LAND SUBDIVISION AND THE PRICE OF WOOL.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12969, 23 November 1907, Page 8

LAND SUBDIVISION AND THE PRICE OF WOOL.

During tho evidence-taken before the Conciliation Board on Thursday it was indicated that there are now very few stations in th© country where as many sheep ar© shorn as at St. Helens, namely, 4.5,000. It is not at all improbnbln that the breaking-np policy will havo some effect ©n tho pric© of wool at th© local sales. Recently a larg© number of wool-buyers on their way to Australia were asked if they were coming to New Zealand. Tlie reply which some of them, notably th© French buyers, made, was that they understood that New Zealand was now a country ot small properties, and they did not think it worth their while to att©nd tho sales. What they wanted was large lines of wool of pretty even quality, such as would bo likely to com© from on© property, instead of a number of mixed lots. Of course the buyers in question had an exaggerated idea of th© extent to which subdivision has been carried in this country, and it is a pity if this kept them away. Another point of more serious importance to th© wool industry is that the breaking-up of ' th© large estates will to a considerable extent deprive the farmer of th© breeding grounds to which he has been accustomed to look for his store sheep. W© oro not prepared to [say that subdivision within reasonable

limits is not good for the colony as a whole, but there is another side to the question, and it is obvious that the breaking-up policy may be far in a country that is so intimately bound up with the pastoral industry as New Zealand is.