OCCUPATION OF THE PLAINS AND FOOTHILLS

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 81, Issue 5, 15 November 1950, Page 411

OCCUPATION OF THE PLAINS AND FOOTHILLS

Akaroa, the Hays at Pigeon Bay, and the Rhodes of Purau. Outside the block there were also a few settlers, the Greenwoods at Motunau, Robert Waitt of Teviotdale, and Clifford and Weld at Stonyhurst. rvJUenl+w of I attire Pune Uitticulty of Letting Kuns Godley, the association’s agent, foresaw that the settlement could not prosper by resorting to small-scale farming and that it was necessary for the whole of the association block to be taken up as soon as possible. A special committee which he set up to

inquire into the problem indicated that the rental for pasturage runs was too great to attract settlers, particularly Australians, who were turning their eyes to the Canterbury Plains. Unfortunately, the recommendation of the committee that the pasturage be let at 10s. per 100 acres could not be implemented, and to make matters worse the Government passed the Crown Lands Ordinance of 1851, which enabled land outside the association block to be taken up in runs with a maximum carrying capacity of 25,000 sheep, and, as 2 acres were allowed for each sheep, the maximum area was thus 50,000 acres. The annual licence fee was £5 for the first 5000 sheep and £1 for every additional 1000 sheep. The licence, which was for 14 years, was to cease if the land was sold by the Crown. Licensees were encouraged to purchase the freehold of a homestead area not exceeding 80 acres, and they were protected for any improvements which they might effect on this. These conditions were much better than those offered by the association for its waste lands, and consequently Godley was in a dilemma, but he met the position by taking advantage of the provision that the association was not compelled to let land to any but land purchasers. He proposed that if anyone wished to start a run with, say. 1000 sheep, he. would let him 1000 acres for the first year and would not let the adjoining 19,000 acres for 7 years. The stockholder had to take further areas in subsequent years, which meant that a lease of 20,000 acres for 7 years might be obtained. Even with this arrangement the runholder would pay more within the block than outside, but he was partly compensated because of being nearer a settlement. New Phase of Settlement The stage was now set for a further phase in the settlement of Canterbury; the pre-Adamite phase (settlement

before 1850) had passed and the Pilgrim phase was passing, and now eyes were being turned to the open spaces of the plains and foothills, but by a different class of people, mainly Australians, whose contribution to the development of Canterbury was both profound and far-reaching. From the first uncertain efforts at the beginning of the 19th century the Australian wool industry grew very rapidly; by 1850 there were 17,000,000 sheep in the Australian colonies. Merinos found the dry Australian conditions to their liking, and they were also found peculiarly suited to the new system of extensive grazing on the plains in the interior, where the sheep were left to fend for themselves far more than in Britain or Europe. The squatters gradually acquired experience of this new system and a desire to adopt it wherever they went. All their efforts were directed toward securing some recognition of their rights of occupation and some security of tenure, both of which they achieved by the mid-1840’s. If the Australian climate had been kinder, few of them might have bothered about New Zealand, but in the years just before the discovery of gold in Australia, economic depression associated with bad seasons resulted in station properties and sheep selling at very, low prices, with the result that some Australian sheep farmers began to look elsewhere. Favourable reports appearing in some of their newspapers on the suitability of the Canterbury Plains for sheep farming decided those who could to make their way to Canterbury. They brought with them not only stock, but that invaluable prerequisite, experience in extensive sheep farming practices. :

WINDS . The moisture-laden winds coming from the Tasman Sea precipitate their moisture on the ranges and the west coast and sweep on through the foothills and across the Canterbury Plains as a hot, dry wind reaching high velocities at times. These winds from a westerly and north-westerly direction predominate in inland

Canterbury, and they are usually followed by cold south-westerly winds which bring rain and provide most of the rainfall of the lower-rainfall areas. Along the coast easterly and north-easterly sea breezes are almost as prevalent as northerlies and northwesterlies, often causing cloudy and foggy weather. TEMPERATURE Temperatures throughout the district .mainly lie well within the temperate range, the mean annual temperature averaging from 50 degrees F. to 55 degrees F. in different parts of the district. Although the number of ground frosts from late autumn to early spring is considerable, the day temperature seldom falls below 45 degrees F.; in summer the temperature seldom rises above 70 degrees F. and long periods of uncomfortable heat are infrequent. Except in the high country snowfalls occur only two or three times a year, and only at very infrequent intervals does snow lie on the ground for more than a day.

