see Bradford Observer 27 June 1850), though Salt did not purchase the land until September 1851. According to Cudworth, Blackburn sold this land to Salt for £10,000, which was twice the amount he had paid for it a year earlier. 32 The new and old Green Lane 1851 A short time after buying the river-side land, Salt had a new road cut through from Otley Road up to the sharp right-hand corner of the old Green Lane. This new road replaced the old, narrow lane, that for some reason didn’t suit Mr Salt. The laying out of this new road, does suggest that Salt was planning something in the area, and it has been suggested that he had intended to build a house, and create a parkland along the riverside. The original Baildon Green Lane was a public right of way, and in 1852, Salt applied for permission to transfer that right onto his new road and eliminate the old lane. 33 Baildon-1856-Purchase In 1856, Salt bought the small wooded hill to the north-east of Green Lane, called Fairbank Wood, along with the associated farm. The Knoll In 1862 he sold this land to Charles Stead, a manager and later a director of the mill who built a house called ‘The Knoll’ at the highest point in the wood. 34 Baildon-1855-62-Purchase In 1855, Salt had bought a small group of cottages and orchards at the junction of Cliffe Lane and Otley Road. But in 1862 he transferred most of this land and the land to the north of it to his son Edward, who had the house he called ‘Ferniehurst’ built on the site. Ferniehurst 35 There are no known photographs of Ferniehurst, but as can be seen from the OS map above, it was a substantial house. It had formal gardens, several large glass-houses and from the lodge in Baildon Road, a long winding drive through a private wood. Even though Salt was buying a lot of land during this period, he also occasionally sold some. Throughout 1856 and ’57, he was selling off small plots of land around the area of Green Lane and Cliffe Lane, to various private individuals. Following these sales, several private houses, and terraces were constructed in the area. Green Lane junction It may be argued that whatever his original intentions regarding his Green Lane and Otley Road purchases, Salt had changed his mind, and he was getting rid of some of his surplus land. He did however, remain committed to most of the land lying to the west of Otley Road. A few years after laying out the new Green Lane, Salt started the construction of another brand-new road, leading from the corner of Green Lane to the bottom of Victoria Road. The plan above shows the first section of the new road, with the old riverside path highlighted in blue. And the plan below shows the continuation of the new road as far as the bridge. 36 Coach Road 2-1863 The plan above shows the continuation of the new road as far as the bridge. I also shows the relationship between Salt’s new mill and the old Dixon’s Mill. The junction of the road and bridge may look slightly strange, compared to the present Coach Road, but it’s only because there was a re-alignment of this western end of the road, when the new straight bridge was put across the river, and a new link to the bridge had to be made. It’s interesting to note that in all probability, this road, which was nearly 1 mile long, was built simply as a private carriage road to allow Salt’s son, Edward, and his manager, Charles Stead, to travel to the mill easily, rather than going around and through Shipley. And of course, he also built an extension to this road following the purchase of Milner Fields, for the benefit of Titus jnr., all of which seems to be an indication of the extravagance of Salt at this time. Having completed this eastern section of the Coach Road, Salt applied to have the ancient public right of way transferred from the river-side path up onto his new road. This meant that although the Coach Road was a private road, pedestrians and horse riders had the legal right to use it. 37 Gate house Old photographs show gates at the corner of Green Lane and the Coach Road, and there were also gates at the bottom of Victoria Road, But they were only there to stop the unauthorised entry of commercial vehicles, who needed permission to access the road and the bridge. However, various farmers and other property owners who lived within this area had certain legal rights of access, and they did have the right to use the new road and the Victoria Road bridge. The removal of the legal entitlement to use the old riverside path meant that it could now be closed, leaving the land free for some form of development, though we now know, this never happened in Salt’s lifetime. There are, of course, sections of this path still surviving on the side of the river between Otley Road and the Victoria Road bridge. Though it can be assumed that they are not officially public rights of way anymore, and their survival is presumably just a matter of luck. 38 Baildon-1865-6 purchase In 1865 Salt bought two fields just below Walker Wood, from the Dawson family of Baildon Green (marked in light green on the plan above). The following year, Richard Paul Amplett sold Salt the two Trench Farm properties. Their fields ran from the lower section of the future Saltaire Park, right up to the boundary with Bingley at Load Pit Beck (This land is marked in orange). Now these, at least as far as I have been able to identify, were the final acquisitions that Titus Salt made within Baildon. It is possible that I have missed some of the purchases while searching the indexes at Wakefield; and I should point out that, there is just one field in the centre of this picture that I have not been able to prove was bought during Titus Salt’s lifetime, though it almost certainly came into the possession of the family at some point in time. It’s also possible that his sons bought more land either before or after Titus’ death, but that is something that I have not gone into up to the present time. But what I have been able to show is that Titus Salt himself, bought at least 250 acres of land in Baildon, over a period of 16 years; and this compares with just over 100 acres that he bought in Shipley. 39 The western Coach road The western section of the Coach Road, was constructed sometime before 1870, following the purchase of the Milner Fields estate, which, of course, is in Bingley, and outside the scope of this study. The green-arrowed track on the above plan shows the line of this new road, cutting through the fields towards the eastern entrance to the Milner Fields estate. The closed lanes In March 1870, following the completion of this new road, Titus Salt applied to the Baildon Local Board of Health to close several old paths running between the bridge at Saltaire and Load Pit Beck. These are shown in green on this plan. And just as on the eastern section of the road, he wanted the old rights of way transferred onto his new road. 40 Interestingly, the public right of way on this side of the bridge was not on the river-side path, but on the lower of the two paths leading up to the Trench Farms. I can only assume that this change had been made when th the farms were built in the 18 century. After passing between the two farms, the public path then returned back down to the river-side path, which leads on towards the Seven Arches. For some reason, Salt decided to restrict access to the two Trench properties, and that section of the old way that ran between the two farms was closed to the public. Western Coach Road - New Trench Road It was replaced by a brand-new lane leading up to the junction with the ancient pack-horse route between Baildon and Bingley (marked in green on the above map). Following the construction of the new lane, the top section of the old lane was removed. Approval for all these changes was given at the Quarter Sessions held in th Bradford on the 27 June 1870. 41 Saltaire Park It would have been about this time that Salt started to develop Saltaire Park, which was opened in July 1871. Interestingly, the park was laid out across part of the old lane leading from the stepping stones to the Trench farms. And that section of the old lane survives to this day (marked in green on the above map) in the form of the path that divides the cricket field from the higher terrace and formal gardens. 42 Green Lane junction-with houses As I mentioned earlier, much of the land on the top side of Green Lane and at the bottom of Cliff Lane, had been sold off in the late 1850s. These small-scale sell-offs continued, and in the early 1870s Salt sold most of the land, fronting Otley Road, between the bridge and Green Lane, and a terrace of houses were built on the site. The corner plot, though, was not sold until 1887, by Salt’s sons. BAILDON POSTSCRIPT As far as the land on the other side of Otley Road is concerned, with the exception of a few sales, Salt did practically nothing with the bulk of this site, and it was left to later generations to dispose of it. He had sold a large plot of land (A) (see below), at the south-western end to C.F.Taylor in 1862, and Taylor built a new mill on the site. While at the other end, he sold, or maybe he gave, the land for Charlestown cemetery,(E) which was opened in 1863. Though, for some reason the deed of transfer from Salt to the Airedale Cemetery Company, does not seem to have been made until 1871. The land for the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel had been sold to the Trustees in 1870. While the Midland Railway Company had bought the land required for the viaduct, in November 1874. Nothing much then seemed to happen to this area during the remainder of the Salt’s family involvement with the mill. 43 I have not been able to determine the sequence of events regarding the one field on top side of Otley Road (F), that had been part of Salt’s original purchase, and which is now covered by the bottom of Midland Road. In 1895, the Salt’s mill company tried to sell off all their undeveloped land in both Shipley and Baildon. But the planned disposal appears to have been a failure, because most of the land advertised in the sale notice of that year was left unsold. In 1898, though, William Butterfield bought one plot on this Charlestown site (B), on which he later built a galvanising works. Nine years later, he bought the neighbouring plot (C) in order to extend his business. The remainder of the land between Butterfields and the railway viaduct (D) was bought from the mill company by Bertram Roberts, the son of Sir James Roberts, in 1910. He gave the land to the people of Baildon for recreation purposes, and it came to be known as Roberts Park. The land then seems to have remained in Baildon’s possession until 1952, when the UDC sold it to Butterfields So, that is the story of Titus Salt’s property acquisitions in Shipley and Baildon, as far as I have been able to determine it. And, it brings us back to the original question. Why did he buy so much land on both sides of the river and left so much virtually untouched. It’s probably the case that we will never know why he did what he did, but it’s this kind of question that keeps the interest in the subject of the life and work of Titus Salt alive. 44 45
C3b-512: Saltaire village, Documents (Places)
Photocopy of: 'Selected Items from the Shipley & Saltaire Times 1876-1882'
Photocopy of booklet: 'International Fancy Fair - The Salt Schools, Shipley - 1896
Photocopy of booklet: 'Text on the History of the Salts Schools' (taken from E1a-080)
E1b-140a: Class from Albert Road School preparing for a coach trip to Morecambe
Class from Albert Road School preparing for a coach trip to Morecambe
Photograph of a class from Albert Road School preparing for a coach trip to Morecambe. The school went to Morecambe every year.
Albert Road School: Pupils dressed for coronation day in 1902
Albert Road School buildings, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
E1b-141a: Class from Albert Road School preparing for a coach trip to Morecambe
Photograph of a class from Albert Road School preparing for a coach trip to Morecambe
E1b-142: Class from Albert Road School preparing for a coach trip to Morecambe
1 Photocopy of a class from Albert Road School preparing for a coach trip to Morecambe with ID's
E1b-143a: Class at Albert Road School about 1914
Photograph of a class at Albert Road School c.1914. Shows Annie Thornton, of 31, Titus Stret, middle row on far right, Florence Houlden, middle row 3rd from left
Booklet: 'In The Shadow of the Rosse' by Ian Watson
F1a-191: 'The Alpaca - Its Introduction to Australia
'The Alpaca - Its Introduction to Australia
A paper read before the Society of Arts London by George Ledger. George Ledger was the brother of Charles Ledger the main importer of alpacas from Peru. The paper outlines the story of Titus Salt's involvement with the early production.
No copyright restrictions. Please acknowledge the work's author (if known) and the item's source
Original work out of copyright. Digital version courtesy of the State Library of Victoria, Australia
THE . ALPACA:^ ITS INTRODUCTION INTO AUSTRALIA, PROBABILITIES OF ITS ACCLIMATISATION THERE. A PAPER READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY OP ARTS, LONDON, GEORGE LEDGEE, ESQ. Itrpublisbrb bjr lljc gtacHmatisatioir Sociclji of Victoria., “ There is nothing in the world really beneficial that does not lie w ithin the reach of an informed understanding, and a well-directed pursuit/'— U ckke gttrlboHriu: t ) MASON & FIRTH, PRINTERS, 1G ELIZABETH STREET,. INTRODUCTION. In the last pamphlet issued by the Acclimatisation Society, a rapid survey was taken of numerous animals capable of introduction to countries not yet supplied with them, and calculated to add greatly to the prosperity or pleasurable occupation of such countries. In the present number one animal of that list is dealt with more at large, and one which, from what is already known of it. may be pronounced of inestimable value, and to Australia probably more than to any other country in the world. The narrative of Mr. L edger’s spirited, and now successful, enter­ prise in introducing the Alpaca to our shores, is likely shortly, it is understood, to assume a more complete and elaborate form. In the meantime, the particulars furnished to his brother in London, and by him laid before the Society of Arts, will be read with interest by those principally conccrned in the successful result of that great undertaking. The Alpaca may now be considered permanently established amongst us, and furnishes one notable example of the invaluable additions to our live stock, that, by a judicious system of acclimatisation, may be culled from the enormous list of 140,000 different animals, from which we are assured on the best authority that we may select. In this paper it is predicted that in fifty years an export of nine millions sterling in alpaca wool will be established from Mr. L edger’s flock alone. But, as tending greatly to hasten the day at which such a result is attained, it is important to know that .already a gentleman has arrived in Melbourne, representing an influential commercial house in Peru, which has obtained “ concessions” from the Peruvian and Bolivian Governments for the exportation of 1,500 animals, and who is making arrangements to negotiate their introduction to these colonies. All accounts, to the most recent, are in the highest degree favor­ able to the project of establishing this animal in Australia. The flock introduced into New South Wales has increased from 283 in 1859 to 417 in 1861. The small herd in the Melbourne gardens has increased from 19 in 1859 to 45 in 1861, and in either flock casualties are almost unknown. Tho most favorable accounts have also been received of ten introduced in 1859 into Queensland, and referred to in this pamphlet. “ No deaths had occurred, and the increase exceeded the most sanguine expectations.” In a recent communication, Mr. L edger states that, having several months since depastured a portion of his animals on lucerne, a portion on clover, and a portion on the natural grasses—that fed on the indigenous pasture was unquestionably in the highest and healthiest condition. One of those lately slaughtered for the Great Exhibition contained 22 lbs. of inside fat. Mr. L edger also states that the superior pasture, and more scien­ tific tending of the Alpaca in Australia, produce a finer, larger, stronger, and in every way superior animal to any ever produced in * South America; that the staple of wool is excellent, owing to the non-existence of such extraordinary transitions -of climate as the animal is subject to in South America—three months of abundant grass, .and nine of mere scanty pickings. One fleece sheared in Sydney, of twenty-one months’ growth, weighed 2G lbs. The great adaptability of the Alpaca to Australia is remarked upon owing to its being a Irowsimj animal as well as a grazing one. It> feeds eagerly on shrubs and trees, and, if deprived altogether of grass, would subsist easily upon tho coarser plants constituting our ordinary “ scrubs.” The flesh was recently experimented upon in Sydney, and favor­ able reports were made by the several hundreds who tasted it. To the successful acclimatisation among us of this animal and its congeners, the Llama and Vicuna, the Society look therefore with the greatest interest. It is impossible to say of what value it may become in after years, not certainly as superseding the sheep or any other stock now depasturing amongst us, but rather as feeding over the sheep’s head, eating herbage that nothing else will cat, and from its little use of water being adapted to occupy millions of acres unfit for any other purpose. Indeed, it is of the utmost importance to recollect that it is quite possible that it may devolve upon Australia to develop this animal to a degree never yet imagined. It has been hitherto virtually mono­ polised by the South American Indian, one of the most uniinproving of all the races of mankind, the most beset by traditionary prejudices and ridiculous superstitions, calculated in every way to cramp the intellect and prevent improvements. It remains to be shown wliat may be done with animals like these, now to be subjected for the first time to the same treatment that has effected such wonders with the Leicester, Lincoln, or South Down sheep, the short-horn ox, the thorough-bred horse, and other domestic animals long since brought under our control. 