THE SQUATTERS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3157, 10 August 1881, Page 3

THE SQUATTERS IN NEW ZEALAND.

The announcement that has just been made in the Government Gazette that there are several persons, in New Zealand each of whom owns over three hundred thousand sheep is thus commented upon by the Standard : —Among tho " sheep kings " of Australasia are Mr Campbell, who shears three hundred and eighty-six thousand fleeces ; a land company which, amongst other possessions, reckons three hundred thousand ; and Mr Allan M'Lean, who claims fee simple in half a million of sheep. A Dumfrieshire hill farmer who can fold a couple of thousand ewes, " gimmers," and rams, is justly considered a man of substance. But under the Southern Cross he would scarcely deserve n®tice, and compared with squatters of the wealth of the Campbells and M'Leans, smaller people who manage to rub along with flocks of sixty, seventy, eighty, and ninety thousand are considered mere retail dealers, and it must be remembered that these statistics — astounding though they may be to the British householder who has just paid his butcher's bill, and to the British farmer, who does not quite see how he is to make both ends mcct —relate solely to New Zealand. In the three islands of that colony there are over twelve million sheep, and in Tasmania and Australia proper it is estimated that, exclusive of other stock, there are over sixty-one million fleeces to be clipped every year. To the Briton accustomed to estimate space on a small scale these figures convey the idea of a Continent white with fleeces, of endless pastures noisy with bleating sheep, of a land weary with washing wool and freighting ifc along rutty roads to remote seaports. It is difficult, even after arriving in Australia, to get quite rid of this sort of ideas imbibed in the "Old Country." In Melbourne the visitor finds that the talk is of wool, and if it is occasionally varied by reference to reefs and gullies and gold, yet the quarrels of the " free selectors " and the squatters form the staple of political discussion. In South Australia the " cockatoos " and their wheat crops relieve the monotony of the conversation, though even there the man who

"handles" 20,000 sheep refers contemptuously to the tiller of the soil, and is supported in his pretensions by the deference paid to him by the merchant from whom he buys his stores, or the banker who finds him funds against the settling day with the wool-broker. In Queensland, there is a good deal heard afc hotel tables about sugar and " blackbirds; " and in New South Wales about coal and copper. But in the Riverina and the Darling Downs, over the endless bush of Western Australia, and in that avid No-Man's Land north of Godyer's Line, sheep rule all. Yet the tourist is astonished, after riding mile after mile through a great sheep run, at the rarity of a sheep ; and his astonishment springs from the fact that he forgets the size of the land he is in, and tbe poverty of the soil. In places where the rain is abundant, and artificial grasses have taken the place of the native herbage, something approaching an English clown may, indeed, be seen. But in the bush pure and simple, the scant feed supports life so sparingly that if one sheep can subsist on two acres of land the squatter has every reason to congratulate himself on the " run" which he owns, or of which he is a Crown tenant. A British farmer, with a flock of half a million, might defy the world and the seasons. But the Australian squatter has too often to contend against adverse circumstances to calculate on a fortune, even with possessions so patriarchal. There may be no rain, and therefore no feed. There may be feed, but not enough for the sheep, the rabbits, the weeds, and the wild horses, which, like tho mustangs on the Pampas, are rapidly becoming one of the nuisances afflict the sorely tried squatter in the more remote parts of the Australian bush. Or wool may rule low in the London Market, and borrowed money high among the Melbourne banks, with the result that in Australia squatters become bankrupt, like other mortals, and are no longer made much of in Collins Street or at Government House. Still, in spite of these crooks in his lot, the Australian squatter has, on the whole, an enviable prospect compared with his cousin at home. Tinned meats and cold storeage are opening up for him a vista of wealth " beyond the dreams of avarice," and if an aggressive Democracy cuts up his runs by " free selection," the continent is broad, and every fresh cx2:>lorer reports the discovery of tracts unfitted for the farmer, but sufficiently good for the grazier. Sheep do not often nowadays go seeking buyers at half-a-crown-a-head. " Boiling down" is year by year less resorted to. Land is not in these times matured with gravy soup, and though mutton is cheap enough, the Melbourne householder only knows by tradition of an era when prime joints were sold at five shillings the dozen, aud poor people could have chops for the asking.