o.—l

sheep shore a good deal less per sheep last shearing, and the quality of the wool was also affected,; but owing to the exceptionally high prices buyers did not hesitate at this. Also, the cost of extra labour during the winter has to be- taken into consideration, and the high price of sheep at present for replacement purposes, as well as repair of fencing damaged by snow. Surviving young stock which were being kept for breeding purposes have received a bad set-back, which will be of a more permanent nature than in the older sheep. Conditions were soon more hopeful: the snow got away steadily, without any flooding in the rivers; a good spell of dry weather was experienced, and the grass made good growth. This continued right through the spring, and did much to check the death-rate, which would otherwise have gone on for some time amongst weak stock. With the high price of sheep everything possible was done on the runs to save further loss, and the work done by managers and shepherds under trying and hazardous conditions is worthy of record. A time like this shows the wisdom of making any subdivisions of high country as easy to work under snow conditions as possible. Fortunately there arc no serious accidents to report, although there are cases where frostbite has caused the loss of a finger or toe amongst those engaged in the work. The only benefits that can be placed to the credit side of a severe snowstorm are that it effectually checks the rabbits from spreading on the higher land for some time, thereby saving the runholders the cost of poisoning, or other expensive means of eradicating them ; it also ensures a gooel growth of feed on the higher parts of the country for summer use, but will have a tendency in some cases to check the pastoralist from taking the full use of this class of land. In discussing prospects with the sheepownors at the time, some expressed a feeling that the Crown should make a temporary concession to help them to meet their loss ; but whether this will take the form of individual requests or a combineei representation of the position remains to be seen. In the event of this request being general and receiving consideration, each individual case would require to bo considered on its merits, as altitudes, acreage, and rentals would not be a safe guide in this case. Owing to the hard frosts which followed the snow it was found that some of the comparatively low country which was always considered safe, and rented as such, suffered equally with the higher lands. While a good deal has been done here recently to bring the rentals of runs into line —and this also meant increasing the rents in most cases as well as extending the tenure —these new rents are not yet operating in all cases, and then there are cases where lessees elected to run their old leases out at a comparatively low rental in preference to getting tho extended term at an increase. Some few instances of grouping and alteration of boundaries were also approved of, principally with a view to making the holdings more workable under snow conditions, and safer in winter generally.

7 C. 1.

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