2 larly the llama and the alpaca, appeared to partake of the properties of the camel and the sheep. I notice the guanaco first, because it is the largest of these animals, but, as it is scarcely to bo called a wool-producing animal, the supply being insignificant, and little or none of it being exported, X shall very shortly dismiss it from consideration. The region between the Andes, or Eastern Chain, and the Cor­ dilleras, or Western Chain, comprises a vast plateau, or rather many table lands, about 12,000 feet above the level of the sea, which is called by the natives “ Puna.” The surface is principally covered with a short fine grass, and there are many hilly pastures ; and here are found the llama, and the alpaca, the guanaco, and the vicuna, but they are not confined to this region. In summer the flocks of llamas and alpacas are driven to an elevation of 15,000 to 10,000 feet, and in winter to an elevation of 12,000 to 14,000. The guanaco ranges over a greater extent of country than either of the other species, being found on the immense tracts of table land as far south as “ Terra del Fuego,” and north to the slopes of the towering Chimborazo; in appearance it very much resembles the llama, although nearly half as large again—the wool is much shorter, coarser, and intersected jwith hair, and worked up by the Patagonians and Aurocano Indians into blankets, ponchos, ifcc., while its skin is used as a quilt. The meat is the best of the class, and is highly esteemed. It is very seldom domesticated. The vicuna, like tho chamois, inhabits the highest tracts of land; it is the smallest but most graceful animal of either of the species; its flesh is principally used very slightly salted, dried in tho sun, frost, and wind, under the name of charque, although it is not so much esteemed as the flesh of the guanaco or the llama. Its wool is finer and more valued even than that of the alpaca, but its yield is very small, seldom, if ever, exceeding a pound a year. My brother informs me he has succeeded in producing a cross between tho alpaca and the' vicuna, which is termed the paco-vicuna, and that its wool partakes of the peculiar softness and superior fineness of the vicuna, and the greater length of staple of the alpaca. I have also heard from gentlemen who have spent many years in Peru, Chili, <kc., that tho curate of San Antonio, a small town about 40 leagues from Puno, has also succeeded in producing a similar cross, even to the second and third generations, which produce a splendid wool; this reverend gentleman has, I am given to understand, received from the Peru­ vian Assembly a vote of thanks, and his portrait decorates the walla of the museum of Lima, amongst the tho Viceroys of Peru, with an inscription declaring him to have deserved well of his country; ✓ 3 and I believe he enjoys a pension of £120 from the Peruvian Government. Although the quality of the vicuna wool stands so high in tho estimation of manufacturers, the quantity is so small that I have not been able to obtain any record of tho amount brought within the circle of commercial operations, a large quantity being consumed in the country in the manufacture of ponchos, sombrGros, &c. The skins are brought to this country with the wool upon them. The llama, the larger and least valued of tho domesticated animals, about the size of tho red-deer, partakes somewhat of the nature of tho Arabian camel. Like tho camel, it is used a3 a beast of burden ; like the camel, it can live many days without water, but it is more useful than the camel, inasmuch as its flesh is used for food, and, when young, is Bavoury and nutritious; and its wool for clothing, and other useful purposes—to a much greater extent than that of its Arabian compeer. From the earliest periods to which even Peruvian records extend, it appears the llama has been used as a beast of burden; its load is generally from GOlbs. to lOOlbs., and 1501bs., and its rate of travelling about three to five leagues a day; it is driven in flocks of sometimes as many as 500 to 1000, and requires little trouble from the drivers, one of tho oldest and most experienced leading the way, and the others following. The organisation both of the llama and the alpaca is admirably suited to the nature of tho country they inhabit. Tho eye, from its size and shape, indicates the possession of a strong and quick sight, and also enables them to bear the reverberation of the rays of tho sun from the sand and snow; the sole of tho foot is guarded by a cushion, and the toes armed with hard and curved nails, which en­ able them to climb with ease steep and craggy places ; the construc­ tion of the mouth and teeth enables them to cut short grass upon the ground, while, joined to the length of neck, and with the aid of the tongue and cleft lip, they can reach and cull herbage growing in interstices of rocks as well as tho tender shoots of tall shrubs. Tho division of the stomach into compartments enables them to retain both food and water, and to use tho latter iot the assistance of tho process of mastication, or to allay thirst. The number of these animals employed in Peru and Bolivia in the carriage of barrilla, grain, wool, bark, ores, and other products from the interior to the. coast, my brother estimates at over GOO,000, and for the interior communication between town and town, mines and amalgamating establishments, with ore and fuel, at double that number, giving 6 total of 1,800,000 so employed. B 2 \ 4 The llama wool is principally consumed in the country—very little being exported; it is used for sacking in the transport of grain, flour, <tc. About 2,000,000 lbs. are annually consumed in this way. The “ soga,” or cord, by which the load is secured to the back of the animal, will consume'annually another 2,000,000 lbs. Many and varied are the articles manufactured from the llama wool—cordage, carpets, bed coverlets, bags and sacks for various purposes, taking perhaps 2,500,000 lbs. Tho alpaca wool is of greater value and more certain in its demand, so that the llama wool is more used in tho country. Those used as beasts of burthen are never shorn, their wool serving the purposes of a pack The meat of the llama is highly nutritious; the Indians kill off the old ones of their flocks from time -to time during the year. T he A lpaca. The alpaca stands about i feet in height, and is of inferior size to the llama, the size of a full-grown deer, producing a much finer and longer fleece. Tho Indians hold for this animal a superstitious reverence, and most firmly believe that any sufferings the animals may undergo, on being driven off their pasture-grounds, will be visited on them and theirs. In the 16th century, and even from tho remotest times, the Peruvians, being comparatively (to the other tribes of the great continent of America) a civilised people, and well acquainted with the arts of spinning and weaving, fabricated from alpaca wool textures of much delicacy and beauty, which were highly prized as articles of dress. And that the use of them had prevailed for centuries, is proved by the opening of very many of the “ Huacas” or ancient tombs of the Peruvians, in which the dead had been enwrapped in stuffs made from the fleece of the alpaca. The wool having risen in value, and become an article of so much demand, little or none is at present manufactured in the country, or has been for the*last 25 or 30 years. Its fleece is superior to that of the sheep in length and softness, averaging 7 to 9 inches, and sometimes it is procured of an extraordinary length. The fleeces, when annually shorn, range from 7 to 10, 11 and 12 lbs. Contrary to experience in other descriptions of wool, the fibre of the alpaca’s fleece acquires strength without coarseness ; besides, each filament appears straight, well-formed, and free from crispness, and the quality is more uniform throughout the fleece. There is also a transparency, a glittering bright­ ness enhanced on its passing through the dye-vat. It is also distin­ guished by softness and elasticity, essential properties in the manu­ 5 facture of fine goods, being exempt from spiral, curly, and shaggy defects; and it spins easily when treated properly according to tho present improved method, and yields an even, strong and true thread. Notwithstanding the remarkable quality and beauty of the alpaca wool, it was long before its value was appreciated in Europe. According to tho best authorities, the first person in England who produced a marketable fabric made from this material was Mr. Benjamin Outram, a scientific manufacturer, of Greetland, near Hali­ fax, who, about the year 1830, surmounted with much difficulty the obstacles encountered in spinning the wool, and eventually produced an article which sold at high prices for ladies’ carriage shawls and cloakings; but their valuo arose more frpm being rare and curious articles than from intrinsic worth. These were, it is well established, quite destitute of the peculiar gloss and beauty which distinguish the alpaca lustres and fabrics of later times, and after a short period the manufacture was abandoned. To Mr. Titus Salt, of Bradford, mu3t, undoubtedly, be awarded tho high praise of finally overcoming the difficulties of preparing and spinning alpaca wool so as to produce an even and true thread, and, by combining it with cotton warps, which had then (183G) been im­ ported into the trade of Bradford, improving tho manufacture, so as to make it ono of the staple industries of the kingdom ; he has, by an admirable adaptation of machinery, been enabled to work up the material with the ease of ordinary wool. And now, not only are alpaca goods produced in every conceivablo variety and style, but at .all prices, to suit tho means of all classes of tho community. Blended with silk thread, they have tho appearanco of fine lustrous satin; with figures and patterns thrown upon them in silk of different hues, they serve as admirable substitutes for figured silks, both for ladies’ dresses and for waistcoatings, whilst with cotton woven amongst its fibres, the article may bo sold at such a moderate price as to bring it within the reach of the most humble. Gentlemen are provided by mean3 of this fabric with waistcoating as cool as any cotton, yet rich and lustrous as any silk. Dwellers in tropical climates are thankful to possess a black coat which, while it has the appearance of broad-cloth, is not a fourth of its weight. Most of the alpaca wool taken into tho United Kingdom is unshipped at Liverpool, but a small portion is also carried to London. At these two ports, it may be asserted, the whole import is landed. It arrives in small bales, weighing 60, 100, 150 lbs., the first put up for llama carriage, the second for donkey carriage, tho third for mule carriage. Dating from the year 1834, when the importation of alpaca wool 6 sprung up as a permanent branch of commerce, the demand has been a growing one, the quantity imported being in :— lbs. lbs. 1834 ... 5,700 1839 .............. ... 1.325,500 1835 ... ... 184,400 1840 .............. ... 1,650,000 1830 ... ... 199,000 1811.............. ... 1,500,000 1837 ... ... 385,800 1842.............. ... 1,443,299 183S ... ... 459,300 Since the year 1843, the returns of alpaca wool imported into Great Britain are of a more reliable character. The following table has been drawn up from data furnished by the Board of Trade:— • lba. lbs. 1843 ..........................1,45S,032 1852 ... .............. 2,008,594 1844 .......................... 635,357 1853 ... .............. 2,148,267 1845 .......................... 1,261,905 1S54 ... .............. 1,267,513 1846 .......................... 1,554,287 1855 ... .............. 1,446,707 1847 .......................... 1,527,300 1856 ... .............. 2,974,493 1848 .......................... 1,521,370 1857 ... .............. 2,359,013 1849 . ........................ 1,655,800 1858 ... .............. 2,688,133 1850 .......................... 1,052,295 1859 ... .............. 2,501,634 1851 ..........................2,013,202 The bulk of these importations have been consumed in England, and the quantity re-shipped for tho Continent has been comparatively trifling in amount. We must yet allow some 500,000 lbs. shipped annually from Peru to France and Germany. In 1836, the price was 8d. per lb. During the last ten years, the price has fluctuated considerably, from Is. 8d. per lb. to 3s. Od. It may be interesting to inquiro 'whether this large supply will be continued, and I regret I am compelled to form the opinion that it ■will not, unless a change takes place in the manner in which the trade is conducted, unless justice and right are better observed, and unless tho Indians (shepherds and owners of flocks) are considered as, and treated as, brother traders, instead of mere producers of raw material. I am fearful the sudden increase of the demand was the cause of greater efforts being made to meet it, which have not been attended by a corresponding effort to increase the number of the animals. I fear the practice of the Indian not to shear tho female alpaca has been departed from, and a decrease in the flocks will result. It is true that tho attention lately drawn to the value of the wool of the alpaca may also lead to a more intelligent system of cultivation ; indeed, I learn from my brother that a friend of his, who in 1843 did not possess a single alpaca, in 1857 had 15,000 on a large estate held by him. I will give you an example of how the “ trade” is carried on. A party, by some means or other, procures tho appointment of “Gover- 7 nador” of a district, and quickly enters into a . contract with some mercantile establishment on the coast for a supply of say 500 to 1,000 quintals (100 lbs.) of alpaca wool at 50 dollars (Peruvian) per quintal. As soon as the contract is made, he orders tho appearance before him, on the day fixed, of all the “ Ylacatas,” chiefs or heads of communities, within his jurisdiction; he then apportions tho quantity of alpaca wool to be delivered by each, according to tho number of alpacas possessed by the community he represents; pay­ ment in full is then made in advance, at rates varying from 10 dollars to 15 dollars per quintal. The wool thu3 collcctcd is tightly pressed by the hands and feet into sacks, weighing 110 lbs., and tho Ylacatas are ordered to supply, in tho same manner, the requisite number of llamas for the carriage of the wool to its destination. Any resistance on the part of the Indians to supply the wool, and llamas for its carriage, is met by the Governador by imposition of most harassing gratuitous service to the state, such as repairs of roads, foot postmen, domestic servitude; and often by sending tho party guilty of desiring to do what he thought fit with his own, as a recruit to tho first regiment at hand, with “ official” recommendation to tho command­ ant thereof that effectually prevents the Indian for a long time, and often for ever, again entertaining tho dangerous and turbulent idea of opposing tho wishes of his Governador. Do not suppose that tho above is a sketch of an exception to the generality of those in autho­ rity over the Peruvian and Bolivian Indian—far, very far, from it; it is, indeed, the rule that actuates tho conduct of sub-prefect to turnkey downwards, in all the provinces of the interior of thoso countries where the Indian is to be met with. If the Indian sees tho Ylacata coming towards his hut, and, divining his intent, runs away to hide himself, he does not avoid his persecutor. On his return, he finds the money on the floor, or suspended in a bag from the rafters, with an intimation of the quantity of wool required at 10 to 15 dollars per quintal, and the time of delivery ; he cannot help seeing it, and is obliged to take it and supply tho wool. If he docs not, his alpacas are shorn, and even then, if there is not wool enough to make up tho quantity, he is put in prison to force him to pay tho deficit at the price contracted to the mcrchaut, and, if this is not paid, his flocks of sheep, alpacas, llamas, <fcc., aro sold to make up tho amount. As a beast of burthen tho alpaca is little used, tho Peruvian Indians have too much veneration for it, and would consider it a sacrilege so to use it. Europeans, however, occasionally make use of it, and, I believe, in the quicksilver mines of Huancavelica it is found nearly as useful as the llama, although the load it will carry is smaller. 8 The alpaca was formerly but little used for food by the Peruvian Indians; they seldom, if ever, killed it for the purpose, but would eat it when it died a natural death. Of course, when so obtained, it did not rank high. It has latterly been more used, and, when young, is by some considered delicate and nutritious. There is still another animal which demands my attention, and which is probably destined to play a considerable part in the future history of wool-producing animals. I mean the cross between tho alpaca and the llama, called machurgas, from “ machorra,” a Spanish word, meaning a barren sheep, of which there are frequent instances in Peru and Bolivia. Walton, in his work, says :— “ From the alliance a beautiful hybrid results, if possible, finer to the eye than either parent, and also moro easily trained to work, but, like the mule, it does not procreate in which he is confirmed by General O’Brien, who resided twenty years in Peru, ten of which he served as aide-de-camp to San Martin, tho Liberator, a great traveller on the Andes, and a landed proprietor and miner. Tho General says:— “ There is, however, a beautiful animal produced between the llama and alpaca, much handsomer in form and figure than either, also better adapted for work, but it does not breed. These are the animals I principally used at my mines to bring down the ores from tho mountains.” In some parts of Peru and Bolivia, these animals, I am informed, are known by the name of guarisso, which is derived from the Qui- chua Indian, and signifies a foul thing. I am not about to enter into a discussion on the vexed question of “ fixity of species.” I must leave this to be settled by others much more competent to deal with such scientific questions than I profess myself to be, but I must direct their attention to this fact, that tho opinions of Walton and O’Brien must now be considered as proved to have been entirely unfounded, my brother having bred animals to tho third generation, from female machurgas or guarissos, by revert­ ing back to the original alpaca stock on the male side. I find mention has been made of yet another animal, tho aviru, said to exist in immense numbers in Patagonia; but whether this is a new species, or a variety of the vicuna, has not yet been determined. A rug mado from its skins, by tho native Patagonians, was exhibited at a meeting of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, 18th May, 1857. It would, indeed, be surprising if animals, so useful to man in every­ way as the llama and the alpaca, producing him food, and clothing, both in the shape of skins and wool, and helping him in his labors* should not have created in tho conquerers of Pern and Bolivia, and their successors, a desire to transfer them to their own countries. Such has been the case; many have been taken to various parts of Europe—royalty led the van, nobility followed—but, as might have been, anticipated, the representatives of commerco have been most active. Time does not permit me to attempt any account of tho llamas and alpacas that have been introduced into this country and other parts of Europe, which, notwithstanding all tho care bestowed upon them, although they appear to breed, do not appear to have be­ come perfectly acclimatised. Thoy have been regarded as rare and cuijous animals, fitted for the ornamentation of tho parks of our nobility and gentry, than as an article of commerce. I will not here enter into a discusion of whether, under favorable circumstances, the alpaca might not be acclimatised in some parts of this country j I am rather inclined to the opinion that when we know more about it, and its peculiar habits and wants, it perhaps may. I am afraid tho main cause why it has not, and perhaps will not, thrive with us, is the