Traveller. Three Weeks in Southland, N.Z.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1964, 7 February 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Traveller. Three Weeks in Southland, N.Z.

By Fkank MoniiHT.

(Continued.) The country between Invercargill and Wallace Town ia very patchy, some of it being very good and a large part of it very much the reverse. Gorse hedges are a oonapicuous feature in the landscape, some of which are well-kept and neatly trimmed, while others are allowed to grow at their own sweet will. As a harbor for rabbits gorse hedges cannot be excelled ; but the people of Southland seem to have got the better of the little pest by means of phosphprised oats, and now apparently hold him in contempt. I cannot say that I altogether agree with this view of the rabbit question ; but the people of the Middle Island, and especially the Invercargill portion of it, have bad a bitter experience of the peat, and they ought to know their own business. For my part, I have not seen a rabbit yet, although I have detected indications of their presence. Mr. Ellis, of the Five Eivers estate, whose place at one time was alive with rabbits, and who tried in turn every poesible and impossible means of getting them under, informs me that he cleared his land by the systematic use of phosphorised oats. Of course he uses other means, such as hunting them with dogs and fumigating ; but until he adopted the poison the task was hopelesß. He had as many as eighteen packs of dogs at one time engaged in the war without, apparently, the slightest effeot. The poisoned oats are laid down during the winter months, when the feed h at its worst, and the rabbits, taking it greedily, are destroyed wholesale. The weak point of this system ia that they are allowed to increase during the spring, summer, and autumn, which is a considerable handicap in favor of an animal whose natural but somewhat portentous rate of increase is such, that one pair, if left alone for four years, and barring accidents and aickneßs in their numerous families, will have increased at the end of the fourth year to the respectable total of five millions. I state this advieedly, for I have made the calculation. While on the matter of statistics I may as well give a few more figures which bear upon a brighter aspect of the farming question in Southland, and which were obtained from a gentleman, whose veracity is unimpeachable. As indicating the capacity of some of the land for stock carrying, when under turnips, they are somewhat remarkable. The area of the land was 41 acres. The crop was turnips. The sheep were wire netted on to the crop, tho wire netting being shifted as often as required. The following Htock were kept in improving condition upon the 41 acres :—: — 450 rams for 12 weeks. 1 300 merino ewes for 5 weeks. 2000 wethers for 2 weeks. A very simple calculation shows that this n equal to 118,300 sheep for one day on 41 acrps ; or 2,681 sheep for 1 day on 1 acre ; or 7 and 2 .">ths sheep upon every acre for 12 months. This is certainly not a bad result, considering that the land is left in the best possible condition for sowing a crop, or for laying down in grass. Wallace Town is a hamlet, consisting of a public-house, a shop, a few small stores, and about twenty or thirty houses. The Makerewa River, which a little higher up, is known as the Oreti runs close to the township, and appears to divide the good land from the bad, as there are little or no signs of cultivation on the eastern side of the river, while on the western side evidence is seen on every hand in the homesteads of farmers, and stacks of oats and wheat dotted about in every direction. This is more evident beyond Winton, a township on the Kingston Une of railway about eighteen miles from Invercargill. On the morning of June 4th I left Invercargill for Winton by the 6.45 train. I bad left orders the previous night to call me at 5 30 ; and taking my shower-bath by candle light, and snatching a hasty breakfast, I followed the boots and general utility man of the Albion who, by the way, is a childlike and bland son of the Celestial Empire, to the railway station, whither John trundled my portmanteau on his inevitable wheelbarrow. The occupants of the carriage along with me were a stalwart Scotchman who, being a comparative stranger to the district, did not i seem to know much about anything, and & little, bright-looking, elderly Scotch woman, with a fresh complexion and teeth as sound as a bell and as white as milk, who seemed to know a great deal about everything. I speedily got into conversation with the Scotchman, who began displaying his local ignorance with as much facility as I showed thirst for information. " That looks pretty fair land," I said, glancing out of the carriage window at a beautiful undulating country which, in the western district of Victoria, could not have been bad land if it tried. 1 " Oh, aye, its no bad,? ye ken," says the Scotchman ; but he had not time to finish his qualified assent when the old lady, who had been reading in a very bad light and without speotacles the " Life of Prince Leopold," broke in eagerly, in a rich Doric accent, which Bounded sweetly in my ears, as my grandmother was a Scotchwoman, "It's baad land I baad land I it wont grow anything. All the land about here is Tbaad. The good land is all over there," pointing to the west, " the man who had that farm was ruined ; it ruined three men, and will ruin every one that takes it." Then the conversation becoming general, I learned that the old lady had lived '.ii years in the district ; that she, and her brothers, and relations generally, owned a lot of land over where it was good, and that they farmed

