PASTORAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1499, 7 August 1880, Page 7

PASTORAL NOTES.

By Atticus.

The publication of my last contribution under the above heading in your journal, has encouraged me to resume my notes in reference to the prosecution of the pastoral industry in New Zealand. In my last, I recorded it as my opinion that the flocks had deteriorated during the past few years in Otago, in respect to pedigree, and the growth of wool. I shall now resume my remarks, and demonstrate the cause of the falling off in this staple article of production. From the period that publio companies swallowed up private enterprise ia this Colony in the vortex of self aggrandisement—from that date I repeat—retrogression began. Publio companies have, beyond all doubt, revolutionised the whole Bquatting programme of Otago. From the date of their inauguration, some years ago, till the present period, they have pursued a policy in their system of management which, in my opinion, merits condemnation from my pen. Talk about " making the desert a fruitful field, and the wilderness to rejoice and blossom like the rose,"—it is all a sham, a delusion 1 Do we not know that the aim of all publio companies hitherto has been to keep all things in connection with the production of _ wool in the original, or as near it as they possibly could ? They have bestowed their patronage upon Dame Nature, and have been very liberal in this respect They have established home rule in our midst with a vengeance. This system of station management is worthy of a few remarks. The moment a new station is purchased by a company, tbe manager, shepherds, and all others in any way oonneoted with the station are immediately expelled from their newly acquired territory. Well do I remember a scene that I onoe witnessed some years ago in this province. A station was absorbed, or swallowed up, in the vortex of Hades (earthly, of oourse), never to be redeemed. The manager, shepherds, and general station hands were informed, that their services would be dispensed with after the,, expiration of one month. Many of the Bhepherds were new hands on the station when the announcement was made to them in respect to their dismissal. The scene that followed baffles description. Talk about the hills resounding with the song of the children of the pioneer 1 The echo did resound, but it was to a sound that will never fade from my memory. And here I may note that this case is only one out of many that I could enumerate. It is not to be wondered at that New Zealand wool only takes a subordinate place in the Home markets, when beardless youths' are entrusted with the management of the. flocks, over the heads of practical managers. As a result to be anticipated, the Hooks in several instances have fallen to the grade of mongrels. Several of the stations owned by publio companies at the present moment are stocked with a class of sheep very much resembling the flock that Jacob took charge of for Laban, to wit, "ringstrated, speckled, and gristled. The noble merino has been supplanted by a consumptive mongrel of an inferior degree; In oonolusion I may note that the decline of private enterprise is much to be regretted, as under its rule hundreds of men found employment. Public companies have adopted a different system. The standards and wire do duty for shepherds for miles upon miles of New Zealand pastoral |land. Out stations are abolished, and homes abandoned. Thus saith the seer "O ye flockowners, the day is looming in the distance when your possessions will be annihilated," and a tax imposed upon that staple article—woo?. Tour prosperous reign is drawing to a close. Talk about equalisation of taxation! Is it not a faofc that this glorious land of the south is mortgaged beyond redemption to Home capitalists who spend little or nothing in the Colony ? But the day is at hand when the land will be freed from this invasion.