humidity of our atmosphere, and dampness of our soil, as well as tho unsuitableness of our grasses for its sustenance. Its favorite food in its native country is'the ichu or ycho, a rushy kind of grass, of which it is immoderately fond, and which I believe is not found in this country. Many animals had been exported, and in 1844 tho British Consul at Arica was requested to send homo sixteen alpacas for her Majesty Queen Victoria, eight of which were shipped on board a vessel-of-war, and eight were brought to Liverpool by the Octavia. The day after their embarkation, General Yguain (then Prefect of tho department of Tacna) was perfectly furious at their having been placed beyond his reach, and raked up an old decree of 1829, strictly prohibiting the exportation of alpacas under very severe penalties—but which had remained a dead letter, seldom, if ever, put into operation, and tho existence of which was almost unknown, and stopped the expor­ tation of a further flock of 40 alpacas intended for Germany, appealing of the Government at Lima to support his act, which resulted in a de­ cree of Congress, April 5,1845, prohibiting the exportation of alpaca3 in all the ports of Peru, imposing very severe penalties on those caught infringing tho law, which has been strictly enforced up to this day. This decree has not allayed, as it could not allay, tho desire to possess them; opposition often becomes the parent of determination, and when a thing is denied to us we often attach a greater value to it than it deserves, and become more intent on its possession, even when it is not worthy of the efforts we make to obtain it. 10 The vast success that had attended the introduction of the Merino sheep into our Australian Colonies, and the supposed suitability of its climate and vegetation to the alpaca, led to many attempts being made to introduce them there, but without success. My brother was led to consider a plan, which ho ultimately executed, of getting them out of the country, for which he was peculiarly qualified by his long residence (from 1836), his intimate acquaintance with the inhabitants of the interior, and their languages and customs, acquired by having been the representative of some of the first mer­ cantile houses in the country, in making contracts with the Indians for wool, bark, &c., and in frequent journeyings in their superin­ tendence. He writes thus :— “ Several times, from 1845 to 1848, 'were applications made to me by different parties to get alpacas out of the country, but as I well knew that •any such attempt must be attended by difficulties of no ordinary nature, 1 paid no attention to them. I began at that time to think that this valuable animal required being better known, and ita habits studied, hoping that in course of time the decree would be annulled, or some revolution in the country would enable me to get them out through a Peruvian port. In the beginning of 1848 I rented a large estate, Chulluncayani, on the frontier of Peru and Bolivia, and among other occupations, such as collecting wools, copper from Corocoro, and Peruvian bark, commenced breeding the alpaca ; little by lit­ tle I collected at first 200 ; all sorts of stratagems had I to make use of to obtain these, and then they were old and many infirm ones ; every means were devised by the Indians on the estate to prevent my breeding them, but after all, in 1851, I succeeded in being the possessor of more than GOO." In February, 1852, my brother entered into arrangements with a gentleman of Tacna to carry out the undertaking, and immediately started for his estate at Chulluncayani; and after giving directions that in December or January, when the fresh pasturage would begin to appear and render driving them practicable, they should com­ mence their journey towards tho frontier of the Argentine Confedera­ tion, he returned to Tacna, and went thenco to Valparaiso, from which port he embarked on the 24th of December for Port Phillip, en route for Sydney, for the purpose of ascertaining, from personal inspection, whether the country into which he was purposing to in­ troduce the alpaca was adapted for its naturalisation. In the follow­ ing March he landed at Twofold Bay, and, in company with a Peru­ vian gentleman who had accompanied him, made some excursions for about 12 leagues inland, which satisfied him that “the country was most admirably adapted for the alpaca.” On the 22nd of March he arrived at Sydney, where he “ became more and more satisfied as to the adaptability of the country for successfully rearing tho llama species. Here, as in South America, the climate is dry ; it matters not how much rain may fall (even for eight days consecutively), the rarity of the air is not affected by it j there may be, no doubt there is, I 11 a difference in the atmosphere immediately before and after heavy rains, but I contend no difference exists in the rarity of the air.” On the 21st May he left Sydney, arriving in Valparaiso July 3rd, where he was compelled to seek for a new partner in his enterprise, Mr.----- declining to go on with the matter, and even threatening to divulgo the plan to the Government, and succeeded in concluding an arrange­ ment with Messrs. Boardman, Dickson and Co. (with others), for carrying out his project. Peru was then at war with Bolivia, and the attention of the latter Government would naturally bo called to its northen frontier, leaving the southern one, through which my brother proposed driving his flock, without troops, and comparatively open to him ; accordingly, without delay, he went to Caldera, and thence to Copiapo, and commcnced his preparations for crossing tho Cordilleras to the province of Salta, in the Argentine Confederation, and thence into Bolivia, to endeavour personally to learn what had become of the animals he had directed, in the previous September, to bo driven in that direction from Chulluncayani. At Copiapo he again met with a Mr. Samuel W. de Blois, of Hali­ fax, Nova Scotia, a fellow passenger-from Sydney, who was desirous of seeing a part of the interior of South America, and he became his companion. Accordingly, on 17th September, 1853, my brother, Mr. Dc Blois, Pedro Cabrera, their guide, and Pablo Soza, as general servant, with 12 mules and two horses with bells to keep their mulc3 together, left Copiapo, much against the opinion of many friends, it being considered too early to attempt the journey, Pedro, hi3 guide, saying, “ Certainly it was early, but with good mules it might be done.” After encountering terrific storms of wind, drift snow and sand, and sustaining a loss of one horse and two mules, passing by the remains of a party of fifteen men and thirty mules that had perished two years before, besides fre­ quently being reminded of the dangers of their journey by the skele­ tons of mules, oxen and donkeys which clearly marked the road, on the 25th they attained the highest ridge, 12,000 feet above the level of the sea, and on the 27th they arrived at Sangil, or St. Gil, the inhabitants of which could hardly believe any person so adventurous as to attempt the passes so early in tho season. On ICth October they arrived at Salta, 240 leagues from Copiapo. Salta has a popu­ lation of 10,000, and the governor of tho province resides here. From Salta, Pedro was dispatched in search of the flock of alpacas, with directions to meet his master at San Christobal, distant 250 leagues, while my brother returned to Molinos with Mr. De Blois, with the intention of seeing him on his road back to Copiapo, and left him at Laguna Blanca, on November 8, 1853. From this date 12 to July, 1858, that of his arrival at Copiapo, with more than 300 llamas, alpacas, vicunas, and their cross products, my brother either procured from the Indians, or bred, great numbers of animals, more than 1,000 of which he succeeded in getting into the territory of the Argentine Confederation; but these numbers were being constantly reduced by the inclemency of the weather (losing 200 of them in one snow-storm), tho difficulty of obtaining food, and from his flock having drank of the water of a lake infested with leeches. A second time he was compelled to cross and re-cross the terrible Cordillera to obtain the necessary funds :— “ In January, 1854, it now became necessary for my proceeding to Salta, to receive tlio money that I expected Messrs. Boardxnan, Dickson and Co. would have placed there for me. On my arrival some eight days afterwards, I found that they, in lieu of sending funds, had determined to relinquish participation in tho speculation. Without hesitation, I immediately deter­ mined on proceeding to Valparaiso, and I accomplished the distance—240 leagues, or 720 miles—in nine days. I arrived just in time to catch tho steamer passing Caldera for Valparaiso, on the 10th February, and arrived in Valparaiso on the 12th. Since leaving Copiapo, on the 17th September, 1853, I had gone over more than 3,000 miles on mule back. Finding that Messrs. Boardman, Dickson and Co. were determined to have nothing more to do with the speculation, I soon camo to terms with Messrs. Waddington, Tern-, pieman and Co., for carrying out the undertaking.” It would occupy more time than is allowed to me to trace month by month, or even year by year, the dangers, privations, and vicissi­ tudes he, his shepherds, and his flocks, passed through, during these following four years. They trench on the romantic. His mules and donkeys were frozen to death; two of his shepherds, with their mules, were dashed to pieces, by falling over precipices; he was taken for a political spy, which idea he did not discourage, as it enabled him to keep his true purpose disguised. Twice ho was ar­ rested, and once had to defend his flock from forcible seizure. The loss of upwards of 200 of his flock from drinking of the water of a leech-infested lake, in the Calchaquies valleys, compelled him to seek a new spot in which he could habituate his animals by degrees to the kind of food he would bo compelled to depend upon for their maintenance during their sea voyage, and also to carry out a plan he had devised of improving tho wool of the llama by crossing with the alpaca. This spot was Laguna Blanca, “ one of the four valleys which commence from the high table-lands to the west of Tucuman up to the main chain of the Cordillera. It lies in about twenty- seven degrees south latitude, but is nevertheless surrounded by per­ petual snow, which crowns the mountain peaks enclosing the valley.” Being satisfied that he had at length found a desirable spot for the pro­ pagation of the species, not only did he at length acquire a new flock of alpacas, acclimatised to temperatures less pure and rigorous 13 than those in which their predecessors had been reared, but suc­ ceeded in educating them to a certain extent for the great voyage which lay before them. Ho built a hut of stones for himself and people, which furnished an indifferent shelter from tho inclemency of the weather. For the animals, largo yards were enclosed and pro­ vided with troughs, in which they were supplied with their daily rations of dry alfalfa, cut up and mixed with bran, to which they became gradually accustomed. On the arrival of tho flock at Co- piapo, after almost unexampled hardships, and a separation from his family of six years, in May, 1858, great excitement was excited by their novelty. The city was almost deserted for several days, tho people forming an uninterrupted procession between it and Punta Ncgra (a distance of six miles), where the flocks were at pasture. At length, in July, 1858, 322 animals were shipped at Copiapo, on • board tho Salvadora, of 750 tons. Respecting the manner in which these animals were got away, my brother says, “ In no way have I infringed a single law of either Peru or Bolivia—to break or infringe a law or decree of a Govern­ ment is one thing, to evade the intention is another thing. The decrees promulgated state that it is illegal to drive alpacas within a distance of 40 leagues of the sea-shore, and the penalty for so doing is the loss of tho animals ; and every person found with them, and the owners, although not with them, are condemned to ten years labour in chains on the Chincha, or Guano Islands. To smuggle alpacas out of Peru, if successfully accomplished, could be done in twenty days. To avoid being amenable to such law, is why I took such a round­ about way as getting the animals first into the Argentine provinces, and then into Chili for embarkation, in neither of which countries do such restrictions exist.” The fundamental principle of human society, laid down equally by statists and revealed law, is that “ tho profit of the earth is for all.” For the sake of peace—of the settlement of property and society—of political expediency and the comity of nations—that doctrine has, by the common consent of states, undergone modifica­ tion ; but the title of all mankind to inherit the common bounties of the Creator, and the varied gifts of nature, is still tho governing principle of political ethics. The Chinese war has by many been deemed sufficiently justified, on the ground that no people are en­ titled to seal up their territory from tho general intercourse of man­ kind, and to withhold the contribution of their peculiar products from the common stock of human enjoyment. Of all regions of the earth, that of South America is the most de­ pendent on other countries for useful products. When discovered, 14 it had neither horse, ox, sheep, or pig. All those have been pre­ sented to it by the Old World, and Peru requites those gifts by the positive prohibition of the export of its most valuable animal pro­ duct, thus refusing to mankind a participation in the benefits it i8 calculated to confer. The Government of Peru has not imposed a heavy tax on the ex­ port of the alpaca. It has not restricted it, confined it within stringent conditions, or regulated the export by irksome custom­ house regulations. My brother would willingly have paid any amount of taxation, or complied with any conditions the Government might impose, but it would make no terms, listen to no conditions, hear of no compromise. It insisted on the preservation of a mo­ nopoly of an animal whose produce was so useful to man, in viola­ tion of that impartiality of commercial intercourse which friendly nations were entitled to expect from its laws. It acted upon the anti-social and anti-mercantilo maxim, of appropriating exclusively to itself a gift and blessing intended for the common benefit of man­ kind. I say, unhesitatingly, that it is a much smaller breach of the strict law of political or commercial morality to evade, or even to break such a law, than it is to make it, and that the obligations of patriotism impelled my brother “ to do a right thing by doing a lit­ tle wrong,” in the evasion of a prohibition contrary to the laws of nature, and inimical to the interests of mankind. I may add, that if my brother’s act may be called by some, politically or commercially, not strictly moral, he at least sins in very respectable company. The introduction of one of the earliest flocks of Merino sheep into t h i 3 country was accomplished under very similar circumstances. George III., in 1787, determined to give them a fair trial, and a few from one flock and a few from another were collected in Estramadura, on the borders of Portugal, and as they could not be shipped from any Spanish port without a licence from tho King of Spain, they were driven through Portugal, and from thence conducted to tho king’s farm at Kew. On the 28th November, 1858, this flock, consisting of 276 ani­ mals, arrived at Sydney, and were immediately landed and temporarily located in the Government Domain. I find, by an official report from my brother to the Secretary for Lands and Public Works, dated 16th April, 1859, that the flock then consisted of:— 4G Malo alpacas, pure breed. 38 Female alpacas, pure breed. 110 Female llamas. 27 Females, cross-bred, between alpaca and llama, in first generation. 11 Females, cross-bred, between male alpaca and female, from first cross. 15 5 Females, cross-bred, between male alpaca and female, from Bccond cross. 40 Lambs of first, second, and third cross. 6 Male vicunas. 1 Female vicuna. 1 Male cut llama, carrier. 283 All much improved in condition since landing. After a short sojourn at the town Domain, tho flock was sent to Liverpool, about twenty miles from Sydney, until a permanent locality could be fixed upon for them. The idea of conferring on our Australian Colonies tho immense advantages anticipated to follow on the introduction of an animal so valuable as the alpaca, appears to have almost simultaneously presented itself to the minds of several individuals. Mr. Titus Salt, whose name is and ever will remain so intimately associated with this subject, might naturally be supposed to take a deep interest in it, and finding that the alpacas he had obtained from the late Earl of Derby, and from other sources, did not prosper here so well as he could wish, he sent two small lots to different parts of Australia, thus becoming, I believe, entitled to tho distinction of tho first introducer of the alpaca into our Australian Colonies. I find one flock of four arrived in tho Marshal Pelissier, at Adelaide, con­ signed to a Mr. Haigh, of Port Lincoln, in March, 1857, to whom they were immediately forwarded. Mr. Haigh mites, 7th Nov,, I860 :—“The alpacas are not doing well. They havo only increased one ; the rest have all died. Wo lost one the other day, about two years old; it was quite fat, and looked healthy.” The number was too small. In July, 1858, Mr. Salt sent out to Mr. Matthew Moorhouse, Riverton, South Australia, two male3 and three females. One of each sex died on the passage. The other females havo bred, but only one of the lambs has been reared. A Mr. Eugene Itoelin succeded in procuring a flock of llamas and cross-breeds, which he drove overland from Peru to Guayaquil, and thence to Panama. From Panama they were taken to New York, where Mr. Benjamin Whitehead Geo purchased them, and brought them to England, where they were exhibited at Glasgow and Birming­ ham, and then brought to Loudon, and depastured in a park at Ealing. Ten of these animals were purchased by Mr. George A. Lloyd, of London, and sent in June, 1858, to Sydney, whero they arrived 8th November, 1858, and produced £G00. This flock was sent on to Moreton Bay. I have not been able to learn how they get on—tho 16 much larger and more valuable flock of my brother has perhaps absorbed all interest on the subject. Twenty-three of Mr. Gee’s flock were purchased by a committee of Australian merchants (Mr. Edward Wilson, a name now well-known from his efforts in the acclimatisa­ tion of animals, birds, and fishes, Mr. Mackiunon, and Mr. Westgarth being among tho number), and shipped to Melbourne, where they arrived about February, 1859, and have, up to the present time, gone on excellently. (See Mr. C. Ledger’s report, 30th October, 1860.) While I thus cheerfully and willingly givo to those who have laboured in tho same field of industry, and yield to them the honour of priority in the introduction of the alpaca in Australia, I think my brother is justly entitled to the honour of being esteemed .the largest, the principal importer; I believe