The Southland Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1869.

Southland Times, Issue 1105, 10 February 1869, Page 2

The Southland Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1869.

The result of the fourth series of the London Public Sales of Colonial Wool, commencing on 26th November, so far as it had proceeded, at the departure of the December mail, shows a slight advance upon the quotations of September. The advance may be given at from id to Id per lb, with the addition of an increased competition. A rise in prices not having been in any way anticipated, owing to the large increase of stocks, the slight advance which has been realised may be accepted as an indication of a generally improved condition of the wool trade. It may serve for the present, at any rate in some degree to allay the gloomy forebodings of the interest of which wool is the staple. It is, however, not to be re" garded as a safe index of the probably ruling prices, when the clip ot 1868 shall generallv have found its way to the market. This is scarcely likely to be the case unless some extraordinary circumstances should arise to increase the demand — an event upon which it is not prudent to calculate. In the present aspect of the wool trade ; in the face of a continued increase of the supply ; with no certainty of a widened outlet ; the question to be solved by the pastoral interest is that of utilising as much as possible its present resources. To make the gain in one direction outweigh the loss in another j by increase in quantity and improved condition to maintain present income, and if practicable to strike out some new course by which profits shall be realised from sources hitherto neglected or unavoidable. Much has been written and urged during the last few years on the necessity for an improvement in the getting up of the clip. Judging from the repeated remonstrances of the wool brokers, still continued, it appears that as a body the wool growers have not generally realised the necessity. The slovenly condition of much of the wool sent to market is still a matter of complaint. Occasionally we hear of the introduction and application of new and improved processes for sheep and wool cashing, but as a rule squatters are very slow (as compared with those engaged in other pursuits) to avail themselves of appliances, the probrobable effect of which would be to improve their staple, and thus enlarge their income. A long run of prosperity has a wondrous influence in making men indolent and careless. The foregoing remarks can have no effect on the present clip, they may be useful nothwithstanding. Another practical suggestion arising out of the present state of matters is the most profitable disposal of the suiplus stock. If the country is not already fully stocked, or overstocked, it is certain that it will, at the present rate of increase, soon become so. The stock which the country is capable of maintaining cannot be kept at its point by the sales barely of what is required to feed the small population. There must be some other outlet ; some method must be adopted to clear off accumulations for the reason — if for no other — that if it were possible for us for a few years to maintain all the present sheep and their increase, it would soon become a difficult matter to obtain fat stock — old animals requiring probably twice as much food as younger. The economy of maintaining old sheep solely for the wool is very questionable. The plain course of the pastoral interest, under present circumstances, is a judicious combination of wool growing with fattening. How this is to be done is not

■within our province to enlarge upon. That it can be done and must be done if the pastoral interest is to progress, appears now very certain. The matter simply needs the attention of a few , practical men directed to it, and it will be accomplished. The certainty of a market, for surplus stock thus fattened, needs not to be demonstrated. The methods to which public attention has been directed for the preservation of meat, during its transit to the markets of the old world, are familiar to all. By the adoption of one or other of these methods, the squatter becomes no longer necessitated to depend upon the occasional sale of a hundred or two head to meet the wants of the neighborhood, and is no longer compelled to keep upon his run the worst paying animals from sheer inability to dispose of them. He will be able under the circumstances suggested, to maintain a stock in such proportions, and of such ages as to obtain the full benefit of the desiderata wool and meat. The neglected or despised pursuit of agriculture must, in connection with pasture, receive a fair share of attention, and the union of the two hitherto disjoined, but by no means separate, interests will prove to be the realisation of a tangible benefit. In writing the foregoing, apparently for individual benefit, or at most for the benefit of a class—the conviction has been present to us that while unquestionably the class referred to must be benefited by the adoption of the suggested course, the general good is thereby advocated. By it many branches of industry will be set in motion, capital employed, and trade encouraged, and until the necessities of the community shall require the cutting up of sheep walks into small agricultural and pastoral holdings, it is only by some such system as that suggested, that they can be held with their full measure of profit and advantage.