SHEEP FARMING-PAST AND PRESENT ITS PROFITS AND PROSPECTS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 492, 15 July 1867, Page 2

SHEEP FARMING-PAST AND PRESENT ITS PROFITS AND PROSPECTS.

[co3isn;::iCA.-,;i).j Few people have any very definite idea of the enormous profits that have been realised from sheep-farming; they, know that those profits have beef! (arge, but scarcely appreciate their extent. Let us suppose a run taken po§session of with a flock of sheep consisting of 5000 ewes, ami allow for the oeiE increase ai the rata of 40 per cent, (little enough.) This will in a term of five years become a flock of 26,891 sheep of all ages —being more than five times the original flock ; and, allowing but an average price of 3s per fleece, there v,i:l be realised for wool alone £11,492 15s,—averaging considerably over £2OOO pen annum. What wonder then is thereof the sudden growth into wealth o! some who happened at the right dim to secure extensive runs, and by adoing monopolise the country to tlu almost total exclusion of the bona Jidj agriculturist,—the true stamina of a country’s prosperity,—the only dasthat make a permanent home in a co I my. It cannot be expected of tin sheep-fanner to do tins; the Colony ir to him but a means to au end, —tin-

•iccumulatinu of wealth sufu-nent t>. enable him to return and live in luxury in his native laud, taking there the -land that liis riches will enable bin; to do. They will tell us that the Province is unfilled for agricultural purtuts ; but this is not tne-, though i: a Hue enough that they have sue .‘ceding in mmmpcdising such lands fa runs—so much so that bit little of such has ewr been <dTcred for sale bv ‘lie G jvernment, nor any attempt .ii.i ie to promote the puisnit ufagiiculture untd tiie lately lease I puiius w.-re placed in the m, t rk.-t f -c a term •■f years ; hut such a system caning be ■•xpeete.l to pr.-vc oilier than a failure, n r no man can bo supposed to have "i'her heart or inclination to improve leasehold bind as he would bis own freehold, dd-meowr, ir is a principle autogoiiis! io to thuse el n true rlmton, who desires an inlu r it.a nee Hint can be add in p.-ssessioa by bis <•!ii.<ir-.-n. We may he told ihar, the emls <• i t e ex isting state oi things wiii work its own cure. I( U be so we have a severe or d. ti a to su-l'er before it is expected, ■or at the present lime something like .ciial rata threatens the Province Ac have not a single export except wool, which is at the best but a questionable advantage to any best le the actual grower, and perhaps the Province wend.l be better without, as but the minimum of labor is employed in

is product! m, anil i s immense pivfil> :l no eith.-r huardt-d to bo spout out A ■he Province, oi - they are invested in I the purchase of s‘.ili larger runs thanthat which has produced them—stiii,' further to the exclusion of the good I, agricultural settler. Hut in spite o! hi the advantages of the runholdcr it j appears at length that he lias owr-p readied himself, and even his calling appears to be about to cease to be profitable. Tne increase of their ll icks must be checked as it has become aid unsaleable commodity, and there is n.-j resource, but boiling down for tallow 1 —tallow to export to threat Britain g and it seems more than doubtful whether it will pay its c-st. The embryo company of boiling down runholdt-r.-■real to than an entire rcvola-; tt >a has cd I .-.to taken place in the lal 1 iow trade. Llnnumding and lubrioal iug I oils of far superior nature and quail-j ! ics to animal hits have been ui.-cowml! and are prepared in quantities pracli--c.a : iy inexhaustible’. At the same time; there is no dearth of tallow for such/ purposes as require its use, nor of anv 1 oilier substance whose place it caul supply, as wool did cotton to some ox | tent during the late America! war.| W 00l too has fallen in value, and still; :hrealens a further decline: soiling even the hitherto prosperous class oi■ runiioiders are threatened with urban-' A' their fellow-culeiiists 5 difficulties j Chore is yet the forlorn hops of tilt I sanguine believers in the ex stence o! -i payable gold-field in the Province —to all others a faint mythical shadow, at least as it stands at present, should anything come of it, it v. ill save the province ; if not, we must pay the penalty of the gross political mis management, winch has kept away the agricultm Ist and encouraged the system of runholding. Had the Government of Hawke's Bay in its first days extinguished the MUtiye title to the

liiri lying within a radius of (say) 20 of the port, aud res dd it for agricultural purposes, we should at tLii time be reaping the benefit in vast manufacturing establishmcias, in our iduueiies, our flour mill?, our soud. caudle, and woollen manufactories ; .we should have been self-supporting, and have introduced capital, and kept it in circulation amongst, us —for ail this would have been the necessary result of agriculture,— agriculture which alone can bring a population together, and make and keep it iudapendent and self-reliant.