there is no record of an attempt at acclimatisation being effected on so large, so stupendous a scale, as that accomplished by him, and at so great a sacrifice of time, labour, and money. In endeavouring to estimate the capabilities of a country for the successful and profitable maintenance of an animal new to its history, we-must look first to its climate, and secondly to the food which it produces, and see if the one is suitable, and the other supplies what is required by the animal for its full development. An animal can­ not be regarded as perfectly acclimatised until it is demonstrated that it can live in the locality to which it is introduced, as well as in its native country; that its produce can bo turned to useful purposes ;■ and that agriculturists will find their advantage in rearing it on an extensive scale. I have already informed you that my brother wa3 convinced, by the somewhat hasty visit he made to Sydney, in 1853, of the adapt­ ability of the climate and pasturage of the country to the alpaca, and of this he became more and more impressed while they were depasturing at Liverpool. In May, 1859, the Government directed him to mako a tour of inspection into the interior, with the view of ascertaining tho most favorable part of the colony for depasturing the animals. He started in July. His report is# now before me :— '* THE SUPERINTENDENT OP ALPACAS TO THE SECRETARY POR LANDS AND PUBLIC WORKS. “ Liverpool, 23rd August, 1859. “ S ir ,— I d o m y self th e h o n o u r to la y b e fo re y o u a re p o rt o f m y to u r o f i n s p e c tio n o f a p o r tio n o f t h is c o lo n y , u n d e r ta k e n b y y o u r d ire c tio n , in s e a rc h o f s u ita b le c o u n try fo r p e rm a n e n tly lo c a tin g th e flo c k o f a lp a c a s , lla m a s , a n d v ic u n a s . “ In doing so, I beg to Btato that my own observations of tho capabilities of the country, or districts thereof, I visited for affording pasturage to the 17 flock, are confirmed by the opinion of a Peruvian gentleman who, with tho sanction of the Government, accompanied me on my tour. “ I started from Liverpool on tho Oth July last, and proceeded along the Southern Road as far as Yass, extending my observations of tho country over an area of four or five miles, and occasionally a greater distance, on either side of the road. From Y.as3 I directed my course to tho Murrum- bidgee, whence, via Quoanbeyan, Micaliago, and Bredbo, I entered Maneroo. A careful examination of the Bredalb.mo and Yass Plains convinced me of their suitability to tho rearing of tho alpacas ; the neighbourhood of Micali­ ago, Bredbo, struck me as no less, suitable. My opinion of the adaptation of these places to tho above purpose is based chiefly on tho marked identity of the natural features of tho country with those of that part of South America from which the alpacas came. Tho country all through Maneroo, indeed, cor­ responded so exactly with that of Peru and Bolivia, that I could easily believe myself back again in those countries. This similarity was still more apparent with respect to the Snowy Mountains, as that magnificent range appeared clad in their winter garb j Koskiusko reminded us of the Sorata or illimani, and, with tho Australian Cordilleras in full view, we remembered our trials and hardships among the ranges of their more stupendous and terrible counterparts of South America. “ But it was, of course, on tho natural pasturage of these places, as tho most important object in our examination, that we bestowed the greatest attention. Not only are the pasturage and herbage, rooks and stones, identical with those of Pera, but I found throughout the districts I have indicated abundance of a description of wiry grass known as tho “ icliu” of South America. It is upon this grass that tho llama tribe mostly feed, being extremely palatable and nourishing, and of which they aro immoderately fond. The great importance of furnishing tho alpacas with fodder as closely as possible resembling that on which they have been accustomed to feed in their native country, need scarcely bo pointed out. It was accordingly my deliberate conviction, and also that of my companion, that the Maneroo district was admirably adapted for the location of the alpacas. Should the Government determine on locating the flock in that district, I would recom­ mend for tho purpose the country contiguous to tho Snowy lliver, on account of the facilities which the uudulating plains and mountain ranges would afford in obtaining a change of temperature whenever the removal of tho Hock to a wanner or cooler spot should be desirable. By continual ther- mometrical observations, I found that a similarity of temperature existed in the months of July and August at Maneroo, to that of tho country from which the alpacas were extracted; the thermometer at 7h. 30m., varying from twenty-four to thirty-one degrees. “ The only thing I found to cause any apprehension was the existence of 1 fluke ’ in the sheep ; in South America its ravages aro counteracted by not allowing sheep, cattle, or llamas to drink the stagnant waters that might be formed from springs, lakes, or ponds; puddles formed by rain are not sup­ posed to cause the disease. “ I beg to recommend that tho animals bo moved up to Maneroo with as littlo delay as possible ; and as my personal attention u necessary, I beg to request you will think fit to relieve mo from my intended journey to New England, at least for the present.—I have, &c., “ C. L edger. “ The Honourable the Secretary for Lands and Public Works.” The spot selected is called Nimity Bell, between Bombala and Cooma, in the Maneroo district, 2 CO mile3 from Sydney. Before the animals left Liverpool for Arthursleigh, on their way to the locality thus selected, about 200 were shorn in November, 1859. The wool produced was about G cwt. of three sorts, alpaca, llama, and cross bred, and 'valued (by sample) by Messrs. Foster and Sons, of. 18 Bradford, at from 15d. to 2s. 2d. per pound, objection being made to the shortness of the staple. Mr. Titus Salt bought the bulk, and has favoured me with a report. “ Bale No. 1 contains only a few fair average fleeces, the great bulk being too short in the staple (supposed from being clipped too early); some of the fleeces are slightly crossed with llama. “ Bale No. 2 is divided into two divisions: the smaller one seems to be nearly all pure alpaca, but has also been clipped too soon, consequently it is too short for combing.” The prices paid were from 9d. to 18d. per lb., which appears to have been caused by the staple being too short, in consequence of too early clipping. It is to be hoped this will be remedied in future. In addition to this official report, I find from private letters my brother says:— “ The chain of snow-covered mountains that suddenly presented them, selves to my view, on ascending a hill from Cooma, brougnt most vividly before me remembrances of past privation and hardships endured among tho grand and stupendous Cordilleras; and I gazed with delight and enthusiasm on a landscape similar to those my eye had so continually scanned while on my hazardous journeyings through Peru, Bolivia, and Chili.” Many writers on the alpaca, &c., are of opinion that without the ichu grass these animals will not thrive. This grass is found in South America, in Peru, and in Bolivia only; and although the Andes extend from Patagonia to Panama, it is in Peru and Bolivia only that the alpaca is found. From inquiries I have made, I believe this ichu grass is not known in this country, except in botanical collections, and I am led to conclude that the failure of the alpaca with us is mainly to be attributed to this fact, while its presence in Australia, as well as in Peru and Bolivia, justify the anticipation of their acclimatisation in our Australian colonies. My brother writes to me at various periods :— “ So far the animals are thriving well and augmenting in number. ‘1 The lauibs are a most decided success, that is those bom in the colony. “ I am on my road to Maneroo with tho animals. It will take me nearly two months to drive the flock there—close on 300 miles. J really think that the speculation is a great success (not pecuniary to mo). The lambs bora here are a great success indeed. Only fancy I I write this from the house of the famous M'Arthur, of Merino sheep celebrity, and the alpacas are grazing in his park, part of the princely ‘ run' granted to him for introducing the Merino sheep into Australia. “ I am glad to say tho animals ore thriving wonderfully; of their success I have no doubt. “ I am perfectly convinced that the alpaca will in due time produce immense results to this colonv, its acclimatisation and adaptability are no longer problematical, it is undoubtedly an immense success; the flocks are in magnificent order, and thriving wonderfully. “ I am glad to tell you the flocks are thriving admirably. I do not for a moment doubt their complete success. / 19 ••We have had more than a month of continued rain, and, although tho animals ivero fully exposed to it, I did not lose ono ; and at this season of the year they are more susceptible of inclement weather than at any other, on account of tho pasturage being more scarce and less nourishing." The amount of rain which falls on the earth’s surface is exceed­ ingly varied, but the moisture of a climate does not wholly depend upon the amount of rain registered by a rain-guagc; for some climates are humid, and yet not rainy j others dry, and yet subject to period­ ical torrents. My brother writes to a friend as follows:— " As you are one of tho few who feel deeply interested in the success of the alpacas, and sympathise with my enthusiasm, I am sure you will not bo wearied of my frequently writing to you about them. I send you specimens of wool, from animals of first cross between llamas and alpacas. It was bom on the 27th of April last. It is, therefore, of Arthursleigh growth, and I contend that alpaca wool was never grown at tho same rate in Peru. It is truly astonishing. The length of staplo and quality aro beyond my fondest expectations. The animal yielding it is now little over five months old, and would now clip fully 71bs. All are in the same state. Tho fact is, that in this country we shall soon astonish Per#, and I hope to send fleeces, grown atJArthurslcigh, to tho next Exhibition in London, that will astonish Europe, too I Send the enclosed specimens to your Bon in England, and let him show his friends what Arthursleigh is doing.” Since the foregoing was written, I have received’ the Sydney Morn­ ing Herald, December 21, 18G0, from which I extract:—“Since the arrival of the flock of alpacas at Arthursleigh, the animals have thriven even beyond the most sanguine expectations of Mr. Ledger, so that the ultimate success of the importation is now placed beyond a doubt. The present is the proper season for lambing, and the yield hitherto has been very promising. The number of the flock is how 311, and Mr. Ledger expects that by the end of March next it will have increased to 3G0. It is Mr. Ledger’s intention, in future, to make October the lambing month. In Peru the Indians could not bo induced to shear oftener than every other year; the manufacturers having fitted their machinery for a length of staple of two years growth, the practice of the Indians must bo adopted here, otherwise our produce would be depredated on account of the shortness of staple.” My brother took to Melbourne two of his pure male alpacas, two having previously been sent which had been given to the Government of that colony by the Sydney Government. I will conclude this part of my subject with a part of the Report on the state of the Melbourne flock, which I have already told you was presented to tho colony by a committee of gentlemen who organised a subscription here for that purpose :— “ Sib,—I have been delighted to have had the opportunity of personally verifying the statement made to me by my overseer, Pedro Cabrera, on his 20 return to Sydney from this city, as to tho splendid condition of your flock of llamas; and I unhesitatingly declare that in their native country it would be- impossible to meet with any to surpass, and I very much doubt to equal it. “ I class your Btock of llamas as of inferior breed in size of animal, quan­ tity, and quality of fleece. “ By continually crossing the female llama and its female progeny with pure male alpacas, up to the seventh cross, purity of alpaca blood most un­ doubtedly will be obtained. “ There should not exist a chance of retrogression of breed. Every stage of crossing should be progressive until arriving at the same purity as the male alpacas the Government of New South Wales has forwarded to you. “ I would strenuously recommend the preservation of the flock intact, until such time as every trace or sign of llama blood be eradicated. “ This species of animal requires a dry and pure atmosphere. Humidity under foot does them no harm, unless compelled at night to repose on wet ground. “ I would recommend their being exposed to every vicissitude, changing their folds every now and then during wet weather, so long as they are con­ fined to a limited space for grazing on. “ This animal, when left to itself, at nightfall generally selects a sloping ground for reposing on. ‘1 In my opinion, it would be desirable to confine them as much as possible exclusively to the natural grasses of tho country. “ The acclimatisation of the alpaca and llama in Australia is now proved beyond a doubt. The smaller ilock'in this colony, and the larger one m that of New South Wales, have fully satisfied me as to tho adaptability of this peculiar animal to tho climate and natural grasses of the country. “ This animal is freer from constitutional diseases than ordinary sheep ; less subject to those arising from repletion and exposure to rain. Foot rot, catarrh, and bottle are unknown to them. “ Neither are its young exposed to those accidents liable to befall the lamb of sheep. The mothers are provident and careful nurses, nor do the young ones require any aid to make them suck. “ Except at tho rutting season, these animals stand in no need of attention; the shepherd need only visit them occasionally; and such are their gregarious habits, that tho members of one flock seldom stray away and mix with others, being kept in .1 good state of discipline by the old ones, who know their own grounds, and become attached to the place of their nativity, to which they return at night, evincing an astonishing vigilance and sagacity in keeping the young ones together and free from harm. “ By trials, careful study, and intimate knowledge of the alpaca, after an almost daily association with this interesting animal of twenty-two years in South America, and two in Australia, it is placed beyond a doubt in my mind that this animal may be naturalised and made to readily propagato in almost any clime; and every day the facilities and the efficacy of their proper breeding must become more apparent. “ The hardy nature and contented disposition of the alpaca, its extreme docility, and gregarious habits, cause it to adapt itself to almost any soil or situation, provided the air is pure and the heat not too oppressive. “ I had innumerable proofs of its hardiness, and its power to endure cold, heat, damp, confinement, hunger, and thirst—vicissitudes to which it is con­ stantly exposed on its native mountains. “ It is almost superfluous on my part to assure you that at all times I will readily furnish all and every information in my power to give regarding this animal; as also willingly aid by suppling, from time to time, as you may consider necessary, such pure male alpacas as may be required to improve and finally raise your stock to uniformity and purity of blood. “ I will only further add, that the ratio of increase in your flock has.far exceeded that in the flock under my chargo.—I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, “ C. Ledger. -■ “ Melbourne, October 30, 1800.” 21 • In endeavouring to estimate what may bo tho results to our colonies of the introduction of the alpaca, let us look at what has resulted from the introduction of the sheep. In January, 1788, the popula­ tion of New South Wales was 1,030, and its stock consisted of ono bull, three cows, one stallion, three mares, and three colts. (Fairfax.) In 1788 Australia had no sheep of its own, the kangaroo and the dingoe were the only animals of any size that it possessed ; and the first taken into the colony were procured from Bengal to provide the colonists with mutton and wool. ' These animals produced hair rather than wool. They are described in Widdowson’s work as pos­ sessing " large heads, Roman noses, and slouch ears; they were ex­ tremely narrow in the chest; they had plain and narrow shoulders, very high curved backs, a coarse, hairy fleece, and tremendously long legs.” By crossing these hair-bearing ewes with an Irish ram, Cap­ tain Macarthur effected great improvement, and ho was persuaded that the introduction of the Merino sheep into the colony would bo of the utmost consequence, and in 1797 succeeded, with tho aid of Captain Waterhouse, of H.M. Navy, in procuring a small flock of three rams and five ewes from the Cape of Good Hope, originally brought from Holland, which he had the satisfaction of seeing rapidly increase, their fleece augment in weight, and the wool very visibly improve in quality. He crossed all tho mixed-bred ewes, of which liis flock had previously consisted, with the Merino rams. The lambs produced from this cross were much improved; but the produce from the second cross far exceeded his most sanguine expectations. He expressed the opinion that in the fourth cross no distinction would be perceptible between the pure and the mixed breed. In 179G the public and private stock of sheep in tho colony amounted to 1,531; in 1801, to G,757, which is G33 over aud beyond a cal­ culation of Captain Macarthur, on the basis that they would double themselves in two and a-half years. The following is a return of live stock in the colony of New South Wales, from the year 1848 to 1857, inclusive :—_________________ Year. Horses. Horned Cattle. rigs. Sheep. 1848 97,400 1,360,164 65,216 6,530,542 1849 105.12G 1,403,051 52,902 6,784,494 1850 111,458 1,374,908 62,371 7,092,209 1851 110,397 1,375,257 05,510 7,390,895 1852 123,404 1,495,984 78,559 7,707,917 1853 139,765 1,552,285 71,395 7,929,708 1854 148,851 1,570,750 63,255 8,144,119 1855 158,159 1,858,407 68,091 8,G02,499 185G 1G8.929 2,023,418 105,998 7,736,323 1857 180,053 2,148,064 109,106 8,139,162 1859 200,713 2,110,604 92,843 7,581,762 22 As these non-indigenous animals have thriven here so wonderfully, as they have also done in South America, and there appears to be considerable similarity between the two countries in temperature, climate, mountainous elevation, and natural pasturage, am I not justified in anticipating a glorious future for the alpaca in Australia 1 The following is the quantity of wool imported into the United Kingdom from all our Australian colonies:— lbs. lbs. 1820 ... .................. 99,4lB 1841 .......................... 12,399,302 1821 ... .................. 175,433 1842 .......................... 12,979,856 1822 ... ......... . ... 138,498 1843 .......................... 