CANTERBURY BUDGET.

Otago Witness, Issue 3899, 4 December 1928, Page 20

CANTERBURY BUDGET.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) GOOD GROWING CONDITIONS. Although the weather has been variable in the past week, conditions generally have been in favour of a good growth. After the very warm conditions of the previous week the soil was decidedly hardon top, but there was a good fall of rain over most of the plains on Tuesday, and most of the hill districts are suffering from too much rain. Crops are coming along well, and generally there is little to complain of, though a few degrees of frost were experienced during the middle of the week. LAMB OPENING AT 10ld A LB. The meat exporting firms have notified that the freezing works will open for business on Tuesday, December 4, and the schedule issued confirms the most optimistic forecasts as to price. The under 361 b is quoted at lOAd a lb. The rates in the schedule are as follows: — d. Prime woolly, first quality, to 361 b . . 10J Prime woolly, first quality, 371b-421b. . 10 Prime woolly, first quality, 431b-501b. . 9 J Second quality 9J Shorn lambs, Id a lb less. With the good weather experienced of late the earlier opening should be justified, and a good number should be sent fat off the mothers. If the opening prices of the season hold, the lamb fatteners are in for a good time. IN THE STOCK MARKETS. This week there was a good demand for the store sheep offering, and prices for all the stock suitable for fattening kept on the very high level which has characterised the stock sales in recent weeks. Good-class wethers are being bought at prices which will mean a very poor return for the feed consumed unless the price of wether mutton is better than it was when the season commenced a year ago. • It will be remembered that at the opening of the freezing season in December last the companies were offering 5Jd for the wether mutton within the 491b--561b scale, but by the end of March the

price of this weight had advanced to 6d, I and by the end of the season was at Bd. Of course, the increase in the wool value with the advance of the season has to be taken into consideration in making comparisons with the beginning and end of the season. Speaking of prices, it is interesting to note that the rates quoted by the meat-buying companies for the North Island commence at 9Ad for the light-weight and 9d for the 361b-421b class. These were the figures current in January last in Canterbury. The lamb schedule does not mention mutton. The proximity of the opening of the freezing season has not specially stimulated the sales of lambs. What are coming on the open market are almost invariably of a very poor class, but the forward sales of good-class lambs such as the Peninsula are not easy to make. As mentioned, good-class wethers were the best selling lines this week at Addington, and there were a number of good class lots which were on account of Chatham Island vendors, this being the first shipment of the season from this quarter. They were all well-grown crossbred sheep running close to the Romney, and in very fair condition, and appeared to have had a good trip up, and were mostly quite sound as to the condition of the feet. A couple of trucks of specially forward four-tooth wethers brought the high figure of 29s 4d, but there were wethers in the fat pens which had less right to be where they were than these sheep; The Chatham sheep sold really w-ell. Had the offering of mutton available on Wednesday come forward at the height of the freezing season it would have had some effect on the sale. Almost every available pen was filled, and the quality was of a high standard. The lines of good ewes offering were remarkable. The 15 races of sheep offering was not disposed of until 8 o'clock in the evening. For the best of the wethers, offering from 6d to Cid was paid, and ewes ranged down to 41d. SOME DRASTIC PROPOSALS. Recently there has been some criticism in Australia in connection with the importation of sheep which have not been creditable to the Dominion. Suggestions were made that either the New Zealand Government should impose an export tax or that the Federal Government should impose an import tax in order to prevent the sending forward of scrub animals from New Zealand to Australia. The matter has been taken up by the Royal Agricultural Society, and recently the executive of the society framed a set of proposals, after conferring with Dr C. J. Reakes, of the Department of Agricul ture, which are certain to arouse the hostility of most of the breed societies of the Dominion. The departmental point of view apparently was that it was evident that the sheep breeders of Australia desired some hall mark to be made upon the sheep exported from New Zealand, and that the issuing of certificates should be controlled by some central organisation, such as the Royal Agricultural Society.

The proposals outlined are certain to make the exporting of sheep much more difficult and complicated than it has been in the past, and the Royal Society also proposes to issue certificates for sheep from unregistered flocks. First of all, an owner wishing to send sheep away has to notify the Breed Society and the Royal Society. It is suggested that no sheep should go from New Zealand unless the export certificate of each breed society has been endorsed by the Royal Agricultural Society, and this society should also issue export certificates for unregistered sheep passed for export, certifying that they are up to standard as flock animals. Already a breeder of stud sheep has had a great deal to contend with i n making arrangements for the sale of his animals. The inspection and shipment and the proposals of the Royal Society will certainly be unpopular with breeders, and it is unlikely that the breed societies very vitally interested in the question will consent to their functions being usurped by an organisation that is in no way responsible to them.

A GOOD CATALOGUE.

For the first sale of the season on Monday there is an entry of 16,155 bales, ' and the fact that the Christchurch sale is the first occasion at which there is a representative display of fine wool lends special interest to the sale. The catalogue comprises a fair amount of dusty wool, the nor’-westers throughout September and October being responsible for this.