Last Winter's Snow.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12480, 17 September 1904, Page 3 (Supplement)

Last Winter's Snow.

THE RUXHOLDER'S PETITION. A number of runliolders and others from the " south have been in Wellington for some days waiting, the " Lyttelton Times'' special reports, to give evidence before the VVaste Latids Committee in regard to the osses of sheep in the south. Owing to the no confidence debate being in progress, the committee was unable to sit, and as Rome if those in attendance had to get away, their evidence was received informally by ho Minister of Lands.

Mr B. E. H. Tripp, of Orari Gorge, isked that the tenants of the Crown landsaffected should be given an extension o' > heir leases for fourteen years instead of iiaving them put up by auction when they 'ell in. This would encourage to iin•irove their country. The extensions slioulc" be given in proportion to the losses 'listained, because some of the tenants ha< •aved a large portion of their flocks by go:ig io heavy and extraordinary expend it nr. in saving hay and getting their sheep out nu: they should not be penalised for this. !'! e losses had been most heavy in the hark country of Canterbury, and besidct lie 217.000 sheep lost by the petitioners, there had been a further loss by depreciation in condition and by the' loss of wool. There were a great many others besides Mmse figuring on the petition who had lost sheep, and probably the number lost was nearer 400.000, roughly valued at £1 each. The losses had been mostly on pastoral land, as the freeholders and-the small grazing run leases on the lower lands had been able to get at their sheep. Probably the whole monetary loss represented half

a million. An extension of the leases would encourage the tenants to surface sow their land, and in the event of further severe weather they could then save their sheep by hay feeding. This surface sowing should, however, be treated as an improvement at the termination of the leases.

Mr Bennett pointed out that there were petitions before the House asking that some of these holdings should be cut up for closer settlement, and the Government would have to consider this in granting extensions, and not release such lands ,v were suitable for this purpose. Mr P. Patullo said that the losses on the properties of the New Zealand and Australian Land <pompany,| which he represented, were i 5,600 out of 52,000 on Government runs, equal to about 30 per cent. The monetary loss in their case was estimated at £15,860. In his opinion the company would have been better off had it lost the money in hard cash and been able to keep the sheep.. They had had to restock with fresh sheep, which were not- so good, and -would not do so as the old ones for several ypars. An extension of leases seemed the .fairest and most, equitable form of assistance that the Government could provide. Mr Grant, of The Wolds, Mackenzie Country, said that he had lost 12,574 sheep on his back country, and had only shorn 210 bales of wool this season, against 414 in the previous season. If he had an extension of lease he would fence some of the more fertile valleys and grow oats and hay and stack them as a contingency against further severe weather. It would not pay him to do this without an extension. "He himself was willing to be bound by his extended lease to surface sow and make the .provision he had suggested. Mr Lyons, chief inspector of the New Zenland Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, said that the small tenants who had sustained losses weie generally in a better position than the runholders, for their holdings were held with a security of tenure which gave them plenty of time to recoup their losses.

The Minister said that the evidence given could be embodied in a paper and referred to th \Yas\e Lands Committee.