SHEEP FOR EAST AFRICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12602, 17 June 1904, Page 7

SHEEP FOR EAST AFRICA.

The New "Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., Ltd., Gore, have just completed loading at Bluff an interesting shipment of sheep by the s.s. Suffolk, comprising * 130 merinos, Romneys, and Corriedales, to the order of Mr. "Walker Dun, representing an East African syndicate, which has taken up a large tract of land in British East Africa, and intends to test its capabilities as a sheep country. The sheep just shipped are a fine hardy lot, and have been obtained from such well-known breeders as Messrs. Watson Shonnan, of Pukotoi; W. Cunningham, of Moa Flat; J. R. Mackenzie, of Pomahaka; and J. J. Miller, of Taieri. It is intended to establish a wool-producing cross with native sheep, which, while possessing a good frame, have only a scant hairy fleece. The" Suffolk will carry the sheep to Durban, where they will be transhipped to Mombassa, and thence conveyed by rail (380 miles) to their destination at, Lake Nairashi, near the eastern border of Victoria Nyanza. The sheep now being taken over by Mr. Dun are an experimental lot to be tried in Great Rift Valley and in plateau land in British East Africa at an elevation of 8000 to 12,000 feet above sea level, on what is described as a "white man's country," directly under the Equator. This territory has been opened up during the past few years by the British Government, who have run a , well-equipped line of railway from Mombassa to Lake Uganda, a distance of 630 miles. Should this experiment of the East Africa Syndicate be successful, it is probable that the whole. of the higher plateau land of Central" East Africa will bo taken up for weal production. The syndicate comprises amongst"its members Major Burnham, the famous explorer and scout, and the management of the stock is in the hands of Mr. "Walker Dun, who ; has had considerable experience of sheep farming; not only in New Zealand, but also in the Argentine and Patagonia. We wish Mr. Dun and the syndicate he represents every success in their pioneering venture—the first attempt to produce wool under the ; Equator in Africa.