MACKENZIE COUNTRY.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18404, 10 June 1925, Page 10

MACKENZIE COUNTRY.

SOME EARLY SNOW-

STORMS.

"THEN AND NOW" REMINISCENCES. (SPECIALLY WHITTEX FOB "THE PEESS.'') (By T. D. Burnett, M.P.) Is the climate of South Canterbury changing? Are we nearing the end of a cycle of fine'winters and colder summers, or is the cycle in the seasons merely a theory and not established in man's experience of a country's climate? Why is it that for seventeen years the (Mackenzie Country has enjoyed complete immunity from widespread bad winters? Why is it that in ISI3. the Fairlie basin' had two and three feet of snow, while over the rang© tho Mackenzie Country was practically clear? Why is it that during the same year, favoured North Canterbury was groaning under four and five feet of snow and widespread losses of sheep, and the old Mackenzie Country (at one timo notorious for its great snowstorms) still esca.ped? And, again, why was it that in July, 1923, favoured Lake Wakatipu country, with its 1000 foot altitude, suffered disastrous losses while the old Mackenzie again only experienced severe frosts, and not a sound-consfcitutioned sheep was lost? It i 3 an intensely interesting subject, and of all the many problems confronting the high-country sheepmen the one;, of most intimate concern is that of passably fine winters; wool prices and stock prices are of somewhat secondary importances. The writer is inclined to the belief that our climate is changing; for the better; the seasons may be less seasonable, but the winters ire milder, and. we do not now experience the tremendous gales of rain .and sleet that were so common at lambing time year* ago in the months of October and November. 2ne First Run. Tho first sheep run in the Mackenzie was taken up in May, 1856, by McHutchison and Gladstone; that was Mary's Range, and 1 the first homestead, formed that same winter on the bay below Dosver's Pass on the shores of Lake Pukaki; it is still locally 'known as "Gladstone's Chimney." Since that day people, especially the older settled ones, Lave been preternaturally observant of the passing winters. The year 1801 is the first recorded had one. The storm came in from the sou'rwest with three feet of snow in the Tekapo centre; accompanied' by a' tremendous drift and then a hard frost. There were severe losses, but the country was ever so much better in vegetation and in any case, the country was only half stocked. . - , , The snowstorm of 1867 tho writer does hot profess to know much about.J It was particularly disastrous in North Canterbury, but evidehtly.it did not I affect the Mackenzie basin much. The front ranges apparently got;' more than their share. Then 1870 was a particularly bad winter with.widespread snow losses. Beginning in mid-April, a whole procession of falls carried on ( till the beginning of October; it is safe to say j that hundreds-of thousands' of sheep were caught on their summer country ..in the Canterbury gorges and the Mackenzie basin and never got out alive. It was during, this winter that -John Brown, head shepherd .on;'. Glentanner -i station, and one of the finest high-coun- -I try sheepmen that ever strode a mountain face, was lost up Fred's Creekj Glentanner. The next bad winter was a winter of big depths of .enow—lß79. This was the winter in which John Smith, son of "the late A. B. Smith, of Eollesby station, and Morrison, the head shepherd, were lost in an avalanche up Avalanche Creek, Eollesby "- Eange. There were five 'feet .of snow at Lilybank, and 150 of wild and semi-wild horses running on station perished. The next historic, snowstorm was the; extraordinary spring snow of September 24th, 1884.. In most places three feet of snow fell, and it lay until towards the middle of October; it did an incalculable amount of damage, particularly amongst the ewe flocks. Next in the procession was the great storm of July 24th, 1888—three feet in the Tasman Valley and on the Mackenzie Plains, reaching to six feet in tho Gbdley Valley; it lay for six weeks, and probably 60 per cent, of the sheep went down. Then we -had a breathing spell for seven years, during which ithne we licked our wounds .and took comfort from small blessings, namely, merino wool at 4d per pound in London, and we were quite joyful on being able,to.get money at 10 per cent. An Historic Fall. . Then came the'''old man" of all\the snows—the historic snowstorm of June 24th, 1895—the "daddy" of the lot. The snow opened business early in April, and kept on shooting .at us in numbers of minor falls, until the morning of June 24th, when the "grand attack" was.opened. The next morning throughout the Mackenzie Country the depth of snow varied from two to four feet. More snows followed throughout July, and it was not until towards the end of the first week in.September that the great thaw set in. This was a general snowfall throughout the' South Island; it killed at least a million sheep, and the Seddon Government came with immediate relief to the runholders, in the shape of extension of leases, and whole-, sale reductions in rents. The Government wisely insisted that where they made concessions to the runholders, the mortgagees (mainly the banks and mercantile houses) would have to make substantial reductions_in'the mortgages owing. This great snow marked the turning point of the pastoral industry of the South Island.' Conditions began slowly but surely to improve; it marked the turning in the tide, and .since then no man temperamentally suited to the backcountry life, if he has understood his business, has had any c'ause to complain of how the back country has treated him. j The next big snowstorm came on July 11th, 1903; it was a snowfall of great diversity; it let Richmond, in the Upper Godley Valley, off lightly; it gave the Tasman Valley two feet, while the country between Pukaki and Tekapo was covered to a depth of over three feet. Across the river it let the Grampians country off with something under a foot, while further down it put the Haldon. country in pretty bad shape. Then it visited the ITairlie basin with several feet of snow and continued down country as far as Sutherlands, giving eighteen inches at Cave railway station and between two and three feet on the downs between Cave and Craigmore. The losses ■ in stock - throughout the country were exceptionally heavy,: not the least being on the agricultural farms, where many of the farmers did not then know the precautions to be taken in dry-feeding sheep. A Period of Immunity. After 1903 we had freedom from big snows for five years till,.on July 6th, <

1908, we experienced a very bad fall. By this time, however, the art of handling sheep in time of snow had been brought to a higher state of perfection. Instead of making preparations for the artificial feeding of stock in the snow, farmers and pastoralists now fenced in more of their "safe" country and put their stock on these blocks in the danger period, which begins, approximately, in the middle' of June. ' The greatest losses were experienced not so much in the subalpine country as in the Two Thumb, Eollesby, and" Dalgety ranges, where a tremendous drift on the opening day of the storm obliterated thousands of sheep. Since 190S, a period of nearly seventeen years, the Mackenzie Country has enjoyed immunity from devastating snowstorms. While not. unduly apprehensive, I am somewhat concerned at the immunity we have enjoyed, and while I hold that the climate is becoming milder and more favourable, that is not to say that it is changing so rapidly as to lead to the belief that a bad winter is a thing of the past. These thoughts naturally lead one to think of the number, class, and character of the sheep which go to make up the ideal high-country flock —a subject that requires to be approached _ not merely from the viewpoint of the individual owner, but also from an economic and a national point of view. Concerning this aspett of the matter, I hope to have something to say in another article.