STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES,

Otago Witness, Issue 2288, 6 January 1898, Page 5

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES,

By Deovbb.

Weekly Stock Sales : Invercargill, Tuesdays Burnside, Wednesdays Monthly : ur J on 'ww U l sda^ 8 Clinton, Palmerstoa, Addmgton, Wednesdays an |j winton. Fcrtniqhtly : Periodically : Balclutha, Fridays Ileriot, Kelso, and Kye Gore, Tuesdays burn. Oamaru, Tuesdays. [Communication* of interest te stockbreeders and dealers are not Inter than Monday iiiclit.l

The yardings in all classes of stook at J3arnsidß last week were email, bat in all cases ample for the present limited demand. About 100 head of cattle were yarded, 70 of which were fair beef. Puces were maintained at

previous rates — best bullocks, £8 to £9 15^ ; medium, £7 to £7 10a. Prices were only maintained owing to the very moderate number offered, and should yardings increasa beyond 100 head at the present time lower prices must be expected.

Barely 400 sheep were yarded, but this quantity proved ample for the limited demand. Previous prices were maintained. Some prize fat wethers brought 11s to lla 9i; some fair quality, 9a to 10j 6d. The only demand at all was for good wether mutton, and even the very small number of ewes were neglected, a few very good maiden ewes selling at 8a to 9s, but the balance being hard to quit at 4s to 6i, altbough they were fairly good mutton. Until the freez'ng works open a very few hundred sheep are sufficient, and only good to prime wethers are wanted at all.

Toe yarding of lambs (about 700) was quite a full supply, even at this holiday time, when lamb almost entirely supersedes mutton. Very prime gold at 10s to 11s, good at 8 s to 93. Inferior and small were sold with soma difficulty at 5* to 63. Had the supply of good bean a littlo larger these would have been neglected, as butchers buying lamb prefer size and weight.

The sales at Addingfcon at present are dull, and give ample evidence of tho long-con-tinued and disastrous drought prevailing throughout Canterbury. Very few iUt sheep were yardei, and local batchers took all good wethers at 9-j to 11s. Export buyers were not operating, as there wss such a meagre supply. The lambs that came forward were mostly of poor quality, and what we know as prime Canterbury weie hardly to be seen. Some passable lines lit for freezing were briskly competed for at 9> 61 to 11s 6i, local butchers helping to keep prices up. Light and inferior mst with little or no demand.

At the commencement of this new year the only line that one can write about choermlly is grain, Ths market ke£p3 decidedly firm and improving for wheat, and the oat market is brisk, with fair prices ruling, which wjll in my opinion continue right through the year. From all one can at present see the New Zealand crop of grain lor the ccni'ng harvest will, on the average, be very light, and it is quits evident that throughout th 3 year we shall hava a good outlet in Australia for our surplus, whatever it may be.

I regret to say that the prospects for dafry produce are not bright. Oar output of butter will this year be a record one, but I fear prices will cot be maintained. This in in part dua to the action o£ the Danish committee, who watch the arrivals of Australian and New Zealand produce keenly, and lower prices whenever they see New Zealand produce arriving in fair quantify. They did this on the arrival of the lonic, and prices went down by Gs per cwt in one week. Their idea, no donbt, is .to cripple the New Zealand and Australian trade, but I hope and believe they will fiud that we are not the sort of people to be driven off easily.

Cheese is in heavy supply in London, with stocks accumulating, and prices must rule very low. The disastrous strike now prevailing at Home, with no signs of its coining to an end, intensifies the trouble, and all our exports are afiecled, as consumption even with low prices ruling is very much restricted. Tbese things are all ley and our control, and we must face them and look to the future to better matters. The most disastrous factor, however, working against the present and future of our dairy produce trade is the shocking state of our shipping arrangements. I don't fear the action of the Danes or aay competitors or opponents destroying our trade, but I say most emphatically that unless our shipping arrangements are at once improved the destruction of* our export trade ia dairy produce is imminent. Ofcago and Southland suffer in this respect more than the rest of the colony. Take, for instance, theMatsura, which arrived here at the end oi November, and only left the colony last week. The Gothic, which left here on the 29. h December, and leaves the colony- on the 6ch January, will be Home almost as soon, and two cargoes will be landed almost at once, to the disgust of consignees. The Gothic also, I ara given to understand, shut ont some cheese for which space was duly engaged.

