The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday Sept. 16, 1865.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 249, 16 September 1865, Page 2

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday Sept. 16, 1865.

The plans of the ruus to be leased on the Wakatip by the Government on the sth October, are now pretty generally circulated, and considerable attention is being paid to them. We have previously promised to show that sheep and cattle farming will ever prove valuable if conducted upon a sound and judicious system, and that the fluctuations of a mining population will interfere less severely with this interest than any other. It is beyond our powers to condense even this portion of the question into a single article, and its importance demands fuller attention at our hands on a future occasion. The present position of the pastoral interest is represented as being in a very precarious state, so far as regards the Middle Island of New Zealand. From this point we take our start. Granted that numerous failures have taken place, and that many more are pending, still there is no occasion to assert that pastoral pursuits will not pay, or that following them does not offer most attractive features to both large and small capitalists. We should be sorry to see the sale of the runs in the Wakatip, about to be submitted, fail through any such opinion becoming prevalent. We have so persistently urged the sale of these Runs, that we necessarily watch with interest the experiment. It is thus desirable to inquire, as a preliminary step, why so many failures have occurred amongst a section of the community generally reputed so wealthy as the squatters. Our contemporary the Canterbury ' Press,' fairly puts the question thus : The sheep-farmer says :—" How can it be otherwise ; sheep were worth 30s a head, now they are worth 15s or 20s. I had 20,000 sheep, and was worth £30,000; now I am only worth £15,000 or £20,000." This is a very insufficient explanation. It might be quite possible for the price of sheep to fall, and yet for the sheep farmer to lose little, and for this reason: the price of sheep depends entirely on the loial market, but the price of the produce depends on the market at the other side of the world. Sheep might fall in price considerably, and yet the income of the sheep farmer might be but little affected. He will suffer, no doubt, in that part of his profits which arises from the sale of wethers, but a rise in the price of wool might cover even the whole loss on that head. To know how the sheep farmer is really affected by a great depreciation in the price of stock, we must know what his real position is. Are the sheep his own ? or have they been bought with borrowed money ? or have they been mortgaged to buy land ? or were they only hired upon terms ? All these are the real elements in the question. There cannot be a second doubt that these are very pertinent questions. In Otago we know that an attempt was made to bolster up prices; that speculation was kept alive; that another attempt was made to obtain a monopoly of runs, and to transfer the freehold lands of the colony —or rather the choice agricultural eyes of each run —into the hands of its holder. While the miners remained in

the Province, with their mouths consuming and their deposits at the banks, this pleasant little game, as we showed in our last issue, proceeded right merrily. The moment, however, the long-dated bills which had been floated in an era of abundance and wealth, matured in depressed times, with a tight money market, the game ended. Hence, a a great deal of the disaster that has befallen the pastoral tenants. Many other causes, such as extravagance, foolish purchases, and in some instances unforeseen and unfortunate losses, have taken place. The system of taking sheep on high terms has not worked well or favorably to the sheep-farmer. So much then briefly for the causes of the present depression. To apply these principally as affecting the future prospects of sheep-farming is an absurd application. To measure the value of runs by such a test is one not a whit more sound. The Australian pastoral tenant who is paying now 2s per acre rent might as well recur to the year 1844, when sheep were unsaleable and wool hardly the carriage to the seaports for exportation. South Australia, with its I4d. per acre rent, migjit appeal to the time when the dingo, want of water, and the blacks entailed ruin. Yet Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland, are daily extending their pastoral country. One thing is certain, with wise laws, a fair climate, an increasing population, with an ever widening market for the fleece, the runs to be offered by the Government in this district present to the capitalist excellent chances. It only remains for us to prove that, despite these heavy charges, sheep-farming does pay, but this, as already stated, must form the subject of another article.