17,433,78a 1823 ... .................. 477,201 1844 .......................... 17,602,247 1824 ... .................. 382,907 1845 .......................... 24,177,317 1825 ... .................. 323,995 1840 .......................... 21,789,346 182G ... .................. 1,106,302 1847 .......................... 20,056,815 1827 ... .................. 512,758 1848 .......................... 30,034,567 1828 ... .................. 1,574,186 1849 .......................... 35,879,171 1829 ... .................. 1,838,642 1850 .......................... 39,018,221 1830 ... .................. 1,967,309 1851 .......................... 41,810,117 1831 ... .................. 2,493,337 1852 .......................... 43,197,301 1832 ... .................. 2,377,057 1853 .......................... 47,070,010 1833 ... .................. 3,516,8G9 1854 .......................... 47,489,050 1834 ... .................. 3,558,091 1855 .......................... 49,142,306 1835 ... .................. 4,201,301 1850 .......................... 52,052,139 1836 ... ... ........ 4,996,645 1857 .......................... 49,209,G55 1837 ... ............. 7,000,525 1858 ................... 51,104,600 1838 ... ............. 7,837,423 1859 ................... 53,700,542 1839 ... ............. 10,128,774 1860 ................... 55,270,778 1840 ... ............. 9,721,243 To 31st October. I have already shown you how the exportation of alpaca woo! from South America has of lato years increased; I now give the following calculation, made on the probable growth of our alpaca flocks in fifty years—a long time in the life of a man, a short period in the history of a people :— We commence in 1861 with 200 females, 50 males=250. . r TOTAL. e i . i b m e c I J3 to Male*. Ferali. e ► i 1 D ! 200 120 60 CO at 60 33 ct. (allowing 10 33 ct. for deaths) 110 280 1861 200 120 60 60 „ Those dropt last year will not lamb 170 320 1862 280 160 80 80 „ The female lambs 1861 will drop this 250 4D0 1863 340 200 100 100 >t tt tt 1862 tt 350 600 1864 420 250 125 125 ............................. 1863 475 625 1865. 520 260 130 130 at 60 53 ct. only 1804 ,, 605 775 1866- 645 320 160 160 tt tt it 1865 „ 765 935 186r 775 387 100 t90 tt it tt 1866 tt 955 1165 186% 935 467 235 235 1867 1195 1400 1869* 1322 661 330 330 II it t» it 1868 t* 1520 1730 1870- There will be, after deduction made for wear and tear, accidents, &c., 3250, as per above calculation. I further deduct 25 per cent. 23 of total every period of ten years, thu3 leaving in round numbers 2500; at same rate, in 20 years there would bo 20,000 30 „ „ 1GO,000 40 „ „ 1,280,000 50 „ „ 9,700,000 At 7 lbs. wool—each 68,320,000 lbs., at 2s per lb., XG,832,000 ! From this it will be seen that, making deductions of a liberal nature, according to the present ratio of increase, there will bo in 50 years 9,7G0,000 head, tho wool of which, at 2s. per lb., will amount to the sum of £G,832,000 per annum. When figures like these are given, incredulity is naturally awakened; but I do not know that there is anything unreasonable in tho calcu­ lation. At all events, any reasonable reduction may bo made, and still leave a value sufficient to deserve the energy and solicitude of the public. This is not my own calculation, I take it from the Sydney Herald' of August 3, 18G0, and my brother thus writes respecting it:— “ Sib ,—In your edition of 3rd. iustaut I havo read an article on tho probable result, fifty years hence, of tlie alpacas, llamas, &c., introduced by mo into this colony, in November, 1858. I sec nothing improbable os to such anticipations being realised; on tho contrary, my experience o£ this animal, in South America and in this country, fully warrants tho estimates, referred to as being effected every ten years, being carried out. “ Two hundred breeding females, and fifty males, produce, as per said calculation, 3,250 in ten years, or equivalent to multiplying original stock by twelve ; continuing at tho same ratio, the second period would bring 39,000. Now, instead of following up at that ratte, and so as to mako all and every allowance for unforsccn contingencies of epidemics, bad seasons, &c., I deduct furthermore one-third, and multiply by eight instead of twelve, still reducing the 20 per cent, periodically ten years, giving, at tho end of fifty years, 5,COG,720 animals, which, at 71bs. wool only—39,247,040, at 2s. per lb.—£4,924,704. “ The figures are large, no doubt; the time, too, is long. I do not wish to appear a visionary Utopian, although an ardent enthusiast, and hope I may not, through excess thereof, havo been led into exaggeration. Figures, something like tho above, I worked out nine years ago; they often appeared before me—in my mind’s eye—during my solitary journeyB, and more than once urged mo to persevere, when ‘ to hopo seemed hopeless.’ ” It will bo borne in mind, that while the sheep has increased in the manner I have shown you, mutton has not been an article of food prohibited at the tables of our antipodean relatives; indeed, at the period of the immense influx of a new population, tempted by the recent discoveries of gold, fears were entertained that the appetites of tho diggers, joined to the desertion of tho flocks, might act prejudi­ cially on the interests of the wool trade j time, however, has proved this alarming anticipation to havo been unfounded. Notwithstanding the enormous draught constantly made on tho flocks to supply tho daily demands for food, notwithstanding whole 24 floclcs were consigned to the toilers by their panic-stricken owners, notwithstanding disease, caused and rendered more destructive by desertion, swept away largo numbers, they are not now diminished, but show a steady increase. A fortunate climate, and an intelligent devotion to the rearing of sheep, has prevented so great a calamity. Regions long thought barren, are now showing abundant pasturage. Irrigation, hitherto unthought of, has supplied, and in the future will supply, the only deficiency of which the country has to complain. The alpaca, living to the age of fourteen to sixteen years, and not, like the sheep, having daily demands upon its numbers for the purposes of food, is more likely to fulfil the calculations I have given to you. By feeding on a coarser pasturage than the sheep, it will benefit the owner of land by bringing into use portions hitherto unproductive. It will bring more capital into operation. Labour will become employed in tho new product—the shepherd tending the flocks, the sailor in trans­ porting it to the seat of manufacture, the spinner and weaver in forming it into the beautiful fabrics that spring from the looms of Bradford and Saltaire. The ship-owner and the merchant also will reap a profit, while the wool is passing through their hands or is under their charge, and various classes of labourers will gain a portion of their means of existence in passing the wool from place to place, and from hand to hand in the various phases it must pass through from the raw state until it is displayed as clothing on our persons. The following discussion ensued :— The Chairman, W m. H aines, Esq., said it was now his duty to ask gentlemen present, who possessed any information upon tliis subject, to discuss the various topics suggested by the interesting paper they had just heard. There were many points which were worthy of notice :—first of all, the energy of an individual gentle­ man who, under great difficulties, introduced a new species of animal into our Australian colonies; secondly, the importance of promoting an increased production of wool when our supply of cotton might be in danger; and thirdly, the necessity which tho present state of events imposed upon us of encouraging, by every means in our power, the production and importation into this country of the largest possible supply of raw material of every kind. He believed there were gentlemen present who were qualified to give them information upon the wool trade and the fitness of the alpaca for Australia. There was one gentleman in particular to whom reference was made in the paper, and he was sure the meeting would be glad to hear tho observations of Mr. Macarthur. 25 Mr. M acaktiitjk tad no information to convey witli respect to the alpaca, for he was sorry to say he knew nothing of tho habits of that animal beyond what might be acquired by cursory reading. Before ho left New South Wales he had the opportunity of once or twice seeing the flock of alpacas introduced by Mr. Ledger, and he had no hesitation in saying that the paper read that evening conveyed a mass of most interesting information on the subject. Tho period during which Mr. Ledger had devoted himself to this object was somowhere about twenty-two years, and for nine years ho was separated from his family in pursuing this enterprise. He mentioned this fact in order that the meeting might appreciate the great exertions which had been made by Mr. Ledger in accomplishing his object. A vast sum of money was requisite for this purpose; ho believed tho amount was not less than between £4,000 and £5,000, which was the value put upon the flock at Sydney, and ho knew that tho amount occasioned difficulty in forming a company to undertake tho purchase of the flock and the production of wool. It was considered too largo a specu­ lation, and required too much money for tho settlers in a young colony to embark in it. The Government, therefore, ho thought very properly, stepped in and assisted Mr. Ledger under those circum­ stances, for there could be no doubt this was just one of those occa­ sions when the Government might intervene to supply tho place of individual enterprise. It was hardly to be expected that two or three individuals, or even a company of persons, should embark upon a speculation of this kind, and, moreover, Mr. Ledger was then com­ paratively a stranger in the country; but tho Government having thoroughly investigated the subject, determined to interpose and make arrangements with Mr. Ledger for tho accomplishment of the important object ho had introduced to their notice. He was glad to see, from the papers which arrived a few days since, that there were strong probabilities of some advantageous arrangement being made by which the Government would divest itself of tho property in tho alpacas and make them over once more to Mr. Ledger himself. No doubt that was the most advantageous course that could be adopted, as it was not a matter in which the Government should engage itself, unless under the exceptional circumstances which had been stated. The suitability of Australia for a wool growing country had been established by the figures relating to that commodity, which had been given in the paper, and did not require any corroboration from him. There was one fact which he had noted os very remarkable— that was the statement contained in a letter from Mr. Ledger, from Arthursleigh, as to the great length and fineness of the alpaca wool produced in Australia, as compared with that of the animal in its 26 native country: That agreed with the chfiracteristic of the Merino wool produced in Australia, which was remarkable for its great length and strength, as well as the fineness of the staple. He recollected that, some thirty years ago, it was a subject of complaint amongst the woollen manufacturers, that the wool of Australia was of too short a staple to be of much use to them for cloth ; and it was then applied to other articles of manufacture, particularly mousselines-de-laine, which were principally made of Australian wool. The wool, however, now was of a much longer staple, and was particularly noticeable for its softness, especially the Merino wool. He would not attempt to enter into a calculation of the vast extent of country in Australia that was suitable for pasturage, both of sheep and llamas. He thought this country had reason to congratulate itself upon the fact that Aus­ tralia was likely to produce a very large supply, not only of sheep’s wool, but also of that description of fleece which had been stated to be so valuable for other classes of manufactures, and there was no saying to what purposes the genius of our British manufacturers might not apply the wool of the alpaca, when it came into the market ia sufficient quantity to make it worth their while to turn their atten­ tion more especially to it. Referring again to tho pasturage capa­ bilities of Australia, Mr. Macarthur alluded to the communications, recently made to the Geographical Society by Mr. Stuart, showing that tho interior of the country was not, as was previously supposed, a desert. This had always been his own opinion, and he was happy to find it corroborated by so eminent an explorer as Mr. Stuart. Whilst the western portion of the country varied in elevation from 1,100 to as high as 7,000 or 8,000 feet, the average elevation of the table land was not more than from 1,500 to 2,000 feet, which ensured a very temperate climate; and the late Sir Thomas Mitchell, who was n great explorer of the interior, in his work upon tropical Australia, spoke of having experienced nights of intense cold within that tropi­ cal region ; so that the variations of climate which that country ex­ hibited, might be considered as affording all tho essentials requisite for the successful growth of the llama wool, and the same remark was equally applicable to cotton, some very fine specimens of that com­ modity having been already produced in Australia. Mr. F. T. Buckland expressed his high gratification at the infor­ mation conveyed by the paper, and also at the magnificent specimens, of wool upon the table. He hoped they would not rest contented with introducing the alpaca into Australia alone. He thought they ought to try the experiment in this country, and when they saw the beauti­ ful garments which were produced from this wool, he was sure they would have the aid of tho ladie3 in bringing such animals into Eng­ 27 land. He thought that both tho alpaca and the Hama would thrive well in this country. They had been told that very fine wool had been obtained from tho animala in the possession of Misa Burdctt Coutts, which were living not more than three miles from London; and his friend, Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, could tell them that tho animals did well in Lord Derby’s park, in the north of England. Mr. P. L. Simmonds said that at the outset of this paper, Mr. Ledger had observed that probably it might be asked what interest had this country in a question of seemingly local interest, like tho introduction of the alpaca into Australia 1 To this ho (Mr. Simmonds) would respond, that Great Britain, as a manufacturing country, had the greatest interest in promoting tho extended produc­ tion of wool in all countries, and more especially in her own colonies. The wool manufacture—the second of the great manufacturing inter­ ests—which engaged a capital at tho present time for raw material, labour, machinery, and valuo of goods made, of fully £40,000,000, was, like the other great textile industries, insufficiently supplied with raw material for the enhanced demands made upon it for home con­ sumption and export. Largeashadbecntheiucreasedproductionof wool in our African and Australian colonies, yet, with the competition from Continental buyers, we were stinted in supplies, and had to pay en­ hanced prices for what we did got. And, what was worse, our manufacturers wcro driven to the use of ragwool, or shoddy, to tho extent of 50,000,000 lbs. a year. To meet the demand last year, with a deficient homo clip, and with largely increased exports of home and colonial wools, the deficiency in supply for our woollen manufacturers became very apparent Any increased supplies of wool for the present or future would be of the greatest benefit to the kingdom. Hence ho looked with hopeful interest to the efforts of Mr. Ledger in Australia, and to the information which had been laid before them that evening as to the probable results of acclimatising tho alpaca there. As the meeting had just heard, it was only a quarter of a century ago that alpaca wool was first introduced into this country, and for tho first five years the average imports wero only 560.000 lbs. In tho last five years the imports had averaged 2.600.000 lbs. per annum, and tho advance in price in this period had been from lOd. to 2s. Cd. per lb. Constant as was tho demand for this valuable long wool, which had been tho making of Bradford, the supply had been almost stationary for the Last five or six years, and, Mr. Ledger had told them, would probably decrease instead of increase, and in that case where was Saltairo to find a substitute ? They had heard that evening that the alpaca had now been introduced into the three principal Australian colonies, and with every prospect 28 of their doing well. For his part, looking at tho wide extent of the country, the varied climate and temperature, the elevated regions that were to be met with in different localities, from Queensland in the north to Victoria in the south, that tho pasturage agreed with them, and that even their tall, favorite grass or reed, the ichu, was found indigenous in New South Wales, he saw no reason why they should not prove a success. At all events, the accounts they had heard, both from Mr. Ledger and Mr. Macarthur, went to disprove the opinion so confidently advanced on a previous evening, that Australia was totally unfitted in every respect for the alpaca. Many years ago he (Mr. Simmonds) had advocated in his Colonial Magazine, and other publications he was connected with, the intro­ duction of the camel and the alpaca into Australia. Had the camel been earlier introduced, they might not now have had to mourn the loss of Dr. Leichhardt and other enterprising explorers who bad lost their lives in penetrating the great interior of that continent. He hoped also to see soon the vicuna and the guanaco introduced into Australia, for, although less valuable as wool-bearing animals, yet they might aid the supply of food hereafter, and fill the placo of the kangaroo, which was being fast exterminated. These animals, which ranged in such numbers from La Plata and Chili almost down to Capo Horn, would require no care, but would find abundance of food and suitable localities in Australia. It was even possible that the alpaca might be successfully introduced and naturalized in many other parts of the British possessions, such as Tasmania and New Zealand, parts of the Cape Colony, Natal and India, and in Vancou­ ver and British Columbia. But these were matters for future con­ sideration. There might, and doubtless would, be failures, but useful enterprises, because they were new and apparently difficult, should not bo discouraged or opposed by either sarcasms or sneers. When it was remembered how many animals, natives of tropical countries, were even now kept in health in so changeable a climate as Great Britain, there was hopeful encouragement for experiments under more congenial latitudes. Such efforts as those of Mr. Ledger were calcu­ lated to be highly beneficial to the colonies and to the mother country, and to stimulate others to exertion and enterprise in a similar direction. Mr. B. W. Gee said his name having been mentioned with some prominence in the paper, he would offer a few