The Press. MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 1903. NORTH ISLAND AND SOUTH ISLAND SHEEP COMPARED.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11491, 26 January 1903, Page 6

The Press. MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 1903. NORTH ISLAND AND SOUTH ISLAND SHEEP COMPARED.

If the proceedings of the Committee of the House of Representatives upon the frozen meat trade, which sat last session, resulted in no practical outcome, they at least produced a large amount of useful information to North Island sheep farmers. There is no doubt that there were some real grievances against the northern frozen meat companies, but there were many more that on examination proved only imaginary, and were based upon eith«r incomplete or entirely erroneous information. The fixing from time to time of a definite price to

be given by the companies' buyers for freezing sheep and lamb* seema to have given rise to .considerable dissatisfaction, more especially when eeveral sheep farmers tested bhe market for themselves by sending a few consignments of sheep to the Addington yards, where they realised higher values, after allowing for cost of transit, than were offered on the farms. This, however, gave rise to the entirely erroneous idea that the North Island sheep were bought for csport and passed through our worka as "prime Canterbury" and tihat these , sheep must therefore be equal in quality and to Canterbury she«p. We notice thstt one 5 member of the Committee, -who had previously been active in stirring up the agitation against the Wellington freezing companies, was evidently under the impression that the lines of cheep which the Christchurch papers quote in their Addington market reports were all freezers, and because North Island lines were included, therefore the,' must belong to this class, whereas both freezers and butchers' sheep are quoted. It lias Ween frequently pointed out, however, and the fact was brought under the notice of the Committee, that North Island sheep will only sell-well at Addinifbon when butchers' cheep are scarce here and the pricts ruling in the North Island will permit of consignments being[ sent k> Christchurch. It was made clear in the evidence of those witnesses who Jiad a real knowledge of the trade that the North Island cheep differ very considerably from Canterbury bred sheep both in quality and value ac freezers, but that the difference was somewhat less -when vahted for butchers , purposes, where weight waa a more important consideration. Mr William Nelson, of Nekon Bros., Ltd., Tomoana, Hawke'e Bay, in ins evidence before the Committee, dealt with tms point very clearly when he said "The difference "between the best Canterbury shejp and " our North Island sheep is entirely due to "the breed, and in Hawke's Bay, the dis- " trict I come from—and it applies chiefly "to the whole of the North Island—our

"sheep have a Lincoln bask, a Lincoln " sheep being admittedly a profitable sheep " for wool, but a very bad cheep for mut- " ton. In Canterbury, on the other hana.

" they have high-class merino crossed with " some other breed —either with Leicester " or Down sheep, but without a particle of "Lincoln blood in their reins. It will be " absolutely impossible for Uβ to get such " sheep, because we have to get rid of tlie "Lincoln strain. That is the difference " between Canterbury and North Island 'sheep. The Lincoln man in Canterbury "' cannot grow motion euoh as the man who "produce* it from the merino with a "Leicester or Bows crai. Then, th* Can-

" tertrary man takes a great deal more "trouble in feeding the sheep." Asked it the same argument would apply to the two Islande with regard to fat lambs, Mr Nelson said "We are getting nearer to"gether very i&st. Some 'years ago there "μ-os a vast difference between the two, "but we can get a little bit nearer with "the lambs because we can grow North "Island lambs with a Down or Leicester "father. For some reason or other the "lamb carriea the mark of paternity more " than the sheep does; but, on the whole, " Canterbury lambs are better than ours.' The demand that exists in the North Island for Down rams, especially Soutudowns, shows that more attention is being paid to the production of the best class of fat lambs, and if similar provision were made in the North Island as in Canterbury for bringing forward and fattening off the lambs—and we believe that more attention i is being paid to this matter, especially in the Wairarapa—there is no reason why North Island kmbs should not be quite equal to Canterbury and the freezing sheep

ultimately improved. Mr Nelson was asked a number of questions as to the best breed of sheep to go in for, and touched lipou a point that will be of interest to some of the North Island sheep farmers. During the last year or so large numbers of merino rams have been purchased in Australia and the South Island for use in coarse woolled flocks in the Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay, for th* purpose of producing a finer and more saleable class of wooL. Mr Nelson objects strongly to this method of breeding:, looking at it from the frozen meat point of view. The progeny of a merino ram and Lincoln ewe, which Mr Nelson erroneously calls a "comeback"—there can be no "coming back" to the merino if there is no merino strain in the ewes—produces the most unshapely cajcase; it has all the faults of the merino, the high shoulders and crooks on his back, every imperfection; although the crossing reversely with the Lincoln ram and merino ewe produces a shapely sheep. Those breeders who have gone in for the merino-jUncoln cross are therefore likely to improve the quality of their wool at the expense of their mutton and will have to go a step, further an«l use the Down ram with halfbred ewe* if they want a good freezing lamb or sheep.

There is much interesting information to be gathered from a perusal of the evidence given before the Committee, and it is noticeable that there in much divergence of opinion between those who propose all sorte of schemes for the improvement of the frozen meat trade and those experts who have been engaged in it β-inoe ite inception. Such proposals as the Government grading and branding of the meat, and direct shipment to other markets at Home, besides London, met with advers9 criticism from almost all those conversant with the trade, and their arguments require looking into before one makes up i his mind that Improvement is going to be i effected by any or all o# those proposals, j On the question of concentration of the trade so ac to secure more uniformity in shipments and a better control of pricea. there was more general agreement, but here an intimate knowledge of the trade only showed one th* practical impossibility of such a scheme now being carried out