A Century of Canterbury Farming

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 81, Issue 5, 15 November 1950, Page 403

A Century of Canterbury Farming

WHILE we celebrate the Centenary of . Canterbury in the City of Christchurch and the larger towns of the province, it would be well to cast our thoughts from time to time across the wide plains, to the rolling foothills, into the mountain-locked river basins, and indeed into the alpine, fastnesses themselves where are the roots of much of our history.

Many of those who toiled with their worldly goods up the hills behind Port Cooper must have paused at the summit to surmise where in the vast panorama of Canterbury stretching on all sides their future was to lie. The spread of this nucleus of first settlers and subsequent immigrants from the Home countries and Australia across the tussock plains and into the rich grazing lands of the hinterland wrote the first pages of a farming tradition that is a most important chapter in the province’s history.

It is fitting that in a series of articles the first of which appears in this issue, “The Journal of Agriculture” should record in brief form the evolution of farming in Canterbury in the past 100 years. It is a fascinating story of adaptation, much success, some failure, great endeavour, great tribulation. In this end-of-century stocktaking the result should be estimated with due regard for the noble aspirations of the first settlement plans, the difficulties facing the transplanting of an Old World society into the rigours of colonial life, and the tremendous impact of mechanisation, greatly improved transport and communications, artificial fertilisers, and rapidly expanding agricultural knowledge.

. The Canterbury A. and P. Association’s Centennial Show in the past week was a magnificent exhibition of the best products of the great primary production industry that has been built up in the province. Names of some exhibitors and of mercantile firms that have supported the association over the years are as much a part of our history as those of topographical features. In the farmers’ shop window of the show could be read some of the story of Canterbury lamb, prototype of the highest quality on the London market, of the “bonanza” wheat farms of the plains, and of the great sheep flocks rapidly bred up in the pastoral age of the province. In the show ring the finest products of our livestock breeders were paraded.

The Future

As we pause to pay tribute to those who laid the foundation and moulded our way of life in the past 100 years, the vista of a second century opens before us. We often talk about the progress New Zealand has made, but too often we are prone to forget the factors that have led to that progress, and so I wish to take this opportunity of stressing the fact that our progress is largely due to the genius of the New Zealand farmer in both pasture and stock management. Especially is this so in Canterbury. Grasslands are the basis of our economy, but when we can produce our splendid flocks and herds and raise the stock-

In the development of irrigation there are great potentialities for increased production and a changed pattern of farming in the drier areas of the province. All aspects of farming under irrigation are being investigated at the Department of Agriculture’s Irrigation Research Station at Winchmore. Exploitation of the great water resources of our rivers and practical application of knowledge acquired at the station may well effect remarkable increases in our production potential. Pastoral wealth of the tussock country that was at one time squandered by overgrazing and burning must be restored through revegetation - and wise management. Much of the land is Crown leasehold and the Crown is already engaged in regenerating large areas of deteriorated tussock land on the northern borders of the province. It is certain that wiser land use could improve stock-carrying capacity. We must become more conscious of the reproach of our marginal lands and apply ourselves vigorously to their development. The calibre of our agricultural research workers is second to none and the provision of extension services to farmers in this country is most ’ generous. If in our short history successes are fresh in our memories, mistakes should be equally so. Let us not repeat errors that have cost us dear in loss of fertility and production. There is no more precious heritage than the land. With 100 years of experience and an ever-increasing accumulation of practical and scientific agricultural knowledge to aid us, we should face a second century of trusteeship of the land with confidence.

S. G. HOLLAND,

Prime Minister.