Vague Descriptions of Runs - The land was now quickly taken up, and a list issued in October, 1853, by James Campbell, Government Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Canterbury Province, showing the names of those entitled to occupy certain areas outside the Canterbury block included 49 runs covering approximately 1,261,000 acres. Some of the descriptions of the boundaries of the runs were certainly far from definite;'for instance, a description of the boundaries of one run of 25,000

acres was as follows: “Northward the river Ashburton, north westward the mountain range, south westward the river Hinds, -eastward a line drawn parallel to the sea at such a distance from the mountains as shall give in one block the prescribed extent only”. By 1855 the whole of the plains had been taken up and only the back hill country ‘ remained. It ■ was not long before this was occupied. The fashion to take up hill country was set by C. G. Tripp and J. B. Acland, who at the end of 1855 applied for blocks of hill country of 57,500 acres each in the

Rangitata and Orari River gorges. By 1860 there, was very little Canterbury high country remaining unoccupied, and extensive sheep farming was the picture, with a steadily increasing sheep population. The census for Canterbury for 1851 showed that there were 28,416 sheep in the area, and by 1858 the figure had reached 495,580 and 3 years later 877,400. In the early stages of the squatter period many runholders had considerable numbers of cattle on their runs. When the executors of the late Captain Mitchell sold Mt. Grey Station

in April, 1852, the stock consisted of breeding cattle, milking cows, heifers, horses, and bullocks, no mention being made of sheep, and in June, 1853, Caverhill of Cheviot was advertising for sale 500 head of cattle.

Some of the Australians who took up land between 1851 and 1854 and who became known as “shagroons” included C. C. Haslewood of Goringa, near Christchurch, MacDonald of Waireka, and Mark Stoddart of the Terrace Station. These squatters from across the Tasman were indeed hardy and resourceful and showed a certain degree of contempt for the Pilgrims on their small holdings. Burden in his book “High Country” says of them, “These men rode scornfully past the small farms. With blanket and possum rug strapped to their saddles they made their way over hill and plain, forded creek and swam river, till they stopped at the foothills of the great range”. However, not all of the Australians had been squatters, but most appeared to have had good colonial experience before settling in New Zealand. Two of the best known, Robinson of Cheviot and Moore of Glenmark, were able to buy up great areas of freehold land at a low price and create two of the largest estates in New Zealand.

Example Set by Australians

All credit for taking up large sheep stations cannot be given to the Australians, but undoubtedly they were mainly responsible for setting the example, of what could be achieved. Many were well-educated Englishmen, and it is said that some of them who took on the hard life of the back country read Latin and Greek for pleasure. Of the Studholme brothers, who took up Te Waimate in 1854, John had received his education at Oxford. Rolleston, who took over Mt. Algidus Station about 1860 and who was afterward Superintendent of Canterbury, was a classical scholar, but

he was also proud of the fact that he was one of the best bullock drivers in Canterbury. Tripp and Acland were sons of wellJknown West Country families. Some of these Englishmen knew little about sheep farming, but many recognised their deficiencies and employed Scotch shepherds who knew the work. Burdon in his book relates a story of Tripp that he used to visit Lyttelton on the arrival of an immi- : grant ship and as passengers came ashore he looked for those who had a good dog. His maxim was that only a good man had a good dog, and he would offer employment. Price of Land Reduced At this period of Canterbury’s development it would not have been possible for many of the so-called squatters to make a profit out of grazing sheep if they had been required to freehold the land. Though the pastoral lease was a partial answer, it did not give any security of tenure,' but in 1856, when the Provincial Government virtually acquired the responsibility for administering the

land within its own territory, the squatters were the most politically active, and they thus safeguarded their position as much as possible. The Central Government’s Waste Lands Regulations of 1853 had given them the right to acquire homestead areas, and one of the first acts of the Canterbury Provincial Government on managing its own lands was to reduce the price of land from £3 to £2 per acre. Runholders also obtained a “preemptive right” to acquire a homestead block of 250 acres and a similar right to 50 acres for “all lands occupied by any buildings, . plantations, and any other improvements judged to be sufficient by the Provincial Waste Lands Board”. In the late 1850’s wire fencing was just coming into use, and the board considered fencing an improvement, and so it was not long before considerable areas were fenced. This pre-emptive right of the runholder to