remarks. A residence of many years in Australia enabled him fully to confirm the state­ ments they had heard that evening, as to the adaptability of that country for the introduction of animals of the llama genus. Some eight or nine years ago some gentlemen in Sydney subscribed a sum 29 of money for the purpose of sending agents into Peru to obtain a stock of alpacas, but tbey returned from the mission without having effected the object—they did not obtain a single animal. It had been attempted by other persons, but it was left to Mr. Ledger to achieve success; and although, perhaps, some of his (Mr. Gee’s) animals might have been the first to land in the colony, still to Mr. Ledger was entirely due the merit of being tho first successful intro­ ducer of this animal into Australia. It might be interesting to some to hear a few particulars of the way in which ho (Mr. Gee) obtained possession of tho flock of alpacas with which his name was associ­ ated. Upon his return from Australia, about three years ago, ho took it into his head to visit New York, and his arrival in that city was nearly contemporaneous with that of a flock of llamas, which had travelled a distauce of about 4,000 miles on foot, having crosscd tho isthmus of Panama during the hottest weather. These animals were advertised for sale, having been previously exhibited at the Crystal Palace, in New York. The poor animals, from the long distance they had travelled, were in a very bad condition at the time they wero brought into the market. The proprietor of tho flock, who wa3 a Frenchman, had the modesty to ask £100 each for them; but at that time dollars were very scarce in New York, as it was during the monetary panic. They remained on hand till the winter, when they were put out to grass; and with reference to the question how far the animals could stand varieties of climate, ho could say that he saw them nearly up to their backs in snow, with scarcely anything to eat, on Manhattan Island, where there was scarcely anything but stones. • After having passed the winter iu those most inhospitablo quarlfcrs, the flock was advertised for sale in New York in the spring. He would read a short extract from tho newspaper report of tho sale :— “ The thirty-eight llamas that were imported into this city last fall from Peru (or Chili), wero offered at auction on Saturday, March 20, at tho * Dyekman Farm’—a farm of four or live hundred acres of land, in tlio City of New York. It is situated ou the Harlem River, below King’s Bridge. It is principally occupied as a grazing farm for bullocks 4 left over, or waiting for market at the Great Bull’s Head, in Forty-fourth street—tho proprietor of the sale-yards having leased it for that purpose. It was in consequence of this occupancy that the llamas were sent up there to winter, they having been taken when lauded to the market-place yards for keeping and for sale. “ It seems aa though a chain of misfortunes has attended tho lirst attempt to introduce a breed of domestic animala into this country—discouraging, wo fear, to all future efforts to add a new, and, wo doubt not, a prohtablo clas3 to our present stock. If we are not mistaken, tho shipment was mado from a Chilian port (we understand exportation of llamas is prohibited from J. eru), by steamer to Panama, and consisted of seventy-two head. They were detained some three weeks at Panama, awaiting a vessel at Aspimvall for New York ; and although in charge of a nativo shepherd, eighteen or twenty of the flock fell victims to Panama snakes, scorpions, poison herbage, ana 30 other Isthmus casualties, in the hottest part of the season. The remainder were then brought over in the cars and shipped upon a brig too small to afford comfortable accommodation, with a bad provision of food, and there­ fore it is not a wonder that only forty-two of the number reached New York alive. It is a wonder that all did not die, and that only four of the weakest lambs died after they were landed, since the whole of them were in such miserable plight that it was thought unwise to offer them for sale. They have, however, wintered better than a flock of sheep would, if landed in tho same condition, and all appear now very lively and healthy, notwithstanding their unwonted and long feeding upon dry forage ; and, as an experiment, this has proved that these animals are easily wmtered in this latitude, and that they prefer the coarsest herbage, either green or dry. In Chili they are fed upon alfalfa, a very coarse kind of clover, and they might, if domesti­ cated here, be fed the same, or on pea-vines, bean-stalks, buckwheat straws, or coarse weeds—such as our animals reject. “ If adopted into our family of domestic animals, the llamas must be kept principally for the fleece, just as sheep are in some places, where mutton is not esteemed for food, since they would not be valuable as beasts of burden, cxcept in very mountainous districts; and their flesh, although eaten in South America, is not esteemed by such of our countrymen as have tasted it. Lieut. Phelps says of i t : ‘I have tried the flesh, and, although not partial to it, could live upon it if hard pushed.’ That observation was made of the animal in its wild state, called in Chili, Guanaco, but generally believed to be the original of tho Peruvian llama, alpaca, or vicuna. The latter name is sometimes applied as the generic term, of the race, and the other two names those of varieties differing no more than varieties of sheep, the Alpacas being considerably smaller than the others, and more woolly; some of the variety called llamas are as tall as good sized yearling bovines. In a wild state, the guanacos inhabit the chain of mountains from Terra del Fuego to the Cordilleras in Peru, choosing their pasture ground just below the snow line. In a domestic state the llamas are used as beasts of burden, in mountain or plain, in cold and heat, often traversing snowy altitudes and tropical valleys upon the same journey. They are much used in the Andes, by the miners, to bring down ore and carry up supplies ; travelling twelve or fifteen miles a day, with loads of 100 lbs. each, and living upon the coars­ est and most scanty supply of herbage, and, like the camel, enduring days of toil without water. It is possible the llama, as well as the camel, may yet be used to advantage by travellers upon our great American deserts. It is stated in the history of Peru, that troops of llamas, a thousand in number, used to be common, all bearing their loads, and travelling under the guidance of a few men, over regions where no other beast could obtain a footing. ‘ ‘ One of the herd offered for sale on Saturday, was exhibited loaded with packs, as he would be upon a journey. All of them, even a lamb of a few months old, aro broken to the halter, and are very docile and tractable. Their countenances exhibit marked expressions of intelligence—the eyes are very bright and sight keen. The colour is generally that of brown or black sheep—some of them pretty nearly jet black. Some of the males are grey, or nearly white, with white faces. The shape of the head, face, ears, and neck is like that of a native sheep, except the neck is more elongated. The cloven hoofs are larger, and the legs longer than the tallest sheep, and tho bodies though longer, do not appear much larger than some of the tall varie­ ties of sheep. The anatomy is curious in this, that the thigh seems to pro­ ceed from the hip-joint, but with little connection with the body. “ The fleece is from four to six inches long, fine and soft within, with coarse hairs thinly scattered through it, and projecting beyond the mass. It very much resembles the fleece of a black sheep. We should judge the average weight of fleeces might be about ten pounds—the bellies being generally bare—and the value is greater than that of wool. The excellence and dura­ bility of alpaca cloth aro generally known.” The report went on to say that the sale was not successful, the biddings never reaching the reserved price of 100 dollars each animal 31 He (Mr. Gee) subsequently bought tho animals, and took them by the steamer, City of New York, to Glasgow, where they arrived shortly before the agricultural show in that city. Ho exhibited them at a charge of sixpence each, and had a3 many as 1,200 visitors. He afterwards brought them to Birmingham, at the time of the Queen’s State visit, and although there were about a million of people congregated on that occasion, not more than twenty-eight persons honored his alpacas with a visit. The people seemed to have no idea what tho animals were. Then he brought them to London, in the hot weather of Juno. Ho Bold three to Mr. Pattison, two to Miss Coutts, and ten to Mr. G. A. Lloyd, the latter at £25 each, which paid him very well, but they afterwards sold for XGO each. Mr. E. Wilson, tho well-known editor of the Melbourne Argus, took the remainder of the flock for .£700, which was at the rate of £23 per head. During tho time the flock was in his possession, they grazed at Acton, about five miles from London, and they got quite fat. They started for Aus­ tralia, and like most other emigrants, they did even better there. With regard to the acclimatisation of these animals, it could only be proved by time. In the case of tho Angora goat, which was intro­ duced into Australia some years ago, a very beautiful fleece was produced when they got tho real thing itself, but even amongst tho goats brought from Turkey there was a whito streak which spoiled its appearance, and the only doubt was that tho skins would run “kempy,” and that in the course of a few generations the fleece would become as coarse as the hair of tho common goat. He did not, however, think that would be the case with tho alpaca, although the fleece had not the oiliness of the Merino sheep, and from tho nature of tho food in Australia, he believed the wool would be im­ proved in texture. With regard to the suitability of the climate there, and the supply of proper food for these animals, there could be no doubt. They might walk for hundreds of miles up to their knees in grass, which was excellent food, and the animals would eat it when it was in a dry state. At the time he bought his flock in New York, he was wholly ignorant of what was tho proper food for them; but during the passage he fed them with Indian maize, which they readily ate, os also hay, and they were in better condition after thirteen days sea passage than when they were put on board. Thcro was one point which he felt somo delicacy in touching upon. He was glad to hear from Mr. Macarthur that Mr. Ledger was likely to reap some reward for his exertions j but with regard to himself, ho was somewhat in the position of tho Irish ostler, who, when a gentleman 32 was about to drive off without having handed him the customary gratuity, called after him, “ Please yer honor, if my master asks mo what you gave the ostler, what am I to tell him J” and if any one asked him what he had got, his reply would be—nothing. Mr. D avis would be sorry to divert the discussion from the con­ gratulatory tone which had characterised it, for it appeared they were. a “ Mutual Congratulation Society ” that evening. One thing they might certainly congratulate themselves upon—that was upon the perseverance and energy which had pre-eminently distinguished our countryman, Mr. Ledger, in this matter. All who had taken any interest in affairs in Australia aud South America, must be aware that the difficulties, dangers, and privations which Mr. Ledger had gone through were such as few men would have the courage to undergo, even with the prospect of success in view. Yet whilst he tendered to Mr. Ledger the full measure of gratitude for what he had done, he could not look upon this matter from the couleur de rose point of view in which some regarded it. If they looked at tho locality in which these animals originated—they lived in extremely mountainous regions, almost within the reach of perpetual snow. The vicuna lived in the highest regions of all. In Australia they heard of snowy ranges, but those were mountains which were covered with snow only during certain portions of the year. Snow did not exist there over any great extent of country for any great length of time, and in such localities as it most existed the country was rather barren and rocky. It was true these animals could live upon hard fare, but they could not livo upon mere rocks. The Snowy Mountains of Aus­ tralia were, to a great extent, of a rocky nature, and the quantity of grass was small. They had been told of the country explored by Mr. Stuart, but it should at the same time have been stated that it was a country of intense heat, and these were not animals to stand great heat, but were rather adapted for cold climates. No doubt they would live up to their bellies in snow, but he for ono did not look forward with the hope that some did to the propagation of this animal in Australia. He would rather point to this subject as affording to enterprising young men in this country an opening to make their fortunes, by going to Peru and Bolivia, and promoting the growth of wool there from the animal in its native climate. It might be said that South America was a badly governed country, but there were Englishmen making money there very fast. Ho quite approved of the course which had now been taken by the Govern­ ment of Australia. They were now disposed to do what they should have done in the first instance. They might now say to Mr. Ledger 33 “ By your energy and perseverance you have proved yourself a bene­ factor to your country; here is the amount you have spent; take . back your animals; increase and prosper. If you succeed, this country must benefit thereby, but in any case it is no use for tho Government to turn sheep farmers.” As to introducing these * animals into England, he thought it would be unwise. At present they had animals which produced both wool and mutton, and to bring into a country like this animals which produced fleeces only, would never answer. He was not afraid of this being attempted, for the very best reason with Englishmen—that it would not pay. They wanted an animal which gave them both clothes and food, and this they had in the sheep, from the Scotch sheep which dwelt in the snows of the north, to the South Down, which flourished in the mildest climate and on tho drycst lands. He could not sit down without expressing his deep obligation to Mr. Charles Ledger for what he had done, and all that he had contemplated doing for Aus­ tralia. He regarded him as a great benefactor to that countiy if he did not succeed, but if he succeeded he would be an enormous bene­ factor both to Australia and his fellow-countrymen at home. Dr. Crisp believed that there was an error aa to the date at which these animals were first introduced into Europe. Ho understood it to be stated in the paper that it was not until the year 1815 that tho llama was first introduced, but he believed it would be found that specimens of these animals were brought to the Jardin des Plantes, in. Paris, as early as 1808. He begged to add his meed of praise to Mr. Ledger for tho exertions he had made in this matter, and to the gentleman who had so ably brought this interesting subject before them. The Chairman, in closing the discussion, thought the meeting would agree with him that, if there was one paper more than another which was particularly within the province of the socicty, it was the one they had just heard. The subject of how to improve the culti­ vation, and increase the production of so important a staple as wool, was one well worthy of their most attentive consideration. There was nothing in the paper of a speculative character. They had a collec­ tion of facts and details upon an important subject which might be turned to good account, if not at the present moment, certainly at some future time. It was their duty, a3 a society, to give every encouragement to gentlemen who came before them with such valu­ able information a3 Mr. Ledger had collected—not in the ordinary sense of the term, but received directly from his brother, who had devoted so many years of his life to the promotion of this object. D 31 His friend on the left (Mr. Davis) had characterised the meeting as one of mutual congratulation. He (the Chairman) thought it was justly so. At the same time, his friend had advanced opinions somewhat at variance with those expressed in the paper. That was one true object of discussion. They did not ask gentlemen to approve of everything that was said. They always invited discus- * sion upon what was advanced in the paper, and the greater the variety of opinion that was elicited the more valuable the meetings of the society became. They had heard a very remarkable fact that even­ ing, which showed how important a part the commerce of this country played in the industry of the world. Englishmen, in the first instance, had been the means of introducing the animal spoken of from South America into Australia, and then they afforded the best market to which the commodity produced could be sent. That was a noteworthy instance of tho influence of British commerce all over the world. He was sure they would all feel indebted to the gentleman who had brought such a collection of facts before them in so clear a manner as had been done that evening, and that they would cordially concur in a vote of thanks to Mr. Ledger for his paper. The vote of thanks having been passed, Mr. L edger, in reply on the discussion, said he had studiously avoided introducing into this subject matters of a purely personal or pecuniary character; he had not spoken of the dangers and difficul­ ties his brother had undergone more than was essential to the proper elucidation of the subject; but as remuneration had been alluded to, he fully concurred in the hope that his brother would ultimately reap a large reward for the .accomplishment of his enterprise. This depended entirely, however, upon tho success of the animals. He had heard (not from his brother), that at Copiapo £42,000 had been offered for the flock for the French Government, and declined. He thought the New South Wales Government had acted with forethought and generosity in giving his brother £15,000, every farthing of which, however, had been remitted to South America, to liquidate liabilities incurred in the prosecution of the enterprise, leaving a balance still due of £1,080, and he was happy to say his brother had concluded an arrangement with the Colonial Govern­ ment, which was waiting the sanction of the Legislature, to pay him cash £2,000, and £3,000 in annual payments of £500 for six years, to provide him pasture grounds free of rent or taxes for 12 years ; at the expiration of which the animals were to be his property on payment of the principal of £20,000 without interest. The produco 35 of the wool in the twelve years was to be his, but ho was not to be permitted to sell any of the animals without the consent of the Colonial Government. The paper was illustrated by a collection of alpaca skins, contri­ buted by Mr. Murietta; vicuna skins, by Mr. Skinner Row ; speci­ mens of alpaca wool, by Mr. Gee; of llama wool, by Miss Burdett Coutts; and pieces of alpaca fabric by Messrs. Edwards. MASON AND FIRTH, PRINTERS, MELBOURNE.
