“Curse of Canterbury”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18757, 13 July 1935, Page 13

“Curse of Canterbury”

.pOIiI!IE'I>ALES wore referred to as tlio “curse of Canterbury ’* by a speaker at a Lincoln College stock'demonstration last week.

Mr A. W. Adams, of Sheffield, who .demonstrated the points of thrf Souttidown, stressed the value of the breed for crossing.with Komncys for far lamb production.' After in? iiact aetailed the points of the Southdown, ho was asked why , there was a‘deterioration in the quality of Canterbury lamb. During his reply, Mr Adams re marked that he had never said so publicly •before, but lie considered the Corricdale breed was “ the curse of Canterbury.'" Mr Adams's sweeping assault on the breed was greeted with laughter and some “llcar, hears."

Mr J. 11. Little, a grandson of the founder of the breed, who shortly afterwards described the breed’s ,‘hai'iictcrtistics, said, amidst laughter, that he had to refute some of , Mr Adams’ remarks. He would not. attempt to defend some of tho sheep wandering around the country under the' name of Corriedales. At the last .raui'ifair some of the. sheep should not have been allowed to enter. But that was not confined to Corriedales. It applied to Southdown* and English Leicester's. He thought that Mr Ad ams would agree that, some of the animals which were called Southdowns were no more true to type than the rubbish that was passed off at times as belonging to the Comedolo breed*.

Detailing the churn,ctoristics of the breed, Mr Little said that there had been a great change in the Corricdale lit flic last 2.1 years. It had improved gifally in carcase, and to-day it had as good a. carcase a,s any breed outside the Southdown. Although many people would not agree with him, he was of opinion that:, eventually they would have two typep of Corriedales, just as they had two typos of Leicester's and merinos, that was, if they wore going to meet tihe demand from different classes of country and from outside countries. 'lnhere were different countries wanting their Conicdales. Africa wanted one type, ' Australia another, and South America another. Tiro Now Zealand higher country tended towards the ralting type, although the standard shortlegged type was doing very well .there. Duo to the influence of. its merino blood, the Corriedale was more active than the English breeds, and . there was a uso for it oh 1 this chips of country. Reverting to the questtion of tho, quality of the breed, Mr Little said that tho types referred to by Mr Adams wofo not the fault of the breed, but the breeders.