OMAPERE SETTLEMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 223, 20 August 1945, Page 4

OMAPERE SETTLEMENT

MANY SHEEP DIE. NAPIER, Aug. 19Persistent; reports about conditions at the Umapere rehabilitation settlement, in tlie L,rowntnorpe--Uatapn'o area, led to an inspection of the farms by Press representatives last week. In a shallow gully between 150. and 200 dead sheep were found in varying stages of decomposition. Dead ewes and lambs lay in Hie paddocks and scores of animals which appeared to be dying were seen on the six farms which comprise the settlement. Ine Omapere station holding ot 3000 acres was recently taken over by the Government and subdivided into six farms. Linder Government supervision returned men are working these properties. Tlie development ol the settlement has been watched with interest by farmers and various organisations in Hawke s Bay. Near what those wiio have seen it call “the mortuary”, the party on inspection last week saw tlie decomposing bodies of 11 ewes lying in a pile on the ground. They had been dead loi several days, and had not yet been plucked. The odour of death was strong in the air. The investigation revealed “the mortuary”—a shallow gully containing between 150 and 200 decomposing slieep carcares. In other paddocks of”the settlement dead sheep and lambs were found in such numbers that it v,*as not possible to keep an accurate check of their numbers. In one paddock alone 12 dead ewes and 97 dead lambs were seen. Aiost of tlie sheep were in poor condition, and many seemed to be dying. . . ~ ~ ~ . Farmers in the vicinity said tUat though the season had been hard, thenown hocks are in fairly good Condition compared with Omapere s “animals. Realising that a bad winter lay ahead, most Hawke’s Bay farmers reduced tlieir stock, but it is stated that such a course was not followed at Omapere. Approaching the communal woolshed the party was met by a depressing spectacle." The heads of several sheep were strewn about rotting in the sun, and almust all the floor space of tlie shed was covered by skins and dead The work of developing the Omapere settlement is proceeding even though sheep are dying. Houses are being built, roading is being put through, power lines erected and fences put in 01 A further inspection of the Omapere property was made today by iarmniK experts," a member of Parliament, and an R.S.A. representative, who found the conditions similar to those at the time of the previous visit. Lambing ewes were found to be in a poor state, and in one paddock there vyere two dead lambs for every one alive.