STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES,

Otago Witness, Issue 2509, 16 April 1902, Page 8

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES,

Br Dboyeb. Weekly Stock Sales : Fortnightly : o „ „r , •■ Invercargill, Tuesdays Burnside, Wednesdays ABhburton, Tuesdays Monthly: Add n^ton, Wednesdays Clinton, Palmerston, Wintop, and WaiFcrtniqhtly: kouaiti Balclutha, Fridays I><:> iodically : Gore, Tuesdays Heriot.Kelso, and _ye Oamaru, Tuesdays burn.

The cattle market at Burnside last week was a brisk one, and prices were well maintained. There were no heavy bullocks, but a lot of roally good beef. Best sold at £9 tc nearly £10, and medium weights* £7 10s to £8 10s ; good cows and heifers up tc £7 10s.' The reports from London re New Zealand beef continue to be of (he most cheering description. Tho only matter for regret is the small quantity coming forwaid. Latent reports, are of the 7th March. One ,ays : — "Only 15,731 quarter, have been reeehecl this year, a deciea,e of 15,528 quarters, and little more than half last year's \ery light supplies. Australia shows v n increase of 553+ quarters and RiverPlate an increase of 44,716 quarter?. The small receipts from New Zealand being much concentrated, enabled holders to raise values, and 4£d per lb for hindquarters and 3|d for fores vas readily obtained. Stocks of both New Zealand and Australian are extremely light, and prospective arrivals by no means large. .Stocks of River Plate are 6aid to be large, and are added to by every vessel, yet in London holders have advanced rate?.' Another report confirms the above, and adds :— " Although receipts of River Plate are relatively heavy, prices have been maintained at 3d for fores, and 3£d for hinds. Only small lots of New Zealand aro being marketed, but these come more nearly into competition with chilled beef " Later cables tell of a considerable ri.se in the price of beef.

In the above connection T wi-h to call attention to two matters — \\z . the conccntiation of bellina; and also the high quality. There is no mistake we ha\e begun our fro?en hoof trade on improved and proper lines, and we have only now to go on and expand our trade on the same lines. I consider the outlook for beef very promising, and I advise all farmets whose surrounding conditions aro suitable to give their best attention to beef-raising in pieference to mutton. I maintain that in Otago and Southland we aro in a good poc-ition to cany on the beef trade and takv^ the lead, whilst I cannot bay the same as, regards mutton.

The yarding of sheep at Burnside last week was slightly i ndoi 1600. Aged ewes and inferior were hard to quit, but the maiket for yotm;r < « <. - Mid ijiime wcthud wa- a brisk one. lam of opinion that prices for aU prime freezers will be at least well maintained in the months to come, so farmei-. had better gn c their attention to finishin,' their sheep. All indications point to good turnip crops. Lower freights will soon lie tho rule— winter rate--. I mean. Best; fr'.zing wether, s O ! c i at 14s 6d to 15s 6d, fieezing owe.a up to 15-* 6d

Latest London icport-. dated 7ih March, tell v- that prune. New Zealand mutton continues to be \ery scarce, and that notwithstanding lieaw arrivals sinco January really food fre-h light-weight carcases are \ery ■•cvi t_P. antl amongst late arrivals there •,ecin-. an ab-ence of carcases at all approaching st n,''anl qualities. Th<- only inquiries f, .. Nina wcizht crnntl cln^ rautton.

which buyers are inclined to pay good prices for, but cannot obtain. As supplies up to date have been by no means heavy, it is to ba hoped that stocks of stale mutton, may be cleared ere long, and that later shipments will meet with a good market.

The lamb offering at Burnside at present is of poor quality, and fortunately small in quantity. Really good freezing lambs are worth 10s 6d to 12s, and seem to be .very scarce indeed. River Piate are now sending lambs to London, and must prove formidable rivals. They have just made a beginning. In January and February they landed 22,042 carcases, as against 1005 in the same period last year. Many of those marketed in London have been nice, sizeable lambs, well made, short-legged, meaty, in capital condition, and readily saleable .at 4^d to 4^d, and nothing plain or inferior Bias been seen on the market. This is good for them. We used to think New Zealand ■would have a monopoly of the lamb trade, and, as a matter of fact, we have sacrificed quality in our mutton m trying to increase our lamb export trade. We shall have to reconsider our methods from grower to dis tributer now, and endeavour to get on proper lines once more, for it is evident that Teform all round is needed. Yet farmers seem as apathetic as ever, and all those who take an interest in these matters and try to arouse them to the need of reform meet, I regret tc say, with but scant encouragement.

