THE COLONIST.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 272, 29 May 1860, Page 2

THE COLONIST.

NELSON, TUESDAY, MAY 29, 1860,

We redeem our promise of making use of the other part of Mr. Leonard Wray's paper on wool, intitled "Means of largely increasing our flocks of sheep and wool." He starts on the ground that the rate at which the flocks of sheep increase and multiply in our colonial possessions at present is " quite inadequate to keep pace with the manufacturing demands." He intends to remedy this by the introduction of Nanking sheep, which have been introduced into the United-States with great success. These sheep are so prolific that the following appears more like a Yankee tale than a sober fact; it appeared in the "Transactions of the American Institute " for 1857: — New York, June 2,1856. Dear. Sir—lt is now about nineteen months since I came into possession of three Nanking sheep (all ew®s). I took them from aboard the clipper ship Jacob Bell, just then arrived from Canton, and sent them to my farm, Norwalk Island, Connecticut. These were all the sheep I had of any kind, and no buck with these, though they were all with lamb, and I relied upon raising a buck, as the sequel will shew. They brought forth shortly afterwards, each with three lambs, the ewes being poor, but they soon fattened and the lambs grew finely. The next time (for they have lambs twice in the year) they had three, four, and five lambs at a birth, and raised them. One of "these sheep has had twelve lambs in fifteen months; and the increase of the three original sheep up to eighteen months has been seventy-four. ......I should add that they are large and handsome, and the mutton of superior delicacy; wool coarse. . Theodore Smith, Captain United States Light Horse Service, &c. To Henry Meigs, Esq., Secretary American Institute, New York. Well may Mr. Wray call this a "remarkable letter," and well might he have hastened to make inquiries as to its truth, and yet he found it all plain matter of fact. ; Some of these sheep gave nine pounds of 1 wool each. The public appreciated their value so much that Captain Theodore Smith got five hundred dollars each for many of them. . ■:*■ If some of our rich runholders do not at once put that smart craft the Marchioness in good order for sea and send her to Nanking for some of the same sort, then they may go to Hongkong for us. • On Mr. Wray's return to England he found that the same kind of sheep had been introduced there in ¥$85, Mr. Rutherford Alcock, Vice Consul at Shanghai, who sent some of them to his Royal Highness Prince Albert, who ungraciously turned them over to the Zoological Society of London, under whose auspices these animals increased so fast that the secretary was put to his wit's ends to know what to do with them; but he fouud a very effectual remedy of keeping the stock down by serving up the " unhappy little strangers " as fresh food for the wolves, lions, and tigers. It may be mentioned that these poor woolly strangers were vastly ridiculed and called all sorts of things by that very large portion of great Britishersiwho can judge of nothing good but what is English. " Poor Celestials! such coarse woolled monsters (without ears), that were always bringing forth lambs at the rate of four or five at the time; why no really respectable farmer would have them at any price." One man there was—a^true hearted man, who devoted his life to the improvements in stock and agriculture—the late lamented Earl Ducie, who thought differently; and a few of these useful and wonderful animals found comfortable quarters on his estate. Buit alas! he died, and his Chinese sheep died also. It is worth mentioning that while in the Zoological Gardens, in three days three

