STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2771, 24 April 1907, Page 7

STOCK AND GRAZING NOTES.

BY Drover.

Weekly Stock Sates : Burasicie, Wednesdayg A»hburto», Tuesdays Addineton, Wednesday* Ftrlnightly : Salclutka, Fridays Uore. Tuesday! Oami ru, Tuesdays

Fortn'ffhtty : InvercargM, Tuesdays Jlonthly: Clinton, Palmer«tnr, AViaton, ard Waikcuaiti. i'trxtdicalli : IHeriot, Kelsc and Kye bura.

There is no change to report in the sheep market at Addington and Burnsidc. Last week prime sheep and lambs sold well, and will probably continue to do to, export buyers taking the bulk of the lamb«. Prime sheep are not in oversupply at presenl, and the butchers' demand prevents export buyeii- doing much. Good breeding e«e 3 are sought after, but weakly la r iil.s a.id low-conditionod store 'heep don't find ready buyers at any price. Then 1 liaj beon a gocl <ical of -p' dilation, und it is s-iid -jOine new dcalem w euld Ilk. 1 to quit ~ome oi their «i<jlL. h jiitlhand f;uinci^ have been lai^c liuyoia: t<; •<! prc|kcti tbci". lr.duiling tiirr.ip-. )i \i i, I think, J 3tAod Letter at tin- time ot ji,".

Mt"i'= Wodcifl and Co. writing under date Cth March, ro.jort : —

MTTTOX.

Xew Zea'and. — Ariira's dining tho pa = t two vtjaks aai-canl to Gl,9i(J carea<=e c . Trade generally haa bsen «.'ow di'img thj per.rd, and although the quantity oi mutton to hand from all sources is less tiia.: daring the prece.hng fortnight, yet market my « hi\e Lceii in excess of the demand, and ha "c had a prejudicial eife-ct tipon vs.iue=, which e'e-e decidedly weaker. Whi'c this, decrta.-e is apphcab'e to prime %hesp ci best Uands it has, be-^n still niore fe't by s-' c.idary and infer. or qualities, i.^amsi wlm.h the Wge cSenng^ ot good Australian «md Ri\er Plate fhesp at low prices have l^er. m active competition Canterbury feheciJ undPT 56. b are sdhn^ at 4Jd, sC'G4"ib at 4jd and 4Jd iu>d cani-63 ever tiiilj ot 3~d and 4d per Dj Long-Lu.-n 9- d \VM E are inaVii'g Irom 3gd to 4£c?, accord rg to «.zc- and qua' tv, and Soutlilaiids are selling nt a c hac!o under thi-e pnee-s Ordinary Xori.li I'-'ai.d her :> leah^c from 33d to Id, and cv.« frcm '53d5 3 d to Z'A.

Australian. — Receipts luring the lorlnigh*, amount to 71 801. The demand has not been g<"-cd, and {he market has b«»n unable to absorb the large quantities that are being offered. A general leduclion in value has confrequently taken p. ace, and ev»n at the reduced rates it has been mii-o^ible to make &at,stactory progress w»ih «ale= Small sheep are selling at 33d and 3fd. and me-'hum and heavy carcate* at 3|d and 3gd per 1b Hiver Pla^e — Arrivals, curing the past two ue-'ks amount io 96,678 ca,rci<^os. Ihere hds Leon no special ieve'oprnent iii this department The demand hjs been fair, Lut in-f-nfficient io maintain recent. va!u<*«, aid a decline in price has to be lecorded. This result has 1,-een hastened by thf marketing of a cor.Eiderab!? quantity of damaged mutton at exceptional 1 }? low rates. Small sheep die quoted at 3Jd and 3Jd, whi'c heavier carcases, realise 3£<J and 3U]

LAMBS

Arr.va's Jnring the foi' r .iaht amount to 119,457 carcas-cs from Austrp'ia, 101,684 carcases ircm New Zealand and fOCI carcases frcm ihe Kr.?r Plate. There js practically rothing rreth to repcrt in connection with the lamb trr.de Supplies- arriving are far in excess of requirements at this time of the year, and prices all round are consequently weaker \\ lih the easing off in values, the demand fcr New Zealand lambs has increased shght'y, but not to the extent that holders would like to see. Buyers, however, do not show much melinatiom to o cerate to any

extent in the face oi the large shipments afloat , and many parcels arc arriving' which ccst the owners considerably more than present values. What inquiry there is. is mainly for best quabty lambs, anything at all secondary being very difficu't to move. This is more particularly the case^ with New Zealand lambs., which have to compete with all classes of Australians, the latier baing freely offered l at anything from 3Jd to 4§d. The geed mqu.ry for heavy weight lambs that tia^ existed for come time past is now fsllirg' off, buyers rilling their requirements with light and medium weights. The market for Xew Zealand lambs closes weak at the following qucKai'ans — Prime Canterburys, 5d and s£d ; bes^ quality North Islands, 4Jd and 4gd , secondary's, 4UI and 4Jd Aus-trahans are selling steadily a* JJd and 4|d for ;srime quality, 4d and 4Jd for mediums, and 3Jd and 3jct for secondsrys. River Plale lambs may be quoted round about 4Jd.

Since this report was written the cables report a little lmpiovement in th'j lamb market, bat with a lower tendency in mutton. The demand in London is mainly tor small prime carcases, and the tendency in NV>vv Zealand is increasingly towards heavy carcases. Perhaps Australia, after a little experience, will meet tho London demand better than New Zealand has of late .n this re=pect.