acquire land could be challenged by anyone, desiring to purchase outright any part of the land, but the runholder could stave off the threat by buying 20 acres, as anything less than this area had to be put up for auction. This system of purchasing lots of 20 acres became known as gridironing. The process was one of the reasons why a committee set up by the Provincial Council in 1866 recommended that no further ..pre-emptive rights for improvements ■'should be granted and that the existing ones should expire in 1880. . " ' Gradually the squatters’ rights were limited, and after the abolition of the provinces in 1876 the Land Act of 1877, designed to rectify the conflicting mass of provincial ordinances, included a provision for. the purchase of land by deferred payments that was planned to help those with limited capital. But it was not - until the advent of refrigeration in the 1880’s that the challenge of the smallholder became a reality, and many of the large holdings had to be broken up. The squatter had mainly fulfilled his purpose; he was prepared to put up with many hardships to create his station, he was renowned for his hospitality, but his day had to pass. Nevertheless, his monument, the sheepfarming industry, stands firmly on the foundation that he and his shepherds laid. THE PROBLEM OF SCAB Scab,. perhaps the greatest bugbear of the early pastoralists, was a stock disease" of very ancient origin, and first appeared in Australia in the early 1830’s at a time when the squatting frontier was being pushed rapidly to the west, and, as a result, the whole country was speedily infected. Scab itself was caused by a parasite which

burrowed just under the sheep’s skin causing <. such an irritation that the sheep ; rubbed against any convenient object, especially another sheep. The constant rubbing caused a skin eruption, under which the parasite laid its eggs. If not treated, the eruption spread over the sheep’s body, resulting in the wool falling out or becoming bedraggled. Infection spread so quickly that one sheep was always a menace to the whole flock, making immediate treatment imperative. Danger Recognised As practically all sheep were brought from Australia, it is not surprising that scab appeared in New Zealand in the 1840’s, and it must have been soon recognised as a danger, for a New Munster (South Island) Ordinance issued in 1849 provided measures for its control. Nearly all the sheep in the South Island at that time were in Nelson, but the ordinance could not have been effective, as Nelson and Marlborough remained sources of infection until many years later. Scab was also mentioned by the Deanses at Riccarton in 1848. When the Provincial Council was established in 1853 one of its first actions was to pass a Scab and Catarrh Ordinance, which made provision for the inspection of sheep, provided-for the treatment of infected ones, and ' prescribed penalties for failure to do so. Inspection was to be made of all sheep entering Canterbury by sea, but little provision was made for controlling infected sheep arriving by . land. Sir William Congreve, a baronet, was the first sheep inspector appointed, but Canterbury squatters were fairly complacent, for in 1856 the “Lyttelton Times” claimed that Canterbury was about free of scab. But complacency soon vanished with the arrival of some infected flocks from Nelson, and in 1858 the Provincial Council was compelled in, the face of widespread public clamour to turn again to the problem. The Sheep Ordinance passed by the Provincial Council late in 1858 met these demands, giving the inspectors wider powers and providing heavier penalties for breaches. Strict control was imposed on all sheep entering the province by land or sea, and any owner of sheep infected with scab was liable to a fine of. up to ss. for each sheep. ' Magistrates could suspend payments for 6 months, and if the sheep were found to be clean at the end cf that period, the fine could be remitted. Notice had to be given to neighbours if sheep were found to be : scabby; they were not permitted to be driven on any public highway and they had to be herded by day and yarded by night. The whole flock was to be considered scabby if any scabby sheep were found in it. Fines were provided for breaches of all these sections. Stricter Ordinance Enacted Scab was at its. worst in 1863-64, the number of sheep infected during that year being 192.000.-s and .the sheep inspector estimated that 5 per cent, of the sheep in the province were scabby. The Provincial Council was forced to enact another ordinance, tightening up the provisions of the earlier one and compelling runholders to erect dips. During 1864 Glenmark Station in North

