FLOCKS IN THE DOMINION.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1928, Page 8

FLOCKS IN THE DOMINION.

The official returns of sheep -within New Zealand for the year ending March 31 last are now available. As was anticipated from the interim returns, the number of sheep on March 31, 1927, showed a considerable improvement as compared with the previous year. During the past five years the number has increased year by year, that for 1926-27 being 25,649,000. This is a considerable improvement upon the figures of 1922, when the number of sheep was as low as 22,222,600, though it has not brought the flocks to the record of 1918, when they numbered 26,538,000. Since the sheep returns for last year were finalised the Department of Agriculture has been able to estimate very closely the results of the current season's lambing, and this also is eminently satisfactory. According to figures supplied by departmental officials the lambs totalled 12,866,840, or 797,160 more than in the previous year, and constituted a record for the Dominion. The reason is not far to seek. The increase in sheep during the past five years has been chiefly arnongst breeding ewes. While the total flocks are still 889,000 below the record of 1918, breeding ewes last year were 14,831,730, as against 13,022,000 in 1918. an increase of 1,809,730. It is practically certain, therefore, that the returns for the current year, ending on March 31 next, will reveal a further substantial expansion in the number of sheep in New Zealand. Indications for wool and for frozen mutton and lamb appear generally favourablt and more stable than has been the ease for some years. Even frozen beef appears to be in slightly better demand, and the outlook for the pastoralist is distinctly more promising than it was a year or two ago. Tire consistent expansion in the number of sheep is highly satisfactory, for hand in hand with the dairying industry there is much country in Taranaki which is essentially “sheep” country, while the necessity for running beef cattle over country that is in process of being broken in to eloser settlement, and possibly to dairying, is thoroughly appreciated. It is of the utmost benefit to New Zealand that in addition to a larger output of dairy produce, the export of wool and mutton should also show a progressive increase.