FARMERS' HEAVY LOSSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 66, 19 March 1931, Page 8

FARMERS' HEAVY LOSSES.

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO FENCES, STOCK WANDERING AT LARGE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) NAPIER, Wednesday. . Farmers of the Te Pohue district, about 30 miles from Napier on the road to Taupo, have suffered heavily through the earthquake. Their properties, which are exceedingly hilly, have been severely damaged, involving the complete loss of hundreds of miles of fencing and the consequent straying of stock. Run holders will not be able to assess their losses for many months, according to Mr. C. Parker, a settler of the district. Stations in the country between Te Pohue and Mohaka, a large tract of land bounded by the main highways between Napier and Taupo and Napier and Wairoa, have suffered almost inestimable damage, Mr. Parker said this morning. On his own place a stretch of 120 chains of special fencing, which had only recently been erected at a cost of 24/ per chain, was completely ruined. It had been carried away bv a large slip and had been left zig-zagged, the wires being broken at frequent intervals. On many stations, he added, where the whole fence had not been completely carried away the posts had snapped near the ground. "Stock is wandering from one farm to another, and no doubt many animals have been killed," said Mr. Parker. "It is not likely that we will be able to tell exactly what we have lost until next summer, when we shear again."

As an illustration of the damage to fences, he mentioned the fact that in mustering his own stock he had had to put them all into one paddock, the only one of sixteen in which they could be kept. One station which has probably suffered more extensive damage than any other in the district is Rukumoana, owned by the Chambers family, of Havelock North, a property of over 30,000 acres adjoining Mr. Parker's run.