The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1889. Sheep Returns

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 25, 13 August 1889, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1889. Sheep Returns

From the Annual Sheep Returns for the year ended 31st May, 1888, we gather the following very interesting particulars. In th« Rangitikei subdivision, which includes Rangitikei, Oroua, Manawatu, and Horowhenua, there are 704,100 sheep, the property of 874 owners, distributed as follows : Owners. Sheep. Rangitikei „ .. 280 318,740 Oroua . . . . 359 200,203 Manawatu .. ..153 133,496 Horowhenua .. 82 51,691 The number of owners owning flocks under 500 are : Rangitikei, 137 ; Oroua, 240 ; Manawatu, 98 ; Horowhenua, 58. Owning flocks under 1000 : Rangitikei, 55 ; Oroua, 55 • Manawatu, 32 ; Horowhenua, 13. Owning flocks under 2000 : Rangitikei, 45 ; Oroua, 47 ; Manawatu, 8 ; Horowhenua, 6. Owning flocks under 5000: Rangitikei, 31; Oroua, 15; Manawatu, 9 ; Horowhenua, 4. Owning flocks under 10,000: Rangitikei, 9 ; Oroua, 2 ; Manawatu, 5. Owning flocks under 20,000 : Rangitikei, 1 ; Horowhenua, 1. Owing flocks 20,000 and upwards : Rangitikei, 2 ; Manawatu, 1. It will be seen that the county of Oroua, of which the Manchester Block forms so large a portion, is really the best for small farmers, aud this opinion is confirmed by their enormous preponderance in the present return. The increases for the year were : Rangitikei, 24,367 ; Oroua, 41,497 ; Manawatu, 7212 ; Horowhenua showed a decrease of 1393. Judging from the progress of settlement, with the amount of bush land cleared and prepared for stock since May 1888, we may confidently predict that the next term, ended in May 1889, will show an advance in these figures of fully fifty per cent, as far as the Oroua county is concerned.