ewes had thirteen lambs between them— five, four, and four. Good investment this. Our runholders will be able to allow fifty per cent, with this race of sheep. It is supposed that there is not a single sheep of this valuable breed now alive in England. Mr. Alcock must feel highly flattered by the destination of his present, and will, we presume, appoint some other recipient than his Royal Highness Field Marshal Prince Albert tor his next present. M}\ A. D. Bartlett, Superintendent of the Society's Gardens, thus describes these sheep in the Zoological Society's Journal: — " These sheep differ from all. others that I have seen, in not possessing external ears. In «ze they are equal to ordinary sheep; the wool is perfectly white, rather coarse, and mixed -with long hairs; the head and face are smooth, and covered with white hair; they have no horns; the tail is short, rather broad, and turned up at the tip; the profile is very convex. "My attention was first called to these from the fact of their great reproductive power; I find that they breed twice in the year, and produce four and sometimes five at a birth. The three ewes now in the Society's gardens have this spring produced thirteen lambs. These lambs are very easily reared by hand and are perfectly hardy....... "Having submitted specimens of the wool of this animal to my friend Dr. Price, who kindly forwarded the same to Mr. Darlington, the Secretary to the Bradford Chamber of Commerce, for the purpose of having it examined by the most competent judges^ the following report from these gentlemen was received:—" The sample of sheep's wool from China inclosed in Dr. Price's letter is a class of wool which would be extensively used by the manufacturers of this district for goods of low quality; that it appears to be a wool suitable for combing purposes, and would now [1857] command one shilling per pound. Mr. Wray bitterly laments that, through prejudice, carelessness, and the death of the nobleman above alluded to, this prolific and useful animal is now extinct ; in England. He advises us to calculate what ten such ewes with one ram would increase in ten years, and then some idea might be formed of the value of such a breed on our boundless plains and hills in "Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and British India;" and recommends a cross with the Merino or some other, according to circumstances; for England he gives the preference to a cross with the Polder Holstein, which also produces five at a birth, with a yield of ten to twenty pounds the fleece. He closes this very useful article saying, "that if we have indeed lost the Shanghai breed in England, we must send either to the United States or to China for it once more; for on the aid of £this despised and rejected race, the full and rapid extension of our woollen manufactures will very greatly depend." Can we say more to urge on our sheepowners, and those about to become owners of sheep, to give the Chinese sheep a fair trial, when they know that there is always a ready market in England for even this1 wool at a shilling a pound; that the fleece averages seven to ten pounds; and that the mutton is of superior delicacy ? lv the course of this paper Mr. Wray not only speaks of wool and hair, but of flax and many other raw products, and says that in all cases the demand quite outstrips the present supply, vast though it be; and it is asserted that " our industrial progress is in many instances seriously impeded thereby, to the great detriment of the nation at large. 1' ; ; Again he says, that within a few years we have seen raw products introduced into England which were new to pur manufacturers, but have now become so universal in their application and uses, that they are looked upon as very necessaries oi life. "Need I mention, amongst others, alpaca,mohair, caoutchouc, gutta percha, palm oil, &c, which, in their various applications now minister to the comfort and enjoymen of all humanity, from the Queen on her English throne to the Fiji dandy in the Cannibal Islands." , :'.■.:■; A discussion on this very valuable paper ensued, which we will,take up another time. The Militia service is rendered decidedly unpopular by the reported appointment of a youth to a commission. We trust that this, like. many other things of late, is. a. mere rumour.. .Should it however be true, we boldly tell the authorities that the people of Nelson will not submit to such an officer. Why, in pauperised, class-ridden, and classgoverned England, such an appointment would not be tolerated. How much more should such snobbishness be contemptuously set at defiance here by men who have jeopoidised their lives by coming sixteen thousand miles, in order to avoid the unjust abominations in these and other matters of the old country. > . We have no desire to elect our own officers; but we have the power of objecting to and rejecting unworthy and insulting appointments, and if possible we will use such power. Let any young man, ambitious of military honours or desirous of military pay, first win his spurs in the ranks, and no man will begrudge him the j honour and the pay, when he has earned them by superior intelligence or physical qualifications. Sydney Herbert (of Crimean mismanagement notoriety) in the House of Commons floundered most pitiably when he endeavoured to defend the present system of officering the British army; at last he was obliged to confess that the whole system was rotten, but really he could not help it, and did not know what to do, poor man! He gave way so far as to declare that promotion by purchase should stop at the majority; so that no lieutenant-colonelcy should ever be gained by money. We wish he had added nor by favouritism. Resistance at the outset will avail much.

Should it not, then a general passive resistance is the only means to accomplish our purpose. Let the authorities beware of trifling with the public in these matters. Loyalty isj soon turned into disloyalty by gratuitous insult. New Flagstaff.—Amongst other improvements in these stirring Military times we see that a new Flagstaff is about to be erected. It will be double the height of the old one; we< wish that a more distinctive method of signalling could be adopted. .. "Nelson expects every Man to do his Duty."—'The salt-water boys are determined not to be behind-hand with the gallant storekeepers and others in this city,—-and have decided to start a squad of; their own, and are actively employed in organising a Naval Brigade. Their motto is appropriate. The calling out of the Militia has caused a bit of a rush to join the Volunteers: the Militia service, from some unknown cause, seems suddenly to have come into disrepute. The Militia.—The No. 1 Company of the Militia are called on to be in readiness for drill, on Mondays and Thursdays commencing June 14th. A heavy penalty is attached for non-at-tendance. Nelson Volunteees.—At a meeting of No.' 2 Company of the Nelson Volunteers, held at the Wakatu, on Saturday evening last, the following officers were elected out of a long list of candidates for military honors;— Captain, N. Edwards; Lieutenants, Mr. B. 0. Hodgson and Mr. A. Kerr. This Company will be sworn between this and Thursday next. * Building- Society.—The next monthly j meeting of this society will be held at the Fleece Tavern, on Monday next, when the sum of £250 will be put up in five lots. Savings' Bank,—The first fruita of this useful institution appears by the offer of £300 to bo lent on good freehold'security ; such freehold to be within twelve miles of the city of Nelson. Captain Smith and the Gun.—The case of Captain Smith of the Active, who was fined ,£IOO for bringing a gun ashore, must be fresh in the memory of our readers. Three fourths of the fine have been remitted, and the gun restored to its owner, Mr. Drew, who is about to return to Melbourne, prior to his settlement in this city. Glass and Crockery.—The horses of the well known and favorite omnibus Norma shied across the road from the Wakatu Hotel, and made a rush to the crockery and glass department of Mr. Langford's store. The pole of the iMorma entered the window and dislodged its various contents in donble quiok time. Luckily no further damage was done. It is supposed that i-5 will cover the damage. The Whaling Trade.—By reference to the intelligence under the heading Auckland, it will be perceived that four whalers departed from Russell in a few days in the mouth of April. Singular enough not one of them was a British ship. " Three were American vessels with a tonnage of 1000- tons, and the third was a French ship from Havre, the captain of which intends to visit Russell in February next, with plenty of French whalers on our coast, and splendid steam fleet at New Caledonia. This part of the world is likely to be well'looked after.