Canterbury paid £2400 in fines and was reported as scabby every year until the Provincial Gazette ceased publication in 1876.. It was finally declared clean in 1877 after thousands of sheep had been boiled down. Scab began to decline in Canterbury from 1869 onward, and by 1876, when the Provincial Council was abolished, only three cases were reported in North Canterbury. By that time the problem was well under control, the chief danger being its prevalence over the provincial border in Marlborough and Nelson. The economic loss caused by scab is difficult to estimate, as its depredations, unlike those of rabbits, occurred at a time when prices were fairly stable, but the cost of remedial measures must have been a serious drain,

especially at a time when many runs had not reached a profit-making stage. Sheep were lost as a result of the drastic treatment they had to undergo, and money had to be spent in providing dips and water-heating equipment; most serious of all, labour had to be diverted to treating the sheep and carting the firewood to heat the water. When the first Scab Ordinance was passed by the Canterbury Provincial Council in 1853 one inspector was appointed, and on his resignation in 1858 two inspectors were appointed; the number was subsequently increased to three in 1863 and finally to four a few years later. Under the 1878 Sheep Act the number of inspectors was increased again, though in 1882 they were compelled to undertake the work of rabbit inspection as well. The

inspector’s position was often difficult, as he was often accused on the one hand of abusing his powers and on the other of being lazy and incompetent. But from the small sheep inspectorate can be traced the beginning of the present Department of Agriculture. EXTENSION OF FENCING In the early stages of the Canterbury settlement fencing was confined to the small agricultural farms around Christchurch and Banks Peninsula, the boundaries of the pastoral runs being nearly always marked out by some natural feature such as a river or a leading ridge. Until wire came into general use in the 1860’s fencing by ditch and bank was slow and expensive and suitable only on flat or rolling country. The Deans brothers. in their report to Captain Thomas suggested that the . ditch and bank fence planted with gorse or hawthorn on top was the most lasting and economical fence in that part of the country, a good labourer being able to build half a chain a day. Post and rail fences were not considered suitable in Canterbury, because of the scarcity of timber and of its perishable nature. Wire fencing materials were advertised as early as 1851 and were mentioned by Archdeacon Paul in 1857. By 1860 it was becoming sufficiently common for a Provincial Ordinance on fences to insist that the wires be painted white. By this time wire fences were being built around the homestead blocks on some stations, though the use of this type of fence as a boundary did . not come into general use until a few years later. Wire used in the 1850’s was of very heavy gauge, which made it difficult to strain and awkward to carry over rough country. Wire was frequently used on top of sod walls, two wires being stretched along the top, and wire replaced gorse occasionally, but often the two were used together. As Canterbury was not troubled by rabbits to any great

extent, the sod walls did not become honeycombed with burrows as they did in Otago and Southland. According to Acland, the first wire boundary fence was put up in 1865 between Malvern Hills and Rockwood, and at Waimate the Hakataramea boundary was put up about the same time. Many of the runholders built fences to take advantage of the clause in the provincial land legislation which allowed them to claim 50 acres of land for every 40 chains of fencing.

EXTENSIVE FARMING BY SQUATTERS

THE DEPREDATIONS OF SCAB

The combination of topography and climate largely determines the type of vegetation found in a country and this is well illustrated in Canterbury. Near the main divide, with its higher rainfall, ■ beech forest predominates, and further east, where drier winds make the rainfall less effective, a semi-drought-resistant form of vegetation has developed in the form of tussock grasses. On the areas between about 3000 and 5000 ft. this tusSock consists of sub-alpine snowgrass or tall tussock grassland, and on those between about 1000 and 3000 ft. fescue tussock grassland predominates. Below 1000 ft., on the plains and downlands, a mixture of fescue and silver tussock was the predominant vegetation before settlement. In low-lying areas near the coast, particularly around Christchurch and south of the Ashburton River, there occurred typical swamp vegetation. A considerable portion of Banks Peninsula, which has a different soil type, higher rainfall, and warmer temperature, was originally covered, with rain forest similar to that in many parts of the North Island.