largely ; that she had very decided opinions about the " young wives who never went into their dairies, but employed dairy maids to spoil butter," and in general that the land was very patchy, and that it behoves people investing in land to be very careful, all of which I do most implicitly believe. Moreover, she explained that the railway from Invercargill to Kingston wont through some of the worst land in thodistrict, with the exception of that through which the railway runs be tween the Bluff and Invercarpill. She also propounded the theory, or, rather asserted the fact, that the river divides the good laud from the bad; but my subsequent investigations lead me to infer that this is not universally applicable. I nm sorry to say that I must have caused the Rood lady a little pain by a hasty remark, on catching my first sight of Winton, to the effect that it was not a very inviting looking place. But she immediately made me conpeious of my blunder by saying : "Indeed, I think it is a very nice place;" whereupon I utterly stultified myeelf by hastily assenting to her dictum, and explaining that I had not got a proper view of it. Then, bidding thp old lady a friendly adieu, I walked to my hotel, followed by my everlasting portmanteau in the everlasting wheelbarrow. Host White, who ia somewhat of a horrey man, and a very good fellow, furnished mo with a horse, a better hack than which I never wish to ride ; and, taking the precaution to furnish myHelf with a pair of kan garoo-skin leggings, costing at the local shoe makers one pound, I proceeeded to inspect a property on the Oreti Plain, to which my attention had been directed. The old lady's sspertion that the good land lay on the other side of the river, was verified on this occasion, as I noticed but few signs of settlement until I crossed the Oreti Bridge, although I passed a number or drays loaded with grain and coming from the direction towards which I was making. The bed of the Oreti consists of shingle, a kind of slate pebble, from the size of a bean to that of a well grown potato, only that the pebble or stones are flat. The currents of the New Zealand rivers are rapid, and in times of flood the water must pour down in immense volumes, and with tremendous force ; the consequence of which is that the shingle which constitutes the beds and sides of the rivera is constantly shifting. When I passed the Oreti bridge I found two men re pairing the damage done to the approaches by a recent flood, and making a shield of Manuka scrub to receive the force of the water and prevent the sides of the river near the bridge from being more damaged. But it is a pretty sight to stand upon the Oreti bridge and see the clear sparkling stream rippling over its shingly bed, while away in the distance are the snow capped mountains, from which it takes its rise, shooting up their variously shaped points of frosted silver into the clear sky, and forming an almost perfect amphitheatre enclosing the great Oreti plain, which is estimated to contain 200,000 acres of land fi* for the plough. Farmers' holdings are dotted all over the plain, and well thatched stacks are to bo eeen everywhere. Far away to the west, nestling under the foothills whioh lie at the base of the blue snow-capped mountains, little white specks oan be seen through the clear crisp atmosphere, at a distance of twenty to thirty miles ; and these are the houses of farmers also. When I was told that these houses were twenty or thirty miles away I opened my eyes (for I am not an " earth-flattener " as Mr. Proctor, the editor of Knowledge and the astronomer, calls those theorists who maintain that the earth is an extended plain) and I naturally thought the rotundity of the earth would have concealed them at that distance ; but probably the ground rises towards the mountains, and therefore my informant might have been no liar, although I went very near thinking that he was practising on my credulity, I returned to Winton about three o'clock, quite satisfied that the land which I had inspected was capable of being made into valuable farms, and that in the meantime it could be used to advantage for grazing purposes. Returning along the road I picked up a companion, who turned out to be an old Victorian. From the style of his seat on horseback he was evidently not a bushman ; and my insatiable thirst for information was not likely to bo satisfied on the subject of soils, as he very honestly informed me that he knew more about building houses than tilling land. " But its a grand climate this, mon, and a grand country ; there's a wheen o' quid land aboot here, and some o' its bad enough too ; its gy'an mixed ye ken, and if yell be taken' my advice yell look aboot ye before doing onything in a hurry." " They grow good crops of wheat and oats about here, don't they? " I said. 41 Oh, aye ! grand crops, grand crops ; but the prices are a bit low, ye ken. Na'theless, the farming bodies a' seem to get along ; and if ye're thinkin' o' settling ye Bhould do well if ye're oarefu' ; an' then yell want to build a bit hoose, and if you do you can apply to the Grm of , and they'll do it right for you." Chatting thus we made our way back to the township of Winton ; and my companion, who informed me that he had been brought up to the bench, and who knew a good deal about timber, pointed out tho blaok and white pine, the Totaro, and the Reino as we passed through the bush, and bemoaned the rapid destruction of those valuable timber trees which is now going on through the reckless action of the innumerable saw mills whioh are planted everywhere about the country. The New Zealand bush is very different from that of Australia, and much more pleas- | ing. It seems to be scattered about in olumpa here and there, leaving wide spaces, such as the Oreti, the Waimate, and Dipton Plains quite devoid of trees for extensive areas. But one cannot travel far without seeing clumps of timber, known undor such local names as Heddon Bush, Centre Bush, Hill-end Bush, Dipton Bush, and so on, all of which bear a somewhat similar character. The New Zealand bush is ever green ; and there is & dense undergrowth of Supple Jack, Clematis, and various shrubs and creepers which makes travelling through it impossible for anything bigger than a rabbit or less enterprising than a pig. (To be continued.)