SHEEP RETURNS

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 October 1929, Page 7

SHEEP RETURNS

INCREASE IN FLOCKS

The annual sheep returns disclose that there are 29,050,382 sheep in New Zealand, as against 27,133,810 in the previous year. All classes of sheep have increased in number. Stud sheep entered in the Flock Book number 396,325, compared with 371,187 in the previous year. Sheep of distinctive breed, but not entered in the Flock Book, total 7,481,791, an increase of 115,466. Crossbred and other sheep total 21,173,266, as against 19,396,298 in 1927-28. The Napier-Gisborne district tops the score with 6,795,339 sheep. Otago is next with 6,178,413. The Welling-ton-West Coast district has 6,058,934, Canterbury-Kaikoura 5,827,373, Auckland 2,734,171, and Marlborough-Nel-son-Westland district only 1,456,952. Tables show that Hawkes Bay, with 1,363,635 sheep, has to take second ■ place among the counties to Southland with 1.660,088 sheep. Other counties with over a million sheep are: —Rangitikei, 1,220,057, and Ashburton 1,106,166. There is an increase of 1,917,572 sheep in the Dominion, but the number of owners has gone up by only 730. Otago with 6,424 owners heads .the list, Canterbury-Kaikoura with 5,773 owners is second, and then come Wellington-West Coast 4569, Auckland 3917, Napier-Gisborne 3629, and Marl-borough-Nelson-Westland 2400. Thus it will be seen that Napier-Gisborne district with 6,795,339 sheep (the greatest number in any one sheep district) has larger flocks and fewer owners than anywhere else in New Zealand. In Auckland the majority of owners have from 500 to 1000 sheep, and only three have more than 10,000. In Gisborne, however, there are four owners with more than 20,000, and the position is similar in Hawke’s Bay district, where 2,000 to over 5,000 is an average flock.