ON A SOUTHERN TOUR

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1929, Page 3

ON A SOUTHERN TOUR

HOW SOUTHLANDERS FARM IMPRESSIONS OF THE COUNTRY. STORY OF TARANAKI VISITOR. A South Taranaki lady who recently visited the South Island kindly contributes the following impressions of her motor tour through central Southland.

After a run of about forty miles from Invercargill, on very good gravel roads, we stopped at a sheep farm near Caroline. This is beautiful rolling to hilly country interspersed with bushclad hills. It is about 480 ft above sea level. Near by is the township of Dipton, an old settled place. The country is made beautiful by rows and rows and clumps of trees, many of them English trees. They made the plaee look so homely, each steading so cosy in its nest of sheltering green foliage. The Dipton flat is a very rich river deposit, and capable of carrying three sheep to the acre. These flats are in the form of a basin surrounded by hills, and all covered with a beautiful silver tussock. Under the tussocks some very sweet nutritious grass grows, on whieii lambs and -sheep do exceedingly well. Each farmer has his paddocks of turnips, which are supplied as an extra ration to the sheep in winter. These turnips are grown in ridges. To every thousand sheep they grow about fifty acres of turnips. All root crops seem to do better there than in Taranaki, there beino- more frosts to sweeten the soil and lull out the many pests, which are more abundant in warmer places. Some of the farmers do without turnips, but of course then they cannot run so many sheep per acre. Wien the snow comes on the sheep are driven to the lower lying areas. These miles of beautiful river flats near Dipton were once great grain growing places, giving exceptionally heavy yields of wheat and oats. Since cropping has ceased to pay all this valuable land is just used for sheep. These flats are deposits from the Oreti river, which covers many acres of ground, having a wide gravel bed, which changes with each succeeding flood. It starts up in the lakes district and flows out to the sea near Invercargill. It is a very swift flowing, treacherous river, flooding very quickly when the warm rains melt the snow in summer. On the flats near this river the grass grows very luxuriantly—so much so that the lambs can be sold straight from the mother’s side. Most of these lambs are sent to the Pareora freezing works, south Canterbury, and sold as “Prime Canterbury.” The fanners further back on the hills fatten their lambs on turnip tops. The sheep men take the wether lambs and snip off their teeth level with the gums and then put them on the turnips, the reason being they fatten quicker on the green -tops.- The roots are kept for the ewes during the winter. This cutting of the teeth has only been practised the last few years, and is of great

benefit. The average percentage of lambs is 110 on the flats and 80 on the hilly country. A cheese factory was established here about forty years ago, but was not a success, and has been dismantled for many years. FACILITIES FOR SETTLERS. Southland is well supplied with electricity from the Monowai hydro-electric power station, which is situated on the Waiau river. Electricity is used . in most homes, as it is fairly cheap, being 7d per unit for lighting and Id for cooking and id for water heating. There are very few homes without the telephone and the rural mail delivery. Most of the farms are from 300 to 4.00 acres, and upwards. The rating is not nearly as heavy as in Taranaki. On one farm of 900 acres, on Inch we stopped, the road rates were £2O per annum and the electric rate £lO. That was a fair average of what was generally paid. Very few cattle were seen, except a few for home use, and these were mostly a beefy type. The country round there was" valued at £l5 to £2O for flat land and £3 to £6 for hilly tussock land. The miles and miles of waving silver tussock are very striking at first, but it becomes monotonous after a time. Sometimes the tussock is a red o-old in colour. This makes a beautiful variety of colour, but is a sign that the land is of poor quality. The roads arc all water worn gravel, of which there is an abundant supply. AH the attention the roads seem to require is done by a grader, which is kept busy bringing the gravel from the side to the centre of the road. Every here and there were lovely little valleys still under native bush. The trees were mostly black, red and white pine, broadleaf and totara. The broadleaf and totara are mostly used for fencing, being hard, durable woods. The bush seemed well supplied with native birds, and the music from them in the eally morning was really exquisite. Rabbits are very much in evidence, although not nearly so nume'rous as in the p ast.° All the settlers are compelled to poison and this exterminates more quickly than any other way. But unfortunately it also takes toll of the native bird life. A few years ago most of the farmers used to trap rabbits, but this led to rabbit farming, as the skins of the rabbits were very valuable for many purposes. Ultimately poison, with the aid of stoats and weasels, will absolutely exterminate the rabbit pest, much to the benefit of the sheep men. FROM CROPS TO SHEEP. From Dipton to Lumsden is a run of about twenty miles on a level gravel road. There one sees what used, some years ago, to be a large cattle run, but is now cut up into many small farms of from 400 to 600 acres. All this country was onoe cropping land, but is now only used for sheep. Away in the background from Lumsden lie range upon range of beautiful snowcapped mountains. Across the swift flowing Oreti river is the small township of Lumsden. Thia is a railway junction. The train from Kingston connects here for either Gore or Invercargill. Another branch line is up to Mossburn, on the way to Lake ’ Manapouri. By following the line from here to Kingston we can get by motor or boat to Queenstown to view the grand and majestic Lake Wakitapu, and from there on to the glorious Milford Sound. The mountain scenery here is wild and rugged and grand. . ■From Lumsden down, the main road winds in the centre of a vast plain. . As i we get further down we see more mixed farming, with- every here and there a

small cheese factory. Each farm seemffl to run its dozen to twenty, cows.. Thia is called the Waimea Plains, and was once a great cropping centre. The Mataura River flows through these plains. Some of it is a very rich river deposit, but a great amount of the land is only fit for sheep. A TOWN LIKE HAWERA. Gore is a prosperous little town* rather smaller than Hawera, but, like Hawera, an inland town supported, by the farming community. It is liable to flood, as the Mataura river runs right near’the town. This is the centre of a rich grain growing and dairying district. At one time there was a large amount of gold dredging carried on all around. This place is largely devoted to mixed farming, but there are some very valuable dairy herds within a very short distr t Their agricultural shows are noted for the great number and quality of the farm horses shown. It was noticeable that there was not nearly the number of cars that one sees in Taranaki. They were mostly a heavier type of car than is seen here. I suppose the lighter cars w’ould not stand up to the rougher roads, as well as the heavier makes of car do.