The agents said that unless 200 tons of cheese were guaranteed the Gothic would take none. The amount of cheese was guaranteed and came forward, and we were then told ebe could only take 170 tons, and several factories bad to cut down their quantities considerably. For the same steamer space was engaged by an Otago exporter for 3000 lambs, and these were at considerable trouble and expense got ready at Oamaru, and when the steamer arrived the exporter was told that space was not available as it had been filled in Canterbury, These are only instances of what is constantly occurring. This is what a repreeen< tative of one of the largest British houses writes on the subject, and he was at one time a buyer of large quantities of all sorts of produce.

■What an outrageous delay and arrangement you have for shipping. This in itself ia enough to ruin the trade in your colony, and one rea»on why I left it. So far as Otago and Southland are concerned we have at present only a steamer a month. In Canterbury and the North Island they have steamers sailing a littla oftener, but sailings are irregular, and arrivals will be more irregular still. Victoria and New South Wales have practically a regular weekly serviceRegular shipment and arrivals in London are absolutely necessary, and I still maintain that unless Governmentatepin at once and subsidise a regular and effective line of steamers New Zealand trade in -meat and dairy produce will so suffer as to bring disaster on every settler in the country.

Sir John HaII has generally been credited with very Conservative opinions, but, as w« saw by his repoi ted interview in last week's Wksesp, the ideas attributed to him have been greatly modified, if indeed he ever held them. His views on the meat export question aad the situatija in Loadon exactly agree with what I have constantly and very persistently set foifch in this column. Uulike most of the leaders, in this meat trade, particularly the Canterbury section, he does believe ia " Government stepping in,' 1 and so do I, for the colony must if possible be saved from the long-continued disastrous rule or independent muddlers who still think that they, and they alone, can manage things. The present condition of the trade only serves to show' how very ruinous their rule and control have been.

London cables inform us that Ussfna Weddsl and Co.'a review of the meat trade states tbafc the unfoitnnate condition of the frozen meat trade is due to over-supply and defective condition, and that drastic alterations should be made in the preparation of meat and transport, including careful survey at the port of shipment.

These reforms have been constantly urged in this cclurxiß, as readers -will acknowledge, but so far no reform has even been attemptedThe CO. and D. Company in their review make a statement a part of which, if it refers to New Zealand, I dispute. They say " the bane of the trade has been damage by tha off-colour of the carcases, and if frozen meat was shipped immediately after being slaughtered and promptly disposed of here it would go far to revive prosperity." With the latter part I agree, and believe meat; should be promptly disposed of on arrival, and also that the ofC-eolour is mainly v&msA by bad handling and long storage in London. What I dispute ia the insinuation that meat is not shipped promptly aZte* freezing here. So far as both Otago aad Canterbury are concerned none of the works hold meat for long, as they have not storage room, and during the past season meat lias all along gone oo beard ship as rapidly as it was ready for shipment. The only place I know of where meat was held for any time previous to shipment was at Nelson Bros.' works at tho Bluff, and as the C.C. and D. Company are practically one and the saraa thing as Nelson Bros., they must be alluding only to what they themselves are responsible for.

In dealifig with the rabbit question, the report of .the Secretary for Agriculture says that north of ths Waitaki evidence is .most marked that the pest is being reduced, the natural enemy doing excellent; work. " Beports circulated of loss of sheep and lambs through these small animals have been proved Quite unfounded. In the Auckland

«3istiict the main difficulty is the Kir.gcountry, where at present they are unable to poison. The Hawke's Bay Rabbit Board work in a satisfactory manner. In the Marlborougb, Kaikoura, and Amuri districts great improvement is noticeable. Of Otago and Southland the report only says that " in maDy parts the pest is well in hand, " and then goes on to make the following remarks, with which I quite Bgree: — " Considerable prominence has been given in the newspapers and by the Gore Farmers' Club to tbe export industry. The question was fully discussed, and I am sorry to cay that a large number of landowners are of the belief that trapping for export is the solution of the rabbit difficulty. .1 have co hesitation in saying that trapping Hor export during thrse or four months of the year will not rid the coloDy of the pest. The rabbits will be thinned, but unless landowners take more energetic measures in spring and sammer than they have hitherto done the pest will be just as bad next autumn. The professional trapper will not kill the goose that lays the golden egg. It must be admitted that many properties have been well cleared by trapping, but if the same energetic and systematic measures had been taken in laying poison in years gone by the rabbits would have been now practically a thing of the past."

