The Cheviot settlement.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 292, 14 June 1898, Page 2

The Cheviot settlement.

o Three years ago the settlers on the Cheviot estate were not in a happy frame of mind concerning their rent, the payment of which a number of them tound to be a very difficult matter. They struggled on, however, and now, fortunately for them a happy change has come over their prospects. Two favourable seasons, supported by good prices for grain, mutton, and wool, have enabled them not only to pay their way, but in many cases left substantial credit balances with which to eftect further improvements ou their holdings. After an absence of, say, three years, a visitor cannot help being struck with the signs everywhere to be seeu of the improvements effected in the interval, and the greater air of prosperity that is now apparent. A large number of substantial dwellings have been erected, and in many cases the iirst temporary erection is now relegated to the uses of an outbuilding. Most of the settlers on the larger agricultural holdings have also put up commodious farm buildings, and altogether the settlerueut now has quito a i homelike appearance, strikingly different from what it presented when the holdings were first occupied. The crops this year wero from medium to good and the outlook for the future is promising A large number of fat sheep suitable for the export trade will be turned oif the turnips this season, the total number of freezing sheep sent of!" the settlement this year being estimated at about 60,000, of which from 30,000 to 35,000 were fat lambs At the comparatively low average of 10s per head the frozen meat trade alone would represent an income of £25,000 to the Cheviot this season. — Christchurch Press.