FARMER.

Otaki Mail, 3 January 1919, Page 4

FARMER.

\ r.—« • THE-*} 'jDUCTION OF SHEEP , , \ >EW ZEALAND. ; A \ I i’n (a 1 y'''""'— Cs ting contribution to the ■ Nelsoity ‘ S; '£vening Mail.” Mr J. C. : Monro, jot Palmerston North, gives a i review/of the first introduction of sheep into the Dominion, which wc quote:— “In the Journal of Agriculture some ■'Tilhe ago there was a very excellent article upon the subject, of sheepbreeding in New Zealand by Sir James <_t. Wilson. Sir James expresses a regret, which all interested in the subject must share with him, that the ‘pioneers' of the industry have gone, leaving no rej cord of the part they played in forj warding this greatest of our industries. ’ And he adds that the first record we have of sheep being introduced to the South Island was when they were tajten to what is now Marlborough, by Messrs Clifford and Weld, in Ike year 1847, for the stocking of tlicir Flaxbotvrnc i Station. Sir James is by no means : singular in making this statement, nor | is this the first occasion of its appearancc in black and white,'as an historij cal fact. Although lam not In a ; position to give the actual genesis of the sheep in New Zealand, I have irrei futable evidence to prove that a con- • siderablc number were in the South Island long before the year 1547; and ■ since it will throw light upon the subI jeet, I venture to hope that its perusal i may, possibly, be of interest to some of your readers. Towards the end of 1842 j my father took sheep to Nelson from . Melbourne, to stock land on the Wai- ' moa Plains bought by him from the INew Zealand Company. I can’t tell you their number, but on landing them from the ship a good many were killed ' from eating tutu, the evil properties of ! which, at time, ho was ignorant. Writing to one of his sisters at Home on the Ist February, 1545,' he says:— ‘With regard to my worldly matters, my flocks are increasing,'my crops arc good, and my garden the envy of the neighbourhood, both for its fruits and flowers. ’ “Turning to page 2d of ‘The Jubilee , History of Nelson,’ compiled by the late I Eowtlier Broad, District Judge, T read j this: ‘Early in June, 1842, the prices of (various articles of focr I were as. follows:—Beef, Is: mutton, Is 2d per lb; fowls, 12s pci* pair: ducks, 20s per pa’:'; J bread, Is 2d per 21b loaf; eggs, 4s per . dozen; potatoes, £2 10s per ton. The -e j wen- no geese or turkeys.’ Now. it we j compare tin* relative prices in t/. ■ ••:- to-resting list, bearing in mind that. I there wen- about 2000 people in the i serf lenient, at the time to be fed, we jnust admit that mutton was conipam- \ lively cheap, and we are forced to the conclusion that there must have been a considerable number of sliecp in the disj tried, prior to the arrival of those infro- ' duced bv my father. Page 112 of the

‘Jubilee History’ records tlte fact that •the first attempt at ninth weaving was ‘ trade by Air Thomas Blink in 1847* — i the very year in which Messrs Clifford and Weld tool; their .sheep to Flax- . bourne. ' On Sunday, the 31s( March, iS44. ■ the schooner Deborah sailed from -Vein . son, tinder tlic charter of Mr Tuekett. chief surveyor to tiie Hew Zealand Company, who went to explore the coast of the South Island in search of a suitable site for the settlement of How -Edinburgh, and who took tnv father , with him as a passenger. The latter’s . manuscript diary is before me as I j write. It is of considerable historical : interest, and appears, in extenso, as an appendix to the late Dr. Hoeken's book, ‘Contributions to the Early History of . Her.'Zealand (Otago).’ Jn the original, when describing Port Cooper, he says: ‘At the head of it there is a flat of t about 106 acres, upon which a Hr Greenwood has a. cottage, and cattle, and sheep.’ There was no Canterbury . in these times, but he was for several days the guest of Messrs Deans, who were then the only settlers located upon the plains, having migrated from Holson, because, like many others, they had failed in their attempts to induce the Hew Zealand Company to give them • land in exchange for the scrip paid for by them in England. There was not sufficient, available land in the Helsou , district to satisfy the claims of all the j holders of scrip. Referring to their j Property, the diary says: ‘They have ! sixty head of cattle and thirty sheep, I besides horses. The cattle arc in verygood condition, the sheep moderately so. but they are eonlined within a limited space, in consequence of u number of Maori dogs running about in a wild ) state. •* ’ j

Mr Tackett rejected tlie Port Cooper district. as being unsuitable, in his opin•ou, as a site for the settlement of Xcw I'iinbatgh. mainly because of the scarcity- of titnljefeyjfor building-, am! for fuel, nnn alstf because bi the difficulty of constricting a road from the port to (he plains, ultimately- deciding in favour of Otago. Proceeding southwards, the Bebor.iH put iato Waikouaiti. The

degree of certainty, that lie was, by several years, the first man to introduce sheep into the South Island. ’ ’