SOUTHERN NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1476, 28 February 1880, Page 20

SOUTHERN NOTES.

I. TO INVEROARGHLt.

Having recently seen a large part of the Northern districts around Timaru and Oamaru, I have since made a trip to the South— a very different class of country— and I now offer a few notes of my observations during a journey which extended as far as Eiverton and Otuutau and through the Waimea Plains to the Mataura. I must premise that the season has been an exceptionally dry one— so dry that creeks which have never failed in the experience of residents of 28 years' standing have now not a drop of water in them, and the whole country is burnt up and witheredlooking. As we have no reason to suppose that there has been any permanent climatic change, I must therefore regard this year as one outside all usual conditions and calculations, and take much upon faith that I could not sco with my eyes. From Tokomairira or Balclutha southwards the cereal crop 3 have generally failed to come up to an average — the straw is very short, and ia many cases tho oat crop cannot bo worth reaping at present low prices, though it is being reaped notwithstanding, I suppose in hopos that prices will be batter by-and-bye. So much by way of preface.

EDBNDAI.E.

I was struck with tho quantity of stock, both catt'e and sheep, still carried by the N. Z. and A. Land Company's magnificent propartv at Edendale, notwithstanding tho dry season and the rabbits, which have made burrows along all the fences, and musi afc one time or other have swarmed over the property. I suppose such grazing land iB not to be found anywhere in the south, off the Taieri Plain.

WEST PLAINS.

I visited Mr P. K. M'Caughan's fine property, a few milos westward of Invercargill, on the West Plains, and though here, again, the drought had pulled down the grass terribly, I saw enough to convince me that it is splendid grazing land. Thore are abuufc 1100 ncrea comprised in this property, which originally cost the present owner about Ll2 10a per acre, and has since had a good deal spent upon it. About 350 acres consists of bush, the small timber on which ia beinp: felled by degrees, tho undergrowth burned, and the large trees only left standing. Then a mixture of Italian ryegrass, timothy, and red, white, and alsyke clovers is scattered, and in a year a splendid sole of grass is formed, partly sheltered by the standing bush, and well watered by the Makerewa lliver (which forms ono boundary) and the email creeks that run into it. By-the-bye, I observed that the Scotchmen in this neighbourhood have slightly altered the proper name of this river into " MacGarroway," which sounds to them more home-like, I Bupposo. It ia at this point a tidal stream of some volume, and very soon will be well stocked with fish. As to the carrying capacity of the land, I was assured by the owner that the 750 acres laid down in English grass carried from Ist October to 23rd January 430 head of bullocks, when, owing to the remarkably dry season, be had to put most of them off for a time into tbe bush land, selling bis first draft of fat stock. By the middle of May he expects he will have sold off the remainder in draftß fairly fat. Had the season here been even an average one, he would have done much better than ibis. The property is therefore most valuable as a grazing farm ; and if only an unlimited market for fat stock could bo found it would become still more valuable. There are many fins properties in Southland, but this, I believe, is a specially choice farm, b«ing near town, well watered, well sheltered, fcuddlvided into suitable paddocks, &a, &c. For a s'ud herd or flock it would be niwst suitable. Adjoining this property, which originally consisted of 11 different farms, ia some swamp land, some of which has been successfully drained, and \n now splendid pasture, but of

course, in very wet seasons it will be "saft." The farm buildings on the West Plains Estate are substantial, but in no way remarkable. One of the original settlers' houses, with a good orchard round it, is now abandoned, not being required by the present proprietor. The operation of bushburning was being carried on with vjgour during my visit, the dry season, of oourse, favouring it. I am told this process and the laying down in grass costs about L 6 per acre. BUSH. t Invercargill and Southland generally is specially favoured in the possession of large areas of bush. There are 20 saw-mills in the whole district, and the timber will last for many years. About a million feet were cut last month in the Government bush, and the price, delivered in Invercargill, is 83 per 100 ft for boards and scantling; so that a wooden cottage can be put up vary cheaply. If the partly- cleared bush is all as valuable as that which I saw at West Plains for grazing purposes, the Government ought to derive a considerable revenue from the sale of it after the beßt timber for milling purposes is taken out. The timber is chiefly red and white pine, but there is some totara and black pine. As settlement advances in the .district the timber industry must grow, and the railways eught to help both in creating a demand for sleepers and in delivering timber cheaply to the settlers in the timberleaa districts on the M&taura and Waimea Plains. I saw all along the line a good deal of timber being moved by rail. SUBUBBAN SEOHONS. Near Invercargill there has been great speou? lation in suburban sections. I saw one property of 100 acres, which the owner some time ago valued at L 30.000, or L3oo' an acre, that price having been obtained , for a few small seotions to build on ; but Isee nothing to justify the expectation that Invercargill will grow so rapidly as to maintain such a value for suburban property. I hear some large owners are grumbling at having to pay a land tax of perhaps LlOO or Ll5O a year on property that is as yet bringing in little or no income. But if the owners hold for high prices they cannot on that aocount expect to escape taxation. Doubtle3s the valu» tions aret 00 high, but in many cases they are such as are put on the properties by the owners themselves, in virtue of the high prices they ask, and bow and then obtain. One gentleman said to me, "There is all the difference between wholesale and retail" } and there is something in this. A property ought to be valued for taxation at what it would sell for as a whole, and not pieoemsal. Had the land tax been maintained the burating-up policy would have affected suburban properties even more than large estates. As these high prices paid for small holdings to wealthy proprietors do not add in any degree to the actual wealth of the country, they only interest me as examples of the effect of population in raising the market value of land. Men " who toil not, neither do they spin," have simply to hold on firmly to their land for a sufficient number of years and they realise the " unearned increment." It is quite right also, in this case, that they should pay a good share of the taxes.