NO BID FOR RAINBOW BLOCK

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 94, 14 January 1939, Page 7

NO BID FOR RAINBOW BLOCK

Low Upset Rental Fails To Attract Farmers PART OF MOLESWORTH ESTATE Dominion Special Service. CHRISTCHURCH, January 13. Offered at an upset annual rental of £llO, the 76,200-acre Rainbow block, a part of the Molesworth estate, yesterday failed to elicit a bid at auction. The pastoral licence was offered at Nelson yesterday by the Lands and Survey Department. A number of farmers attended Hie sale, but did not bid. •‘ln the ordinary course, the block will remain open for sale at the upset rental.” replied an official of the department at Nelson to an inquiry yesterday. "The first application wiii go before the Laud Board, which will decide, on the future occupation of the block.” Though the poster issued by the Lands Department describes tue Rainbow block as being suitable for "sheep grizin,” the Minister of Lands, Mr. Langstone, said, when indicating that its offer at auction was the first step toward getting the land back to a productive basis, that it was more suitable for the grazing of cattle than sheep. Mr. E. P. Meaehen, M.P., is also submitting a report to the Government that Molesworth and Tarndale should be used for cattle grazing. “I trust that the Government will seriously consider, having regard to the experience in Australia, all the factors connected with the suggestion that the estates might be successfully used as a State cattie run,” said Mr. IV. H. Nicholson, secretary of the New Zealand Sheepowners’ Federation, yesterday. “Cattle runs were conducted by Queensland, and after .some years of continued effort they ' had to be closed down. They showed a loss of many millions of pounds.”

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Queensland tried to run a battle station on country which the Queensland Agricultural Department considered to be promising from a commercial point of view, said Mr. Nicholson. The object in starting the cattle stations was to develop the country, as well as to make a profit, but the history of those efforts made most distressing reading. No Inducement to Graze. Reasons for the unattractiveness of the Rainbow block to runholders were given by Mr. Nicholson. The terms at which the run was offered, he admitted, were most attractive, but consideration of the liabilities was needed. Mr. Nicholson, when at Leslie Hills, supervise! grazing, on a part of the MolesworL estate, and he knows the country well. . *

Costs have increased so greatly in recent years that no inducement remains for anybody to invest in stock to run on that class of country,” said Mr. Nicholson. Heavy periodical losses of stock on the high, exposed country had to bi- expected and the difficulty facing any intending purchaser was to get suitable sheep to start a floek. Active sheep—merino or first-cross halfbreds from the merino—were needed to stock Rainbow.

The expenses of rabbiting and keeping down the deer had increased considerably in that type of country, not particularly on the Rainbow block; and farmers were dillident about investing their money. Another difficulty wire caused by the present costs of running a station; and it was accentuated on the Rainbow country, where men had to be kept on \ for fairly long periods. The seasonal gang was usually employed on such high country from about November till the beginning of May. Under the award, musterers were paid £4/15/a week and found, with £1 extra for Sunday work, and 12 men were needed on other runs of a size and type similar to Rainbow. Other Problems. The cost of rabbiting, which, in the early days of grazing, did not need to be' taken into account, was now a considerable item. Though access had been improved and modern transp. rt made the runs more accessible, the problem of stocking was acute. On the Rainbow country, a man would be fortunate if he could maintain his flock. The prospect was that suitable surplus stock would not be for sale for stocking the rum

"The world price of wool remains, on an average, lower gjhan that received in the earlier period of the history of that class of country.” said Mr. Nicholson "and the prospects for the profitable production of the class of wool obtainable from that country has been afl eeted by the enormous increase of manufacturing substitutes. These are

some of the factors militating against v the taking up of the Rainbow class of land, not only in that locality, but elsewhere. In some instances, high-country runs, by their natural conformation, can be worked more cheaply than others. Btu a large expanse of open country,

such as Mole.sworth and Tarnd'ale, requires large-scale operations for its efficient handling.”