MY COUNTRY NOTEBOOK

Otago Witness, Issue 3890, 2 October 1928, Page 19

MY COUNTRY NOTEBOOK

By /

MURIHIKU.

(Special for the Otago Witness.) It was an American statesman, La Follette, who said, “ Destroy your cities, but preserve your prairies, and your cities will rise again; but destroy your prairies and grass will inevitably grow in the streets of your cities.” Just as that was true in America 30 years ago, it is true both in America and New Zealand to-day.

The prosperity of New Zealand depends absolutely on the productivity of the cow and the sheep. With our high standard of living, our short hours, and our high rates of pay, New Zealand can never hope to compete against the other countries of the world in manufactured goods. Whether we like it or not, we must always depend for our prosperity on our primary products. For jnstance, as we are not a tropical country, we cannot produce our own tea and our own sugar. There are hundreds of things we never will be able to make or produce in this country, so we must import them. In order to pay for these imports we must have a corresponding value of exports. Again, we have borrowed a lot of money to develop our resources. We must pay for the interest on that, and eventually perhaps, repay the capital; and we can only do this by exporting produce.

The very first settlers to these shores brought some sheep with them. Those flocks have increased tremendously. The keeping of sheep goes back into the very dim past. Our old biblical stories are full of references to shepherds and their flocks; and I was much entertained the other day in getting hold of an old English history book which recorded some of the troubles and difficulties the people of England had when sheep farming first came into fashion in that country. We hear a lot of talk to-day about the drift to the towns. That started a good many years ago in England. One of the factors that caused a great deal of unemployment in the days that are gone was the brain wave that some land owners had when they first conceived the idea of fences. Previously flocks and herds belonging to the village were tended by herdsmen on the open commons. When some landowner invented fencing many shepherds were thrown out of work.

. Many of the common folk, resenting bitterly the fencing and the invasion o*f the lord of the manor’s flocks, complained of their troubles in rhyme:—

Sheep have eat up our meadows and our downes, Our corn, our wood, whole villages and townes. Yea, they have eat up many wealthy men. Besides widowes and orphan children. Besides our statutes and iron lawes, Which they have swallowed down in their

maws, Till now I thought the proverb did but jeste, Which said a black sheep was a biting beast.

Every now and again there is a question raised as to whether the woollen manufacturing industry in New Zealand should be protected or not. In case anybody should run away with the idea that this protection of the woollen industry may be a movement peculiar to New Zealand, it might be as well to observe that in England, in the year 1571, an Act was passed ordering “ that everyone over six years of age should wear an English-made woollen hat on Sundays.” Presumably this applied to everybody, male and female, and was a very definite means of “ encouraging ” people to use goods made in England!"

But let us get back and consider the position in New Zealand. We all know that in the days before refrigeration the wool of the sheep was the most valuable product. Sheep when killed were boiled down for their tallow, and prior to the ’eighties of last century the chief exportable products from the sheep were wool and tallow. All the old settlers of New Zealand can tell stories of how sides of sheep were sold for Is 6d, and legs of mutton for Is. Those were the days when the cost of living was low; but no one with any sense would like to see those conditions obtain ajjain. With the work of Thomas Brydone and his fellow-enthusiasts a new era of prosperity was opened up for New Zealand Some people in the old days ascribed all the prosperity of the country to the Government that happened to be in power; but the greatest factor in making for the prosperity of New Zealand was the introduction of refrigeration, so that our meat, our butter, and our cheese could be carried overseas, through the tropics, to the great masses of people in Great Britain. It was not the politician who brought prosperity to New Zealand; it was the chemist, the engineer, and the farmer. » When we remember those slump years, when the prices of our primary products dropped so low, we recall that the general prosperity enjoyed in New Zealand since the ’nineties disappeared; but with a period of fairly stabilised prices prosperity is again with us. The obvious reply to all pessimists in this country is the spectacle of our well-dressed, wellfed, and. healthy people. » * * And now with the annual sheep returns at our disposal we find that once again there is a steady increase in the

flocks of New Zealand. Taking out the figures in five-yearly periods, we find that, adding up the totals for the lambs, wethers, ewes, and rams, the foliowin" are the figures:— °

z It is obvious from these figures that we have reached in 1928 a record for the sheep population of New Zealand. * * * Analysing these figures by islands, we find the following:— x

