SHEEP RETURNS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 44, Issue 13603, 30 July 1918, Page 4

SHEEP RETURNS.

The increase in the number of sheep in New Zealand by over a million, and matters relating'to the freezing industry, were referred to by Sir James Wilson in his address to the Dominion Farmers' Union Conference to-day. Sir James, in dealing with the increase in the number of sheep, said that it was not altogether clear whether or not the increase was du e to the fact that we have not killed as many as in th e previous year. The matter was complicated by the fact that our stores are nearly full. New Zealand exported only 613,000 fewer carcases this year than last, yet we have many more carcases in store than we had at this time last year. We are, however, 2,218,589 carcases short of the year before. The main fact, however* remains that we have increased our Hocks by over a million, and it is significant that the increase is nearly all in the South Island. 'In the North, as Sir James points out, sheep have given way to a much greater extent to dairy stock than in the south, and had it not been for the great strides dairying has made in the last two decades the total number of sheep would have been getting near to forty millions. It is owing to science and invention that our great industries have been able to so vastly increase the exports. The frozen meat industry will continue to thrive and become even a greater factor than it is at present, when farming throughout the country is carried out on scientific lines.