'The Alpaca - Its Introduction to Australia: Original front cover
F1a-192: Alpaca; Foretelling the Future, stock and fibre in the 21st century, Volumn II.
Alpaca; Foretelling the Future, stock and fibre in the 21st century, Volumn II.
'Alpaca', a Magazine produced by the British Alpaca Society, this is the Winter 1999 edition and includes an article on fibre quality, and updates from around the world, including Australia and the USA.
Salts Mill, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
F1a-324: Bradford, Yorkshire - Miscellaneous Documents
Bradford, Yorkshire - Miscellaneous Documents
Booklet: 'John Wood - Bradford's Father of Factory Reform' by Astrid Hansen (2011)
F1b-056a-b: Shipley Bowling Club - history
An Article by Ian Watson on history of the Bowling Club
F1b-057: Shipley Bowling Club - map of location
Photocopy of OS map showing location of Shipley Bowling Club
2024.10: Sir James Roberts leaves Saltaire (The land disposals of Sir James Roberts)
Sir James Roberts leaves Saltaire (The land disposals of Sir James Roberts)
Document describing the land holdings of Sir James Roberts in Saltaire and nearby Milner Field following his sale of the Salts textile business in 1918. The research is based mainly on letters exchanged between Sir James Roberts and his representative in Saltaire, John Baker.
THE LAND DISPOSALS OF SIR JAMES ROBERTS IN SALTAIRE AND MILNER FIELD 1918-1923 THE EARLY RETIREMENT YEARS OF SIR JAMES ROBERTS By Ian Watson-2023 Several years ago, I wrote a small booklet, and gave a talk on the subject of: ‘The Land Acquisitions of Sir Titus Salt’. In which I looked at the Salt land purchases in Shipley and Baildon from 1850 through to 1874. So, I suppose that this paper could be seen as a way of rounding off this subject. In that, I am going to show how Sir James Roberts, reluctantly, came into possession of and disposed of the surviving undeveloped land, from Sir Titus’ original purchases. Most of the information in this paper comes from a collection of letters, held by the Saltaire Collection, which is managed by the Saltaire World Heritage and Education Association (SWHEA), and held in ‘Shipley College’, Shipley. The letters are part of the ‘Roberts Family Collection’, and form part of a significant loan to the Collection by the Roberts family of Strathallan Castle, Perthshire, Scotland. The purpose of this loan was to enable the volunteers at the Collection to make fair copies of the documents and photographs. The object being to allow students of Saltaire history to gain additional insights into the various aspects of Sir James Roberts’ life and his connections with Saltaire. The particular letters that I have used for this talk were written between 1918 and 1922. The letters consist of communications between Sir James Roberts and his Saltaire representative, John Baker, who was clerk of works at the Saltaire Mills during Sir James’ time there. John Baker was born in Goatland, in the North Riding in c.1852. In 1911 he was living at 5 Albert Road, Saltaire, with his wife and two sons, and is shown in the census as ‘Clerk of Works’. He retired to Morecambe in May 1919 and commuted to Saltaire on a weekly basis, in order to take care of Sir James’ interests in Shipley, Baildon and Bingley. He died in February 1934. He is buried with his wife and a son in Nab Wood Cemetery, Shipley. The other main source of information has come from the collection of land transfer records, held in the West Riding Registry of Deeds, now housed in the Yorkshire History Centre in Wakefield (WRRD). In addition, various articles and letters published in the Shipley Times and Express have added to the information on this subject. Baker Letters - Roberts papers -Saltaire Collection As the majority of these letters consist of those written by John Baker to Sir James, and only a few by Sir James in return, there are gaps in the story. Whilst one letter may refer to a particular issue, there is not, necessarily, enough information in the returning letters to obtain a full explanation of the topic in-hand. This means that there can be problems with trying to understand the full picture of some of the issues relating to this period. Following the death of Sir Titus Salt in 1876, he left the undeveloped land in Shipley and Baildon, that he had purchased between 1850 and 1874, in the hands of his Trustees. His Trustees, most of whom were his sons, had the responsibility for paying out various annuities to Sir Titus’ female relatives. These annuities were paid through loans, known as Debentures, which were secured by the income from the rents on the farm land and allotments and the assets of the mill company. The failure of these heirs to maintain the mill company as a going concern led to the sale of the company to a group of Bradford business men. Sir James Roberts – Roberts Papers-Saltaire Collection When James Roberts and his fellow directors, Isaac Smith, John Rhodes and John Maddocks took over control of the mill in 1893, they also took on the ‘Joint Beneficial Ownership’ of these undeveloped lands along with the Salt family Trustees. This meant that neither party could do anything with this land without the approval of the other interested parties. Over the years, several of these plots of land were sold. These included the land on Baildon’s Otley Road, between Baildon Bridge and Charlestown Cemetery. Also the land lying to the east of the Shipley College building, now occupied by Maddocks, Rhodes and Baker Streets. In 1901, Mr Roberts, as he then was, became the sole owner of the mill and village, following the withdrawal of his earlier partners. As such, he also came into the joint ownership, with the Salts Trustees, of all the surviving undeveloped land. From all the records available, it can be seen that Sir James had decided to retire from the Saltaire Mill business before the start of the First World War. As a consequence of this decision, and, following the award of a Baronetcy, he had bought Strathallan Castle in Perthshire in 1910. In one of his letters Sir James shows that he had intended to pass on the responsibility of running the mill business to his only remaining son, Harry. But Harry’s conscription into the army in 1916 prevented this. In the event, Harold was severely wounded and was unable to return to his management activities at Salts, leaving Sir James without a practical heir to take over the firm that he had been involved with since1893. As a result, Sir James did not officially retire from the Saltaire Mill company, that he had been in sole charge of since 1900, until 1918, at the age of 70. At which point, he sold the business and retired to Scotland. Though, as it turned out, he would remain involved in the affairs of Saltaire and Shipley until at least 1925. Mr Roberts had bought the Milner Field estate, in Bingley, from Catherine Salt, the widow of Titus Salt jnr. in 1903. Though according to John Baker, Mr Roberts got the house at a discount. It seems that Baker had told Mrs Salt that Bertram Roberts, Sir James’ eldest son, was going to build a large house in a field close to Trench farm. This was possibly a negotiating sleight of hand by Mr Baker, or perhaps a member of the Roberts’ family, but the idea seemed to horrify Mrs Salt, and, according Mr Baker, she sold the nd house at a much lower price than she had wanted to [22 March 1918]. Following his move to Scotland, Sir James’ daughter, Lily-May and his son-in-law Frederick Aykroyd seem to have had the responsibility for looking after Milner Field, until 1919 when the house was included with the Coach Road lands in the arrangement with Messer's Gaunt and Foster. Milner Field - Roberts papers - Saltaire Collection In 1911, Sir James, as he then was, had bought Hirst Wood from the Lord of the Manor of Shipley, the Earl of Rosse. One of the later letters suggest that this purchase was in order to prevent any possible development of the wood, and to protect Sir James’ view from Milner Field. Though, during the First World War, Sir James was approached by a chemical company who wanted to buy Upper Hirst Mill in Hirst Wood, in order to build a chemical plant. It is likely that one of the reason behind this was that prior to the First World War, Germany had a virtual monopoly on industrial chemicals in Europe. Following the outbreak of war, the government realised that we would have problems obtaining such chemicals for our own industries. So, they encouraged the development of a British chemical industry, in order to protect us against a future crisis. So, it is possible that this planned project would have been part of that scheme th [29 September 1918]. Fortunately, the request to buy was rejected. By the end of the First World War, the last of the Debentures were due to be repaid, and the Trustees, having fulfilled their responsibilities with regard to the annuities, offered the land to the new ‘Part Beneficent Owners’, the Salts Mill company, now led by: Arthur Hill, Ernest Gates, and Henry Whitehead, but they declined. Pressure was put on Sir James to take on the properties, and, despite some reluctance, he took over control of this land, even though by this time he was living in Perthshire. As I mentioned earlier, there are gaps in our knowledge with regards to Sir James and his business activities in Saltaire. And this situation is one of those conundrums. Given that Sir James had retired from the mill business, and left the area, why did he take on the purchase and ownership of this land? It is possible that he saw the potential benefit of amalgamating his Milner Field property with the Coach Road properties; and the profit that would be generated from the future sale of this enlarged estate. But that is speculation, as, of the present time, there is no evidence for his decision to purchase the Trustees’ land. According to the deeds in the West Riding Registry of Deeds in Wakefield, Sir James took personal possession of these lands in Baildon and Shipley in 1919 (WRRD 1919 92 897 320) for the sum of £23,233 15s 3d. This purchase consisted of the land on the Baildon Coach Road between Green Lane and the Baildon/Bingley boundary at Loadpit Beck. It included: Midgley Farm, the two Trench farms, Midgley Wood, Trench Wood, Walker Wood and Saltaire Park. The lands on the Shipley side consisted of the area to the west of Victoria Road, between the River Aire on the north and the railway line on the south, excluding the Congregational Church grounds. It also included the allotments between the river and the canal, and the land behind the Congregational church. It also included all the undeveloped land between Albert Road and Hirst Lane, at the junction of which were a set of allotments, now covered by the playground and buildings of the Clarence Road Nursery School. The transfer also included the allotments on Caroline Street opposite the mill. The division of the old Salt’s estate between the Mill company and Sir James following the withdrawal of the Trustees, led to some confusion. The reason behind this is that it would seem that there was no definitive plan of the whole estate. Indeed, the evidence suggests that there were several different plans, produced at different times, in the possession of the various parties. As a result, no one seemed certain who owned what, with regard to the land between the canal and the river at the bottom of Victoria Road. The problem over the precise details of the boundaries even led someone in the mill company to question whether or not they actually owned the Royal Café! (previously, the Dining Room) [ Letter: 22nd April 1918]. Even though the evidence of the map accompanying the deed of 1919, shows that this building was part of the mill assets and not included in this sale. The plan accompanying the deed of 1919 shows that the bridge north of the canal, the land under the bridge and the land to the west of the bridge formed a part of the assets transferred to Sir James; i.e. the area coloured pink. Although it is not obvious from this plan, there was a small area just to the west of the bridge and a section under it, which remained the property of of the mill company. This allowed them access to the New Mill. WRRD plan 1919-92-897-320 (Part of) It is also interesting to note that there is a strip of land on the north edge of the allotment garden paralleling the railway line not included in this transfer. This strip of land was bought by the railway company several years earlier in preparation for the widening of the railway cutting. A project that never took place. At the moment, I am not sure if the railway authorities still own this land or not. Almost immediately after taking full possession of this old Salt land, Sir James decided to sell it, along with the Milner Field estate; and he seems to have given Mr Baker a free hand to find a buyer. During the early discussions regarding the future sale, Sir James, talking about potential buyers, suggested to Mr Baker that: ‘……. you might point out that all the land, but particularly the 14 acres comprised in the Park, is excellent building land’ [30th June 1919]. Such a comment implies that, at this time, there was nothing ‘off the cards’, as far as the future development of this area was concerned. It can also be assumed that at this time, Sir James was considering selling off individual plots of land by auction. And apparently, an auction catalogue was in the process of being produced. This, though, was a different catalogue to the one published in 1922 for Gaunt and Foster. In July 1919, Mr Baker informed Sir James’ that he was was negotiating with a Bradford man, a th Mr Robinson, regarding the sale of the Coach Road lands and the Milner Field Estate [4 July 1919]. Initially, it was uncertain who Mr Robinson represented. Though it soon became clear that he was negotiating on behalf of a Bradford Solicitor, Norman Foster. At this point Sir James got personally involved, and the sale was finally agreed after a face-to- th face meeting between Sir James and Mr Foster in July 1919, with the price set at £72,500 [17 July 1919]. The news of this ‘sale’ was announced in the Shipley Times & Express on the 25th July. This agreement included all the land on the north side of the River Aire between Primrose Lane in Bingley and Green Lane in Baildon, that had not already been disposed of. Later deeds, relating to this transfer, show that there were two partners in the purchase: Maurice Gaunt and Norman Alexander Foster, who were in practice together as solicitors at No. 1, Cheapside, Bradford. A few weeks after the purchases, Gaunt and Foster received an offer from a ‘Bradford Gentleman’ who wanted to buy Saltaire Park, in order to save it from possible development. nd Though after this initial newspaper report of 22 August 1919, there seems to be no more information regarding this offer. The Milner Field estate and house were also included in the sale, along with those house contents not wanted by Sir James for Strathallan Castle, nor for his London home at Hyde Park Gardens. Though we have no information on exactly what Sir James removed from the house. Immediately after the sale, though, Sir James had second thoughts. He asked John Baker to have the flagpole at the house taken down and shipped to Scotland, along with a rowing boat on the lake outside the house. Mr Foster objected, saying that these two items were included as part of the original purchase. It then became necessary for Mr Baker to explain to Sir James that rd the flagpole was too large to transport economically and the boat was rather old. [23 July 1919] So that plan seems to have been dropped. Although his letter of the 17th of July, and the later newspaper reports in the following month, implies that Sir James had sold this land outright to Gaunt and Foster, later evidence contradicts this. In a letter of November 1920, for example, Mr Baker refers to Mr Foster ‘talking as if they did not already own Milner Field.’ Also, there seems to be no record of a 1919 freehold sale by Sir James to Gaunt and Foster in the West Riding Registry of Deeds in Wakefield, where records of such sales are recorded. It can also be seen that in subsequent sales of the Milner Field estate and the Coach Road lands over the next few years, Sir James was still identified as the ‘vendor’ i.e., the actual seller. While Gaunt and Foster are shown as the ‘sub-vendors’, i.e., people who had some contractual interest in the properties (WRRD 1921-1923). It would seem more than likely, therefore, that this ‘purchase’ by Gaunt & Foster was simply an ‘option to buy’. If this was the case, then, presumably, the arrangement would have been secured by a large down payment. Though the lack of sight of the relevant document means that the evidence for this probability is not yet available. In retrospect, it can be speculated that this ‘option to buy’ was probably on condition that the two solicitors would be able to obtain planning permission to develop the whole of the Coach Road and the Milner Field Estate for housing and new roads. But prior to the large project that seems to have been planned for the land, the pair seem to have been quite prepared to sell off individual sections. For example, in November 1920, Sir James was informed by Mr Baker that Gaunt and Foster were, apparently, talking to a motion picture company, who were considering the idea of turning Milner Field into a film studio [10th November 1920]. Sir James didn’t like this idea at all. As he wrote to Mr Baker, ‘-- an institution in such surroundings is bound to have a serious effect upon the morals of the neighbourhood’. In the event, the whole scheme seems to have fallen through. The company needed a large dam and a generating plant to produce the electricity require for making their silent movies. Initially, they looked at the reservoirs on the Glen to supply the water. There was also talk of the film company buying Upper Hirst Mill in order to use the existing dam on the river, but, obviously, nothing came of the scheme. In September 1922 Gaunt and Foster tried to sell off the whole of the Milner Field estate and all th the Coach Road lands. And a newspaper report of 5 September talks about plans to turn Milner Field into a ‘Garden Suburb’. A sales catalogue was produced highlighting all the different plots of land in the sale, along with an interim layout of the new roads and house plots that were to be available for sale. (A copy of this catalogue is in the Collection Room at Shipley College.) (Saltaire Collection - A2-008) Salles catalogue of Milner Field : Saltaire Collection: A2-008 For whatever reason, this proposed auction never took place. It is more than likely that Bingley UDC and Baildon UDC refused planning permission for the proposed development on the Milner Field Estate and the Coach Road. Though the evidence to confirm this theory has not yet been identified. But it can be assumed that, as a result of this, probable, failure to obtain planning permission, the proposed plan for an auction of the estate, and the Coach Road lands, which according to th the press was due to be held at the Victoria Hotel, Bradford, on 12 October 1922 fell through. From this time on, the two solicitors co-operated with Sir James in selling off individual plots of land on the Coach Road. A section of the plan from the 1922 sales catalogue of the Milner Field Estate Saltaire Collection: A2-009 In late 1922 Sir James transferred some the unsold land, valued at £3,000, as Freehold to Gaunt and Foster (WRRD 1922 91 1298 472) The value of this transfer was possibly based on the original holding deposit that Gaunt and Foster had used to secure the option to buy. This transfer consisted of several plots of land: A small piece of land just to the south of Trench Farm of 6,043 sq. yds.; a plot of 3,790 sq. yds. opposite the Primrose Lane entrance to Milner Field; another small piece of land to the north of Roberts Park of 6,283 sq. yds; a small plot of 1,000 sq. yds. at the top of the Glen Tramway; a plot of land of 2,247 sq. yds. to the north of the River Aire at Baildon Bridge; and a larger piece of land stretching between the Coach Road and the top of Midgley Wood of 21 acres. From this time on, these two solicitors were selling off these pieces of land in their own names. In 1923 the couple sold the land in Primrose Lane and two plot of land in Baildon to the Salts Mill company. And it’s from the record of this transfer of property that we get the evidence showing that Gaunt and Foster did not actually buy the Milner Field and Coach Road estates in 1919. To quote from part of the deed of transfer, “ Whereas the vendor being seised (sic) of the hereditaments hereinafter described and intended to be hereby conveyed in fee simple in possession free from incumbrances sometime since agreed with the purchasers for the sale thereof to them (amongst other hereditaments) for a like estate at the price of sixty-two thousand five hundred pounds but no conveyance of the hereditaments hereinafter described has yet been executed. Though it should be noticed there is a £10,000 difference between this quoted figure and the price mentioned in the letter of 1919. Later evidence also shows that even after this period, there were a few sales in which Sir James and Gaunt and Foster were joint sellers. This included the sale of various sections of land on the Coach Road, and the sale of the Milner Field estate to the Salts Mill company in January 1923. The Coach Road sales included: The two Trench Farms; a plot at the southern end of the Glen Tramway’ where the large shed is; a plot at the junction of Thompson Lane and the Coach Road; a plot of land to the north of Saltaire Park; and the land, at that time occupied by the Saltaire Tennis Club, on the north side of the river This plan, from that sale, (see below) shows those areas excluded from the sale marked around in red WRRD plan 1923/17/778/16 (part of) The original ‘sale’ to Gaunt and Foster had included Saltaire Park. Sir James had tried to offer the park to Shipley Council in February 1919. But, according to later newspaper accounts, two sub-committees of the Shipley Council who had considered the offer turned it down, without it going to the full Council meeting, and the public did not find out about this offer until later in the year. However, it turned out that the park had been offered to Shipley on certain conditions. These being that Sir James would remain as the owner, but that Shipley UDC would be responsible for its upkeep. He also offered to let Shipley have the boathouse on the river, and the allotments on Caroline Street and in Albert Road, though he wanted to keep the rents from these. He also wanted the council to guarantee that the public would have the right to free access to the park at all times. Anyway, it would seem that Shipley UDC took so long to decide on the offer, that when Sir James ‘sold’ Milner Field and the Coach Road lands to Gaunt and Foster he included the park in the sale. Back in August 1919, Gaunt and Foster had been in negotiations with the Salts Mill company with regard to their purchase of Saltaire Park , but the pair were asking for £12,500 which was rejected, so the park was left in their hands. In an interview for the Shipley Times & Express of the 12th of September 1919, Gaunt and Foster are reported to have said, “We feel that the estate, according to the way it is handled, might be very easily made or marred. It has been bought at a market price and upon a commercial basis, which implies we shall not be at liberty to make a present of the park to any local authority”. One of the more unusual events regarding this period was that the Shipley Times & Express reported that the park had been closed to the public on Sunday 14th September 1919, and the gates were locked. They were not re-opened until the following Wednesday. It is possible that the closure was because having ‘bought’ the park, Gaunt and Foster wanted to show that the park was now private property. Although the park had, legally, always been private property; initially, belong to the mill company and then to Sir James, the closure was, presumably to emphasis that the park was now separated from the mill company. It was probably during this period that Sir James realised that Gaunt and Foster’s plan for the development of the Coach Road might endanger the park and that there was a risked of it being destroyed and used for housing. Also, Sir James was taking a lot of ‘flack’ from the people of Shipley and Saltaire over his handling of the situation and putting the park in danger. He had obviously had a change of heart since the time when he had considered selling the park for development. Towards the end of 1919, Mr Baker reported that the park was deteriorating, as the gardeners had been dismissed and no one was taking responsibility for it [22nd November 1919]. So, In late November Sir James took the park back from Gaunt and Foster. The following year, Sir James decided to gift Saltaire Park to Bradford Corporation. The public were made aware of this move in the Shipley Times and Express edition of 5th November 1920. The park was given to Bradford Council on condition that it was renamed ‘Roberts Park’ in memory of Sir James’ eldest son, Bertram Foster Roberts who had died in 1912. Though Mr Baker complained about the placing of the memorial plaque to Bertram outside the park entrance, just by the side of the park lodge. He suggested that the plaque should have been placed inside the park by the main notice board [8th October 1920]. The Baker letters prove that in the early 1920s, there was a great deal of interest from local farmers regarding the land behind the Saltaire Congregational Church. And several people were interested in buying this ground. At that time this land consisted entirely of grass-land and cattle were kept in the fields [4th October 1920]. This information produces an interesting image of the sight of cattle moving up and down Victoria Road back in those days. WRRD plan 1919-92-897-320 (Part of) There are also numerous references in the letters of this period relating to the precise boundary between the church and the surrounding Roberts’ land. So, it would appear that there was still no definitive map of the area showing the legal boundary between the two properties. One of the main social elements to come out of the letters of 1921 was the serious economic crisis affecting both businesses and individuals. This was the time of the National Coal strike and many businesses had to shut down or go onto part-time working as they could not get coal for their mill engines. The result was a great deal of poverty in the area, and Mr Baker found it increasingly difficult collecting rents from people who were unemployed [31st May 1921]. The rents that Mr Baker collected seem to be for the cottages at Higher Hirst Mill and Hirst Wood Crescent Baker Letters - Roberts Papers - Saltaire Collection Mr Baker pointed out to Sir James that Shipley Council were planning to increase the rents of all the properties that they owned. So, he wrote to Sir James suggesting that by freezing his rents, it would make him look good and would be a way of getting his own back on Shipley Council, who had snubbed him during the last war over his son Harold’s conscription. Sir James agreed with Mr Baker and did not increase the rents at that time. There was also talk around this time of selling parts of Hirst Wood for a housing development, but there are no details of the specific locations in the relevant letter [30th July 1920]. It does suggest, though, that at that time nothing was ‘out of bounds’ with regards to the future development of the wood. Even though they had fallen out earlier; during the course of 1921 Sir James had been negotiating with Shipley UDC with regard to them buying all the undeveloped Salt land on the Shipley side of the river. By November the Council had received the approval of the Ministry of Health to borrow enough money for the purchase [9th November1921]. This transfer to Shipley included the land between the river and the canal, that later became the Saltaire Playing Fields and Tennis Courts; the land between Albert Road and Hirst Lane; the land between the canal and the railway line stretching out behind the Saltaire Congregational Church and the land between the railway and Caroline Street (WRRD1921-95-1228-492). WRRD plan 1919-92-897-320 (Part of) One of the main reasons for Shipley UDC deciding to buy all this land, was to allow them to build council houses, in preparation for a major slum clearance programme planned for the town. Once the Council had decided on how much land they needed, which was the land to the west of Albert Road, the Council sold all the surplus land to the Salts Mill company for £6,500. [WRRD 1922 54 1124 414] It was also around this same period, that Sir James gave the Hirst Wood to Shipley Council as an outright gift (WRRD 1922 8 26 10). It is possible that this move was to ease relations between Sir James and the Council that had been under some strain for some years. In January 1921, the mill company decided to convert the land between the river and canal into a park and playing fields and gave the allotment holders there notice to quit. As compensation, the Salts Mill company gave the land behind the Congregational Church to the allotment holders. This period coincided with the formation of the ‘Saltaire Mills Horticultural Society’, led by one of Saltaire’s main rose growers, Charles Houlden (ST&E August 24th 1923) By 1922, around 100 allotments had been created. It is worth a quote from the relevant text on the Saltaire village web site. This was recorded as: ‘Each allotment will have a cold frame, and every third allotment will have a greenhouse. The whole will symmetrically be laid out by the firm, who very likely will purchase the frames and greenhouses and sell them to the tenants of the allotments at a low figure. About nine greenhouses will be 9ft. by 15ft. and the remainder 6ft. by 12ft.’ [ref. saltairevillage.infoSaltaire_diary.html] See also Les Brook’s paper on the history of the Saltaire Allotments: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y967hdfl5jjhebg/SALTAIRES%20ALLOTMENTS%20A%20Second %20Draft%20of%20their%20History%20version%202.pdf?dl=0 Even after he had sold the mill and village to the new Saltaire Mill directors: Arthur Hill, Henry Whitehead & Ernest Gates in 1918, Sir James seems to have had the responsibly for paying the pensions of certain retired and disabled people. The origins of these pensions seem to date from 1909, following the presentation of a casket to commemorate Sir James’ Baronetcy. This was the same year that the government introduced a state pension for 70-year-olds. At that meeting of the mill employees, Sir James announced that he would be paying a pension to all th rd the Salts mill workers once they had reached their 65 year. [ST&E Dec. 3 , 1909] Baker Letters – Roberts Papers -Saltaire Collection Though it can be seen from the information in the letters that at least some of the recipients were younger but disabled. In one letter of February 25th, 1919, for example, there is a reference to a lady of only 37, who was placed on the pensioner’s list as she was crippled with chronic rheumatism. It seems that Mr Baker was given the responsible for paying out the pensions. However, the decision on who was to receive the payments seems to have been in the hands of a committee, chaired by Mr George Morrell. He was the Superintendent of the Saltaire Congregational Sunday School and had been the first headmaster of the Salt Factory Schools. In 1918 the pension list consisted of 19 pensioners, who received 5 shillings per week. The payments to the individuals stopped when they reached the age of 70, as they then received the st state pension. (Roberts Papers: 31 May 1918) Due to lack of other evidence, it is not easy to understand this pensioner’s list. Even in 1918, the list seems quite small, given the large number of employees of the mill at this time. Also, given that the list diminished over time, with only the occasional addition, it can only be speculated that Sir James’ obligations only related to people who had retired during Sir James’ time at the mill. By 1922 this list had been reduced to 7 pensioners. And it would seem that Sir James had decided that this was the right time to terminate all his obligations in Saltaire. So, the existing pensioners were paid a lump sum of £65, equivalent to 5 years’ worth of pension. This, then, th seems to have finalised Sir James’ commitment with regards to paying such pensions. [11 October 1922] So, that is the limit of my research on this subject, so far. The letters loaned to the Saltaire Collection only go as far as the end of 1922. As of this moment, we have no further documentary information from the Roberts’ family regarding Sir James’ involvement with Saltaire. But I would like to finish with a small ‘postscript’ to round off this paper. Postscript In November 1925, the Saltaire Rose Society invited Sir James to accept the presidency of the society for the following year. Unfortunately, the 1926 show, which was normally held in Roberts Park, had to be cancelled owing to the General Strike. Sir James had donated £100 to the th Society but declined to retain the presidency for the following year. (ST&E 12 December 1926.) As of the present time, I have not been able to identify any later contact with the village. Though Sir James obviously remained interested in local affairs. This can be seen from a letter he wrote to the Shipley Liberal Association at the time of a major meeting in 1927, in which he th talked about the profitability of the Salt’s Mill Company in the first two decades of the 20 century. He was also known to have remained a keen supporter of the Shipley Veterans Association. Sir James Roberts had given Strathallan to his grandson, James Denby Roberts. He died at his home ‘Fairlight’ near Hastings on 31st December 1935. IAN WATSON - 2023 By Ian Watson-2023 All the reproduction of photographs and plans in this paper from the Roberts Collection, are on loan to the Saltaire Collection, and are the copyright of the Roberts family.