VVithout taking into account the stud and purebred sheep it is very interestin" to go through the tables concerning the flocks of New Zealand, province by province, and see the increases and decreases shown by each county. It is of interest to note the number of ewes which will be bred from this season, province by province, in Otago and Southland. I have also taken out last year’s returns, and the increases shown in the parallel columns are very pronounced:—-

With the wonderfully sustained demand overseas there is for our wool and for our lamb, it is quite obvious that if prices hold anything like they have been the last two years New Zealand is in for a real cycle of prosperity. One of the astounding features in oiir imports year by year is the money we send out of the country for woollen manufactured goods we produce the wool for in this country. We solemnly send it overseas, have the garments manufacture in Great Britain, and solemnly’ reimport it; when all the time we have here excellent woollen mills turning out an excellent product very often working shorthanded. It probably is not generally known that the wool buyers who come out to this country from England, the Continent, and America every year, although they all have woollen mills in their own countries, even the wool buyers from Yorkshire purchase in New’ Zealand from New Zealand mills a supply of woollen underclothing, socks, and travelling rugs. These men are the wool experts of the world. They recognise that the woollen clothing produced in New Zealand is the best in the world; yet we find stupid native-born New Zealanders solemnly’ sending home for what they consider to be cheaper and better woollen goods. If every New Zealander would realise that in the matter of woollen clothing as well as in many other things, an article well worth the money is turned out in New Zealand, there would be a considerable diminution in unemployment, and the money would be spent and kept within New‘Zealand. * * * The lamb eating season in Great Britain usually commences just after Easter. The Dairy Control Board recognises that although the consumers at Home can absorb a certain amount of lamb in the off season and that early shipments of new season’s lamb often realise good prices, still everybody must recognise that an over-supply of lambs before the lamb-eating season commences should be avoided. The Meat Board is doing very good work in regulating the sup-, plies of lamb on to the London market, so that there can never be an undersupply or an over-supply to-feed the market judiciously; and to always supply the quantities wanted and the quality people desire is the first concern of any marketing board. The campaign to eat New Zealand lamb has been carried on very successfully at Home, and New Zealand sheep farmers are now definitely feeling the good results that have accrued from the policy of the board. The position of the pastoral industry in New Zealand is very helpful at the present time. With the clearing out of the rabbits and the judicious use of so much top-dressing and linie, the continued increase in our flocks is assured. The peoples of the world must always want meat and warm clothing. The sheep flocks of New Zealand carefully developed, and the sheep farmers of New Zealand are doing their fair share to provide food and clothing for the human race.

Year. Total sheep. 1908 .. .. 22,449/053 1913 .. .. 24,191.810 1918 .. .. 26,538,302 1923 .. .. 23,081,439 1928 •. .. 27,133,810

South Island Totals. 1926 .. .. 11,074,743 1927 .. .. 11,691,196 1928 .. 12,651,705 North Island Totals. 1926 .. .. 13,830,250 1927 .. 13,957,820 1928 . . 14,482,105 Dominion Totals. 1926 .. .. 24.904.993 1927 .. .. 25,649,016 1928 . 27,133,810 * *

Waitaki Maniototo . . Vincent Waihemo .. . ’ Waikouaiti .. Taierl Peninsula . . Clutha Tuapeka Bruce Lake Southland . . Wallace Stewart Island . . 1927. 242,352 120,758 97,785 64,795 35,930 105,413 6,571 213,054 196.606 126,240 84,482 » 757,216 312,720 2,057 1928. 263,217 119,293 103,414 65,072 37,371 115,437 9,427 238,786 197,095 140,885 76,190 841,845 345,080 1,958 Totals • • 2,365',979 2,555,070 * * *