It is want of simultaneous action and attention to details such as mixing poison, laying, &c , that has been the main cause of nonBuceess in rabbit-destruction. Where trapping haa been discontinued the rabbits are being gradually got under, as is amply proved by the state of much of the Marlborough and Kaikoura country. In Otago there are many who up to a year or two ago allowed trapping^ but who since they stopped it find the pest greatly reduced, besides the expense of destruction being lessened. Trapping undoubtedly scatters the rabbits. What is wanted is power io compel simultaneous poisoning at least twice a year and the more general adoption of a system of rabbit-proof netting fences.

-The suggestion made in the following letter is in my opinion well worth giving a trial : —

Maritsnga, Kokoaga, December 23,

Dear "Agrieola," — I have put into practice an idea" which occurred to me some time ago in connection with pollard-poisoning, and which may commend itself to some of your readers Bhould jou tbink it worth making public.

Into each man's bag of pollard poison I put two pannikiasful or cocksfoot setd. The seed adheres to tbe pollard, and is distributed over the ground. Being -in the scrapes it has a much better chance of germinating in a dry climate like this, as tbe dust blows into the scrape and the eced is thus covered. As I enly started this idea this spring I cannot speak of results, but have no doubt it will turn out well. — I am, &c, Robert Logan.

I make no apology for extracting the following letter on the frozen meat trade from the Southland News. The \iews expressed in it' are well worth the earnest consideration of all interested in the frozen meat trade : —

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — Re your article on above, you start on a wrong assumption — namely, that Britain is being over-supplied with frozen and foreign meat, hence the low prices current for the New -Zealand article. Argentine shippers have contrived to improve the quality and treble the quantity of their exports in & few years, whik in the same period New Zealand meat has been gradually declining in*value, and this in the face of the immense natural advantages which the colony possesses for the growing of high-class live stock. Many excuses are given for this deterioration, and the blame is saddled on freezing and shipping companies, salesmen, &3., &c, but the initial mistake is in producers here not studying the tastes of British consumere, and also in neglecting to push the sale of their goods in the British market.

No amount of writiDg or speechifying can now benefit the industry. 16 requires action — prompt and decisive — and the first step ia to make a market for the produce. This can only be done by advertising, and that extensively, and following up the advertising by appointing energetic men to push sales in every town of Importance in the British Islands. Vendors of soap, matches, &c, can spend up to £100,000 annually on advertising ; then why should New Zealand not spend the half of that amount on advertising and on travellers P Then we might reasonably assume that our frozen mutton would »b least set a fair trial, it is

all very well to boast here in New Zealand nboub the superiority of our products, bub it is surprising how cen ely ignorant the British working and middle cits ej are of the geography and great natur&l resources of this grand colony, and to expecb to boom cuegood3 by mere speeebifyirg even in London, is taking a very sanguine view of the tituatiou. The average Englishman is ready to buy what pleases his eye and palate when ib is at hand, and rarely gives a thought to the country which produces it, but ifc requiiei to be in constant supply, and sales steadily ar.d per6tveiingly pushed, otherwise ib ia useless to expect a Bteady demand. Regularity in pbipmeii's may be necessary, but regular distribution is much more so. The proposed increase of storage accommodation in Loudon should m?ke this much easier, and should place producers less at the mercy of London salesmen, who seem to "bull" and "bear" ihe trade at their own sweet will.

A mistaken idea very prevalent hf ro 13 that London contains almost the whole British consuming public. Now, from my own personal experience in the trade I know that in Lancashire, Yorkehire, Durham, and Northumberland, there are hundreds of thousands — aye, millions — of working men who would gladly buy <hs mutton produced here in Southland, a3 it is exictly suited to their taste, if they could get it. I also know personally scores of energetic batchers who would readily push the sale of it if its merits were properly put before them, b-.it (hey never hear of ib except as Australian mutton. "Why should a farmers' company like the Southland Frozen Meat Company nob endeavour to supply this class of tradesmen direct ? The idea is feasible enough, and if ifc could bo carritd out ib would ceitainly tend to minimise middlemen's profits. -"

The fact is very evident that if New Zealand is to be in the race at &U some new course will have to be shaped, or the frozen meat industry will be stranded. Your suggestion to endeavour to find new outlets is quite practicable, but, at the same time, all the mutton which New Zealand can produce is a mere drop in the bucket of British imports ; and if our (rade is not flourishing it is owing largely to a lack of energy and push on the part of producers here, as if they grow a fifst-class article and persistently force it on the notice of the B itish public there is still abundance of room ia England alone for the whole exports of New Zealand. — I am, &«.. Ai* English Butcher. December 28, 1897.