The Exhibition has closed, and has ccst the colony, I believe, £50,000 — thai is. of what we call Government money. Besides theie is our own expenditure. But then we enjoyed ourselves at the water-chute and the dogs and monkeys, and had good Milue for cur expenditure. What the colony or the f aiming community gained by the Exhibition remains to be sica. The Agricultural Department's exhibits certainly were useful, but we could have had all tiiese at our summer and winter shows, and, indeed, have h?d these exhibits, or moot of th^m. at oiu- shows. The nest time the Government want to spend x.ou,C'Co on an ei.hiDinon Jet them have it in the Home Country — an exhibition of our agricultural and pastoral products to be exmbited from town to town in Great Britain j.nd ireland. Let them have stalls at tnese exhibition*, at which our product's would be -.old in small quantities fci household im — butter, cheese, aiutlcVn, beet, himb, tinned good-=, and all other products, and .Mosgiel and Jttoalyn woollen gcodb. tsuch au cxtubnton would do gocd to .New /Zealand, and b'>, pcrhap«, one ot the best anu cheapost. mean^ ot a-civcitising our products. Jine Gcvenimert coukt buy all these gco<-!s at export wlue here, and tr.o retail price tor selling at the exhibition need not be made too low, it m^ght be bueh as vvculd allow a margin of pront T .o help towaids th: co=t of the cxnibition. In to>vn.-, and at certain times it migiit Ho advisable to have a tree distribution oi hozen mutton among the poorer c!a--se- t j Jet jieople ~ee that it vvajj ju^t about the -ainu Mtilt cfs they h<..d Lx-en gct.wng a- K.)j.-li-h oi .Scotch. Kuch an exhi I itioi. would be worth paying tor Already on tLgh Cotnnn^ioticr in London hi"made .sjino tine ch--plav - aid his work hiis li'-^n hftitiicial lie could ha\o done moie if Govciiitnent 1.c.-c had aupportcd hnii vvitli funds, ar I h- could iun .-tich an e\n>L'ltun as I have .-uggcted What he h.cS cl-,iie lia= mainly *.\.iucdteil the com«rcial c!a--<>-. Now tlie.s know enojgh. pc c sib'y tc-j mucli We want to educate the ma:=cs arid g'.t our good-5 v.f II known to the- n. 1 atn hoc je.-.10tt.-. (t Chi:«tt'}i«rch, and I don't want an exhibition m Dunedin cr Invcr cdrirj!! but 1 <l > want one in lxjiidon, be-cu-o en maiket i-< there and cur custoni' /- live thei", ai <l it's there we want to cur good-. Our market in tiie main, too, vi!! always be theie.

Tie la.ul ballot ; }-um should be abolished. J consider >t a most unsatisfactory method Ilioio ia no doubt it is> largely ava.lt tl of f-r -pecu v.tive purposes. The Wellington paper- give -cveral instances of ive tra^'osmen in Wellington who have c'oublcd and ticblcd their money on I and -ecaied under the ballot sjstem. 'llir-o people had not the -lighte-t intention of settling on the land At a ballot lately for grazing rune about 80 per cent. ot the =ucces-ful applicants were women, at.d it cortainly \u- not the class of country for them, 1 rhould ?aj-. I think that, after all, -ale by auction to the highest bidder h the fairest .vay. Lot there be no bidding by proxy ; lot the land be sold to the highest bona fide bidder present. With ihe limitation of holding now in force I think the open auction eale to the man on tho =£ot would be most satisfactory. Any dummyi-m would be easily found out by people in the district. The -ale might be safeguarded also by preventing transfer for a year or two, also by . limiting the amount, for which it coujd be mortgaged. The ballot system bas all along been unfavourable to many bona fide settlors who have been unlucky many times, while many who are not bona fide . .■^ettlers have been lucky and mads money. I The ballot, after all, is just a form of gambling, and some better and straighten course for tho disposal of Government land 3 is much needed. 1

The market for butter In. London Ta fla£ ar.<l depressed, and the worst featur* of it is that Siberian is going to be very plentiful, and is improving in quality, and competes with Australian. New Zealand still keens on too in wfcnial butter. &k\»-

ments to London have been very small o? late, and very large quantities are hekl back in the colonies.

Cheese has maintained a good pric^average (about 635) in London for t£e season up to the present, but as Canadian supplies will be on the London market in May, and in heavy supply by June, it is hardly probable that 63s will be maintained long as the price for Sew Zealand, although for some months New Zealand cheese will maintain a higher price than the new Canadian.

In Taranaki and North Island thcrd is a genera] inclination to turn from butter to cheese making, and directors of dairy factories are having a very anxious rim-e. The erection of cheese factories co->ts a good deal of money, and none of the factories have reserve funds, the suppliers always milking the factory as dry as possible. I have always contended thafc cheese pays better than butter with a. good supply undc- one Toof. But I am not =o &ure that this will always be the ca.&e. for I think there is a very creat probability of elves? being in over-supply. America is doing exactly what Taranaki men are doing, and probably for every tor* New Zealand increases its cheese export America will increase by five or ten tons.

We have, since our dai>\v industry started, seen our cheese sell at 32s in London. New Zealand has made a name fop herself in high-ela^s butter, for which thcro is always a cjood demand, and I should! .strDngly advise butter factories to wait afc least another year before changing to chceso-making. Theie will be a great sraicity of competent chaase-makers if thi=4 change takes place quickly, and I am afraid) our reputation for quality will suffer.

The Advocate sa-ys that during the nexV 12 months it is 'anticipated that some-] thinjr like 25,0u0 acres of land quite close' to Dannevirke will be en the market.