THE GOLDEN FLEECE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21529, 16 December 1939, Page 37 (Supplement)

THE GOLDEN FLEECE

BASIS OF PROSPERITY Sheep were introduced into New Zealand just over a century ago, and on them to-day, much of the prosperity of the Dominion depends. Here is another aspect in the life of the country which forms a remarkable story. It is on record that by 1839 there were sufficient sheep in the colony for a shipment of wool to be sent to Hobart, where it was described as probably the finest wool ever grown in the new colonies. In 1844 the pastoral industry received stimulus when Charles Clifford, afterwards the first Speaker of the House of Representatives, imported 400 Merino sheep, the first considerable flock to enter the Colony. They were driven from Wellington around the coast and pastures on the Wairarapa plain. Two years later Clifford and his partner, Weld, began the pastoral industry in the South Island. The plains of Canterbury and Marlborough were ideal pastures, and by 1853 wool became the chief export of the Colony. The number of sheep in the country continued to increase with almost incredible rapidity. In 1851 there had been less than a quarter of a million, in 1860 there were more than 2.750,000. in 1871 there were 10,000,000 and in the next 10 years the total went up to 13.000.000. To-day the Dominion accommodates over 32.000,000. For many years after their introduction, sheep were grazed on natural pasture for the sake of the wool, but as is the case to-day, growers suffered from successive booms and slumps. In 1879, for instance, the price of wool fell sharply, and the hollowness of the prosperity that depended on borrowed money became very evident. At that time there was no way in which meat and dairy produce could be preserved during a long voyage, and so wool, skins, tallow, gold, timber and wheat were the only things which went to make up the export trade. A long depression ensued, regarded as the worst period in the history of NewZealand, and even the invention of a new refrigerating process of preserving meat was not sufficient to bring prosperity back for many years. It was almost 40 years after their introduction that prospects of establishing an export meat trade were given consideration. In 1882 the New' Zealand Land Company chartered the steamer Dunedin to carry Home a cargo of frozen meat. Her first cargo was eaten in New Zealand, however, because, lacking any freezing facilities ashore, the ship had to be fitted with refrigerating machinery, and an early breakdown necessitated the immediate sale of the 1500 carcases so far treated. However, on February 15 she sailed with 4311 mutton carcases, 598 of lamb. 2200 sheep tongues, and some frozen pork. She arrived off the Lizard on May 18. with her cargo in excellent condition. Subsequently she made nine more trips, finally being lost at sea with all hands in 1890—posted as missing. But the trade she had inaugurated went on. With the awakened interest in meat, and the closer settlement of the land, more attention was given to breeding, and other trends developed. Science came to the assistance of the man on the land; his annual losses were reduced; methods of handling the sheep and transport to markets improved with the passing years. No more efficient method of working and handling the animals than by the co-operation of man and dog has yet been evolved, however, and practically the only at all sweeping change that has taken place in the last halfcentury, beyond the steady onward march of the industry and the gradual trend from wool to meat production, has been the replacement of scissor shearing by machinery. Even to-day hand shearing is carried out in many parts of the country, but as a general rule the regime of the machine is unchallenged.