Poor Returns On Wethers For Chathams Farmers

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29070, 5 December 1959, Page 9

Poor Returns On Wethers For Chathams Farmers

yyHEN prices are relatively low Chatham Island farmers who live 500 miles away from Lyttelton are at a disadvantage when they send their stock to market. On the last three Wednesdays wethers from the islands have been on offer at Addington. While prices have been regarded as reasonably good considering market prospects the Chatham farmers who sent them have made little or nothing out of them after all charges have been deducted. In fact one man would have actually been due for a

debit note after all charges had been deducted on the sale of 173 wethers but, after a reduction had been made in charges by the firm handling his stock he is left with a net return on the consignment which will little more than buy him an ice-cream-only 7d. Other farmers have fared only a little better. For a line of 434 wethers there was a net surplus of 8d a head, on 60 the net profit was 9,d a head, 403 wethers earned Is 2d a head for their owner, 336 gave an average net return of Is 4d a head, for 104 the net profit was 3s Id a head and 153 earned for the island farmer a princely 4s 6d a head when all deductions had been made.

Before these sheep could make one penny for their owners they had to command a bid of at least 24s 9d, the sum total of all costs. With sea freight at 18s lid and the county rate at 2s, charges on these sheep amounted to more than 20s a head before they were landed in Lyttelton. And on top of that there was wharfage, railage, cartage, untrucking at Addington market, yard fees, advertising, grazing and commission to be paid.