HIGH COUNTRY PASTORALISTS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24984, 19 September 1946, Page 2

HIGH COUNTRY PASTORALISTS

DIFFICULTIES DISCUSSED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 18. The opinion that the high country pastoralists had not had a fair deal under the war-time appraisement scheme was expressed by the chairman of directors of Wright, Stephenson and Company, Ltd., Mr J. T. Martin, at the annual meeting of the company. While wool returns had been satisfactory to most farmers, it had not been so with the high country pastoralist, he said. Throughout the war the marginal difference between coarser and finer wools had been far too little. Strong representations had repeatedly been made to the Stabilisation Commission' to effect a better adjustment. Some slight easement had been secured. Fine wool represented about 16 per cent, of the New Zealand wool clip, and a halfpenny per lb reduction in crossbred wool would provide 3d per lb to merino wools, equal to £4 to £5 a bale. High country farming in the South Island alone covered about 10,090,000 acres, carrying'on an average one sheep to four acres. On the wool of the mountain-bred merino and halfbred sheep the pastoralist had to depend almost entirely. He could not supplement his earnings, like the lower country farmer, by lamb fattening or growing cereals. He could not increase the carrying capacity of land through the use of fertilisers, nor was he always successful in retaining all his flock, against unexpected heavy storms. In short, he was the Cinderella of ’farming life in the Dominion, and yet his work was highly specialised.