A RANGITIKEI SEITLER IN ENGLAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3055, 13 February 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

A RANGITIKEI SEITLER IN ENGLAND.

From the Ranyitikii Advocate we take a few extra':!s from a letter sent out by Colonel Cuiton, now in England During my visit I have, up to the present, visited Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzei land. and nearly all the eastern, western, midland, and southern counties of England, and whereve" I have had a chance of seeing good stock I have t;\ken advantage of it. I was exceptionally fortunate in being able to see the valuable pure-bred Suffolk horses, the thoroughbred racing stock, the pure-bred pilled Suffolk cattle, and pure-bred berkshire pigs on the Duke of Hamilton's estate in Suffolk. After a thorough examination of the Clydesdalo and Shire horses. I certainly think that for our farm work in ] New Zealand the Suffolk horse cculd not well be beaten. Ho has plenty of pluck ' and is very strong nd very active. There ; is no question auout it—the Shire is a magnificent horse, bigger in bone than the Suffolk, and for heavy dray work on the roads more suitable, but is not so active on the land. The Shire is a very favourite horse in England, but really there is very little difference between that breed and the Clydesdale—the Shire, if anything, is bicger in the hone and more heavy about the legs, a point which seems to be made much of. Thf polled class of cattle were, of tlu-ir class, very fine, but not big enough tn recommend their adoption in New Zealand. The Berkshire pigs were also very good, hut 1 have seen equal in New Zealand Among the racing stock I was astonished at the very heavy price given for brood inares. One I saw -Doncaster Bell—cost 2300 guineas for breeding purposes, and hid a colt foal at foot by Friar Balsam, the covering fee being 150 guineas, and there were several nf that class. Qii'lp, grandson of Musket, was a nine-looking horse, and he was one of the four or hve thoroughbred entires the Duke, allows bis tenant farmers to make use of at a nominal fee of two guineas to encourage the breeding of a good class of horse. I also spent a couple of days at the Royal .Show at Doncaster, and d'-voted nearly the whole of mie day tn the examination of the sheep alone. The Cotswnlds were undoubtedly the finest sheep of their class in the show— srlendid frames and good wool. The Lincolns were very good, hut I say unhesitatingly J have seen finer in New Zealand shows. They were Duddiog sheep, many of which we have in New Zealand, and the excellence, of our New Zealand climate enables ns to produce a better sheep when proper care is taken. I do not think the Cotsvvold sheep would clip as heavy a fleece as the Lincoln, but I am not at all sure on the whole if it would not be a more profitable sheep for us, and I am sure would cross well with our half-bred sheep. I was also fortunate enough to be the guest of Mr Hugh Aylirier, of West Durham Abbey, Norfolk, who is given credit for having without doubt the finest shorthorn cattle in Knulanrf. I saw the finest bulls, cows and heifers I had ever seen in my life. Of all the numerous animals I saw he had not a single bad one in the herd. The difficulty was to pick the best. He gets very large prices even now, and has an admirable system of keeping a record of his herd. He furnishes bulls for the best herds in England. His 1 Cotswold sheep were simply perfection. They were so even in quality that it would pay anyone to take the lesser rate of picking them if you were taking any number. To show you how he makes it pay, he has let his ram lambs for a season—the worst he has had—for an average of nine guineas, and his twotooth, or what they call shearlings, at ten guineas ; so in letting alone his rams bring hira £19 19s in two years, and then he can sell them. He has an annual sale for letting his rams, and these were the prices last year. I attended a couple of meets of foxhounds, where I saw a magnificent lot of horses; but, to my surprise, by far the larger number of those that followed preferred a gateway to a jump, and a good many kept a good deal to the road. The fences did not appear to me as stiff as those often met with in Rangitikei, and the horses did not app-vtr to jump any better, and our New Zealand sportsmen seem to ride decidedly, on the whole, Of course they hn.ve better weight-carriers in England, bnt there are numbers of horses which are ridden to the hounds in New Zealand which, if kept and groomed in the way they are in England, would rank among the firstclass horses here. I attended the Goodwood I'acfs, and a'so saw the Czarewitch run an Newmarket. The former as a racecourse, beautiful as the drive is to it, I did not carc for; but the latter is simply perfect. The grandstand at Newmarket is a great deal too far from the course, and there I saw the value of the | saddlecloth number, which, unfortunately | they do not use, and where it was wanted more than at any races I know, and I came to the conclusion that we have every reason to be satisfied with the manuf r in which our races are conducted by our principal clubs in New Zealand I must now quit the subject of stock and sport, and deal with one which has a far moro serious effect just now re New Zealand, and that is the wretched Land Assessment Bill which has been passed in the last New Zealand Parliament. It is simply doing New Zealand a vast amount of harm here. This taxing of men who send out capital for investment (what we so much want to develop the country) is the most insane thing that has ever been done yet, and will undoubtedly keep a groat deal of capital away from the country. I have clients who are sending money out, but this tax has frightened them very much, and, in one instance, a man of undoubted financial ability recommended my client strongly to well reconsider it. as he sonsidered the laws just passed in New Zealand put a set at once on sending out capital there for investment. And the real truth of it is that this tax will not fall upon the mortgagee, but upon the unfortunate borrower, who will have to pay a higher rate of interest in consequence. Again, there is another feeling. It is considered that settlers were encouraged to take up large blocks of land, which they did on the faith of being allowed to work them, and that this graduated scale of tax to injure the large holders is simply the first spoke of repudiation on the part of the colonists. They don't b!amo the country for making laws to prevent large sales of Crown lands now to individuals, but they do very much the mode of now injuring those who took up land under old regulations with the faith that such an Act as has now been passed would never have been dreamt of.

I have said nothing about the frozen meat, such an important item in New Zealand's welfare. The sale is steadily spreading throughout England, amidst great difficulties. The farmers naturally have a great prejudice against it because it has undoubtedly brought down the price of their meat, and a curious thing the servants in the households very often object to eat it, though their masters like it. That it is good there is no doubt about it. We lived on it in the lonic, and it wos excellent. I enjoyed the cold beef at lunch every day more than anything, and the muttoa cannot be beaten. I am convinced that many a man at home eats it under the impression he is eating English mutton. Thn prejudice I believe, however, is getting less Only the other day * gentleman's coachman, who was driving me (he happened to be living at his house tinding himself), said he had a delicious dinner last Sunday off a leg of New Zealand frozen mutton, and that he liked it better than the English mutton ; that there was a shop in Abingdon, Berkshire, within a few miles of him, and he generally got a joint every week ; and that people are beginning to appreciate it. I have no fear as to the future of this trade, or of New Zealand, if we only have a decent Government.