OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 4, 29 June 1911, Page 3

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

| . RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER ; ; REVIEW ! No. 3(i. [All Rights Reserved.] (By R. J. EAMES). OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND. TWO FERTILE PROVINCES. The writer las been le<l to couple the two great provinces of the South, Otatjo and Southland, from various reasons. Of these the chief is that throughout New Zealand these southern districts suffer from the common misunderstanding that they are bleak, unpleasant and unprofitable localities; and the next important reason is that they have so much in common that any remarks applying to one will in a large measure refer to the other. As to the charge of "bleakness," the writer happened to travel from lnvercargill to Dunedin by train, about the middle of May, with a northerner, and from the point of departure until the destination was reached there were repated expressions of surprise at the brightness, the.extent, and the fertility of the country seen by the way. All this part of the island once had an unpleasant reputation for severity of climatic conditions, but it is apparent that the seasons have for years been changing for the better, and there is every reason for supposing that Otago and Southland are destined to live their adverse climatic reputations down. As to the occasionally imagined slackness in | productivity, there are extensive areas capable of growing up to 60 bushels of wheat and 80 bushels of oats to the acre, at Oamaru, Burnside, Port Chalmers, Mataura and the Bluff there are important freezing and preserving works, the small English fruits grow in abundance, while all down the East Coast, from Oamaru to lnvercargill, there are numerous dairy (factories and creameries. One very marked consequence of the widespread misconception regarding the southern end Of the South Island la tliat, producing power for producing power, land has not reached so high a price as it has done elsewhere throughout New Zealand. But during the last year or two there has been a rather keen enquiry by North Islanders for dairying and cropping lands ] particularly with the natural results that j i South Islanders have a brighter and more < confident opinion of their own territories than they had before. A GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW. Otago and Southland afford a field for detailed examination which would be wcl onied by readers all over New Zealand, utago land district itself is 160 'miles long uy 160 miles wide, and contains 8,882,800 acres; Southland containi ,583,892 acres. Along the western coast is the fiord country. This occupies a vast area which, while eminently attractive to the tourist and the lovers of scenic grandeur, offers no call to the agriculturist and pastoralist whose business is to make a living from the land. For our present purposes all the mountainous country ranged in imposing magnificence on the westerif side of the island may be left out of consideration. To the eastward we have hundreds of thousands ] of acres still unsettled, or only partially settled territories which will afford -cope for pioneering enterprise for years

<> come. A stifdy of the map will disclose a large number of rivers, and along many of them there are valleys from which the output is increasing very substantially every year. , Of the-rive'rs the largest are the CluUia, the Taieri and the Waitaki, the Clutha (with an estimated discharge of 1,000,000 cubic feet per minute) being the largest river in New Zealand. THE SHEEP OF THE SOUTH. According to an official estimate the earning capacity over the whole of Southland, used for sheep-farming, is two sheep to the acre, and the hill country has been found to be so healthy that the stock thrive exceedingly well". In the South, as elsewhere, the establishment of the frozen meat industry has wrought its change in the class of sheep bred, and where the Merino was once carried almost exclusively, the carcase demands of the European markets have caused growers to replace the Merino with Roniney Marsh, Leicester*, Lincolns and various crossbreds. As showing the extent to which (he freezing trade lias developed, the export figures for the year ended December 31 last are inatruc tive:—

Mutton & Lamb Reef lbs lbs Port Chalmers 7,001,20!) 1,022,357 Oamaru 3,586,801 Bluff' 19.1H,208 100,341

According to the 1.- Lest sheep returns there were 4,563,435 sheep in Otago district (which includes Southland) and as we have .-ihown in previous articles tin; order of popularity, of flock sires in other districts, it will be interesting to see how the sheep of the South are bred. Taking flock rams, therefore, of two-tooth and over, the milliners used k\\i vear were us follows:

I'lock ranis Border Leicester , 18,798 K'omney ujjjjj Merl »o 7,01« English Leicester s>,7!X) Lincoln 874 Shropshire 707 Southdown 144

One of the greatest hindrances to the fullest possible development of the sheepfarming industry has been the rahbit pest, and notwithstanding the vigorous methods that have been resorted to. and the millions of rabbits that have been killed, there are still wide stretches of country badly infested. In Southland the 1,7811,720 rabbit carcases exported during the year ended March 31, 1010, were valued at £37,284, and the rabbitskins at £11,834. From Dunedin durin» the same period the 6,911,659 skins ex° ported were valued at £87,693. These figures suggest the devastating inroads which must have been made upon the pastures and indicate that until closer settlement takes place, and the solution of the rabbit difficulty is finally found, the South will not enjov the bes't possible results from its profitable activities in mutton and wooJ.