Black Sheep In Hundreds at Feilding

Chronicle (Levin), 31 January 1948, Page 4

Black Sheep In Hundreds at Feilding

The odj black sheep in a floek noTnialiy passes unnoticed but when a meb of well over 500 changes colqqr overnight it becomes a subject for surpyisq and camment. This happened gt Feilding yesterday Avlien a line of 565 shorn white face wetlier lambs arrived from Taihape for the sale. Although described as white face wether lambs, ihe sheep could not be readily identifled as such when the drover prqceeile'd- fo remove them from the railwjiy truc.ks -round about 4 a.m, yesterday^; for they were all black and, what is nibr'e; blaclt all over, . '•*.

Penned up at the Feilding' sale- yesterday, with nothing to" account for the trausformation, the lambs excfted e.qus^bfalile inte'rest,. and therdi were a feVM AYise-t'racks'-' about a.ffew broed. The auetioneers, Messrs Aflfaham apd Williahis, were ihaturallyp* -coucerrfed over the conditiomV(j4: ^tre lambs aqd comniunicated with the Railway Department qnd a numl)er of oiiicials frqin \Yanganqi and Palmerston Noifli promptly journey to Feilding to inspqct the sheep. If trqnsptves that the lambs, the property of Mr A. G. Btead, had been purchased at Taihape and trucked for Feilding. It was stated yesterday that the tvuoks eontftining the lambs were drawn by an oil-burning engine aqd apparently the discharging gases frqm the consumed oil penetrated the. skips of the lambs when in q tqnnql to change tliem from white to black. The transformation was thorough and cqpiplote. The railway qjficjaN, qn seeiqg the lambs at the yards, could not believe it possible, but the condition qf the sheep was convineing evidenqe .fhat they had been subjeeted to an \musual concentration of the exhaqst gases and oily soot particles during the jqurney. - • Opevntors at the ,sale yesterday agreed that the experience of tbe lambs, which is the flrst to eome under tlie notice of live-stock interests, warrants an investigatiori. Had it beqn stqd .sfleep tQ- suffer, the question pf their aceeptance would und'oubtecjiy arise. The lambs were oft'ered at fhe sale yesferday and ^espite their othqrwise obvious good quality. only f00 were sold at 24s 7d. It is understood that the oxvner proposes to take fhe matter qp xyith the Railway Depattmenf. . j,.. e I