Ec the grain market . The weather last •week was bad again for harvesting, and without doubt a very large quantity of grain has been irretrievably damaged. I said last ■week that wheat would probably run up to near 5s per bushel, and I .<=ee no reason to think I have exaggerated the probabilities of the market. Oats, too, I exiirct to see improve. Buyers are willing to operate for forward delivery, and the prospect is encouraging for those who have saved their crops, and I have reason to believe that in South Otago and in Southland this has been tho case to a considerable extent. I expect yet to see a good demand for pota toes, and in fact all New Zealand prodr.ets The great Commonwealth of Australia will have to be largely fed from New Zealand for some months to come, despite their hostile tariff I notice that they are again praying for rain in Queensland. Dojbtles? ■the population generally will feel the pinch of the high prices of food and feed jtuff-s, but this, as I sugge=ted some time ago, might be greatly lessened if they would take off those awful protective dutie? and let New Zealand produce in free. This they can do themselves, and it is not for Providence to help in that rosucct. Providence did not make the tariff, and will not interfere with it. They must do this themselves. I sympathise with them in then' drought, as I do with our farmers suffering from rain and flood ; but Providence, I am sure, expects us "all to do our own part as far as lies in our power, and will not interfere in doing for us that winch we ought to do for ourselves — as, for instance, in the matter of harvesting our grain promptly when the proper time come*. Many farmers, I regret to '-.ay, have suffered from neglecting this wise precaution. Leaving the stooks in the field to chance the weather and going rabbiting has, in this and in other years, caused much disappointment But no doubt we shall all learn by experience, though we have to pay pietty dearly for our knowledge.

I am extremely glad to see that some of the leaders of the Farmers' Union aio taking up the position I have a' way? hoped they would do. Mr G. W. Lcadlpy. chairman of the North Canterbury District Union, speaking at Templeton last week, said: — At the present moment there was ijot another organisation in the colony ?s compact, so strong numerically, and so influential as the New Zealand Farmers' Union. The undoubted success achieved by the organisation was the strongest proof of the necessity which had existed for its formation and of the fact that it was doing good. If there was one individual in Now Zealar.d who was supreme in his importance and value to the eonimuijity, it wa3 the farmer. He occupied the laigest proportion of the entire population, one person 7n every eight 111 New Zealand being connected with agricultural, pastoral, dairying, or fruit-growing pursuits, and he produced more wealth than any other section of the community. Alter satisfying their own needs, the farmers of tho colony had exported last >ear goods valued at more than £11,000,000, so that, in proportion to their number, they produced an immensely greater amount of wealth available for export than any othe-i section of the population. It was only reasonable, therefore, that they should combine together to promote their own interests and those of the community. If the farmeis bctteicd then position, they improved that of ail other classes. If they possessed money, they put it in circulation, aud when they were prosperous, everyone else was. To show the unselfishness of the union, Mr Leadley referred to the discussion which had taken place at the afternoon's conference as to the desirnbk-ness of procuring sections of Government land in the district for temporarily unemployed workmen, which they ruHivate. without having to settle on them. He said that the union was prepared, if the workmen wished this, to throw the whole weight of their infliuuce into the scale to get them a few acies of good ground, which they could occupy advantageously when not engaged in other work. At the Provincial Conference to be he. a next month in Chnstchurch, several vrrv Kreat questions would be discussed. The matter of «, -piefcrential tariff within the Empire was one of vital moment to every man and woman. In this remote colony we were severely handicapped, and our products had to pay toll, so to speak, cf the long sea journey Home, and then to compete with produce ?iown iiot so far oft and more ch^aplv. America sent vast quantities of food stuff- to British port*, and had the advantage over Xcw Zealand 111 veiy mnch cheaper transit rates. A ton of grain could be carried thero 10C0 nnks Ly lake journey foi ss. It was intended to ask Mr Seddon '.o bring this matter befoii the Conference of Preni'ers, to be held 111 London, and to see 'f some scheme could be devised by which local produce should have some slight advan"ta^e given it over that from other parts of the world, outside of the Empire Mr Leadlev urged upon tlio luiirt-? present ■not to trouble about trivialities, but to ~i\<? their undivided attention to the 111 pe r t. I matters at issue. When thci=e wr-ie- s.i!i-U( roi :'v settled, everything else would kjl'lw 1. pio-p-M order and due course. Mi Lfadley's remarks acrrec. i f will he6<?en, with all I have from tun" to tirr.e said on this subject, and I do hope far roars' unions will tak.^ his advice — viz.. " Not to trouble about trivialities in the meantime, but to give their undivided attention to the important matters at issue." Let farmers' unions a'ways bear in mind that there is the e-.er-prcsent drag on them of •the labour union,, anil they ned tc be •irons' And miked oc nil rbata cexnu.

Lately the labour unions had a conference at Auckland and discussed tariffs and other matters in their usual weak, selfish, and , short-sighted style. They advocated protective duties on all goods that could be manufactured in the colony. The mover ol the resolution did not even attempt to defend this policy on principle, but weakly advocated it as a matter of expediency, and did not deny that freetrade meant cheap living all round. One member put this matter strongly before the conference, but the majority, as the Daily Times says, consoled themselves with the delusion that the cost of living is no greater in a protected country than it is in a freetrade country. One would imagine the state of affairs iv New South Wales and Victoria respectively prior to federation would have shown even the most dense the folly of this reasoning. The conference admitted their entire ignorance on the subject of preferential tariffs between Great Britain and her colonies. Our Premier now, however, is an Imperialist down to the ground, and will, I am afraid, shock the sensibilities of his quonc'am friends, the labour unions, on this point. Mr Seddon was formerly all " labour," and nothing else ; no one with him was worth considering except a labour union man at one time. Now. however, it is different. He has got the bit between his teeth, and looks like kicking over the labour union traces, and a good thing, too. Now is the time for farmers to run our Premier in their interests. The labour unions have done so long enough, to the detriment of the colony. Mr Seddon has got out of his narrow, swaddling clothes, and will be further educated at Homo a« a sound Imperialist, and I hope to see him come back a sound freetrader too.