CHATHAM ISLAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 1, 1 July 1939, Page 11

CHATHAM ISLAND

SUPPLIER OF SHEEP

STEADY TRADE WITH N.Z.

Almost 20,000 sheep a year were sent to New Zealand by the fifty or more farmers on Chatham and Pitt Islands, said Mr. N. R. A. Cox, one of the most prominent of tne Chatham Island sheep farmers, in an interview with the "Evening Post."- Mr. Cox left Wellington for the south last night and will return to the Chatham Islnads in about a month's, time, i Hopes were 'held by the islanders, said Mr. Cox, that a more frequent shipping service betwen the Chatham Islands and New Zealand would be instituted. There were about 90,000 sheep on the islands, practically all of them Romneys, arid there were regular shipments of them to Lyttelton for the Addington sales, where they frequently realised top prices. The two islands, Chatham of about $00,000 acres, and Pist, some twelve miles away, of 15,000 acres, contained a variety of land, some | good and some poor, but careful selec r j tion of breeds and good management were the principal reasons for the excellence of the stock. ( Mir. Cox spends his time between Chatham Island and Riccarton, having a home in both places, the Riccafton one being mainly for the benefit of his children, who receive their schooling in Canterbury; though there are schools at the, islands* "Te Awatea," which Mr. Cox translated as '"the breaking of the early dawn," is the name of his Chatham Island home, which was established by his father in 1865. Mr. Cox vfras born at Chatham Island. .. •

Romneys, the best of which Were bred frohi stud stock purchased from Voss Brothers; of Palmerston North, in 1930, constitute the principal stock lon his farm, there being in addition a few horses and some cattle. * v ;