The Sheep Returns.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXI, Issue 8833, 13 July 1905, Page 4

The Sheep Returns.

By Telegraph. (From Our Own Correspondent. Wellington, July 12. An interim return of sheep in the colony on April 30, 1905, gives the approximate number as follows: Auckland—6l9,39o. decrease 66,409; Napier—4,6ol,42B, increase 118.552; Wellington and West Coast 4,172,849, increase 137,562; Marlborough and Ne150n—947,273, increase 9785; Canterbury and Kaikoura—s,24o,l44, increase 461,532 ; 0tag0—3,540,839, increase 180,096. The total sheep are 19,121,924 —an increase, of 841,118. The increase in the North Island is 189,705, and in the South 651,413. The increase is accounted for as follows: There were about 150,000 more ewes put to the ram during the 1904 season; the lambing was above tho average; the export of mutton ivr/l lamb decreased bv 668,749 carca=-=. to the Atrri- 1 cultural and P.i Joml Statistics for j904-5. Cattle showed a further increase of 143,303. is confidently ftf'icipated that the floo'-s will continue to show a steady! increase, as farmers are now realising the. necessity for holding hack a proportion of the lambs for breeding purposes. The mutton and lamb exported during the vear totalled 3,825.091 carcases. against 4,493,810 and 4,504,008 in the' two "years previous respectively. The large increase of sheep in Canterbury has been considerably assisted by extensive imports from the North Island and parts of the South The report-, being only an interim one, gives .no details as to the numbers of breedincr o\v"s.