LOSS OF STOCK

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1716, 18 January 1905, Page 64

LOSS OF STOCK

Much valuable information, though painful reading, is (says the "Sydney Morning Herald”) contained in the report of the Royal Commission on the Western Division, especially in relation to the loss of stock there, as the result of the protracted drought, and the rabbit invasion. In 1891 the number of stock in the Western Division was 15,406,000. In 1900 the number was 5,701,000, showing a decrease cf almost 10,000,000, or nearly two-third© of the total. Half a dozen instances show the severity of the losses sustained during the 1895-1900 drought: Tinapagee 97,000, Winbar 93,000, Toorale 224,000, Dunlop 186,000, Kallara 150,000, and Belalie 79,000. The depreciation in the value of pastoral property in the Western division during the past 16 or 17 years range from 50 to 80 per cent. Mr David Elder, manager of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited, told the Royal Commission that his company sold by auction six holdings in the Western division. Upon them £103,017 was spent in improvements, while included within their boundaries were freehold lands bought from the Grown for £6971, making a total outlay of £IIO,BBB. The amount realised at auction was only £10,527. In one ir.» stance, where the amount expended on improvements had been £40,000, and the cost of the freehold land was £4531, the sum realised was £3OOO, or £1531 less than the amount paid to the Grown for the freehold land. With such a fearful condition of things before them, it is no wonder that the Western Lands Board Commissioner have felt oppressed by the difficult task imposed upon them of sd arranging matters as to avert what Avould be a national disaster if the 'Western division were abandoned, for that would be to declare aloud, "The Western division is a no-man’s land.”