WIDER SETTLEMENT OF FARMLANDS

EXPANDING PRODUCTION Wool prices were fairly stable during the 1850’s, but. for the established squatter the sale of sheep to the aspiring one was the most profitable side of the business. The Australian “shagroon” Mark Stoddart, writing in 1851, lamented the high price of sheep (from 16s. to £1 a head) and the limited number available, the transporting of them from Australia being risky and slow. Right up to the mid-1860’s, when the demand began to slacken off as the country became fully stocked, the price of sheep remained high, usually from £1 to 30s. a head, the upper limit being probably determined by the cost of bringing sheep from Australia. This must have become easier after Stoddart wrote, as thousands were brought in. All the wool was consigned to England, with occasional shipments to Australia, and from 1857 to 1861 the Customs Department calculated the value of exports at the uniform rate of 16d. per pound. Freight rates were heavy in those days, the wool was of uneven quality, and the amount produced per sheep was low, yet most of the squatters seemed to do fairly well. Those who came from Australia had experienced most of the crises, except snowstorms, that were likely to occur in Canterbury, and knew how to adapt themselves. Samuel Butler arrived in Canterbury in 1860 with £4OOO capital, which he intended to double as soon as possible. He sold out in 1863 for £lO,OOO, succeeding in his aim. Butler, a man of shrewd common sense, but without experience, managed to do this on one of the less promising stations in Canterbury; those on the plains, taken up a few years earlier, must have been a great deal more profitable. The social structure of Canterbury during the 1850’s though deviating somewhat from the strict Wakefield mould, was not exactly one to promote

equality of opportunity. To obtain and stock a pastoral lease cost at least £2OOO, and probably more, even though rents were less than a penny per acre; to buy land for an agricultural farm cost £3 per acre at first and £2 per acre from 1856 onward, a price sufficient to deter a man of limited means. Sheep farming is essentially economical of labour, but nonetheless there were frequent complaints of labour shortages and of the excessive rates of wages. At the beginning of the settlement wages were generally 4s. 6d. a day, but after the discovery of gold in -Australia the rate rose to about Bs. a day and even more in the back country. For their keep the men employed on the runs received generous quantities of mutton, flour, tea, and salt, but little else; if many of the labourers spent most of their wages on hard liquor, numbers of them, particularly Scotch shepherds, saved carefully and were able years later, when the squatters were in difficulties, to acquire land of their own. Steady Advance Canterbury in 1860 had successfully passed the pioneering stage and had settled down to a steady if prosaic advance. Total exports in 1854 were £14,700, including £7lOO for wool; by 1861 these figures had risen to £213,500 and £195,000 respectively. The quantity of wool exported rose from 122.6001 b. in 1854 to 2,925,3751 b. in 1861. Wheat exports were worth nearly £4OOO in 1860, but with the gold discoveries in Otago and the rapid rise in bread

demand, no more was exported for some years. Though there must have been some disruption caused by the departure of farm workers to the goldfields, most of them probably did - not stay long, because in the years 1861-64 the population of South Canterbury doubled, and, as most of the new arrivals did not come by sea, they must have come from Otago. . ?• ' The increase in the population and the greater profitability of agriculture stimulated in turn a demand for land to be made available for closer settlement. The squatters displayed a stony hostility to any settlements of small farmers in their neighbourhood, as the reference in Lady ... Barker’s “Station Life in New Zealand” to the “nest of cockatoos” near at hand and the disparaging attitude of the runholders toward it shows. As in Otago, the small farmers were beginning to challenge' the squatters’ entrenched privileges. The squatters during the 1860’s experienced something else that was newa drop in the price of wool. After freight was allowed for, prices averaged from 123 d. to 13}d. from 1861 to 1866, but began to fall in 1867, dropping to 8-®d. in 1869. Falling Prices Lead to Depression Wool, being sold on a world market, was not affected by the gold discoveries in New Zealand, but the drop in prices from 1867 onward corresponded closely to the decline in the output of gold. This latter decline meant also a drop in the demand for agricultural . produce, the price of

wheat falling from 6s. per bushel in 1867 to 4s. Id. in 1870. The fall in the price of wool, the drop - in gold production, and the continuation of the Maori Wars combined to produce by 186? a minor depression. That year unemployment began to be seen in Christchurch, but 2 years later a Provincial Council committee investigating the subject reported that plenty of work would be available if wage rates were not so high. Between 1860 and 1869 labourers’ wages were from 6s. to 7s. a day, skilled workers receiving 9s. to 12s. a day, but in 1869 wages fell somewhat, the rate for ordinary labourers dropping to ss. to 6s. Though little more -was heard of the matter, it was against this background o f stagnation that Julius Vogel in July 1870 announced his policy of public works and immigration. It was no + his oolicv alone- in 1869 Edward Stafford had declared himself in favour of a similar one, and the issue of borrowing for public works was a familiar one in Canterbury provincial politics. .LVogel’s original proposals for land settlement to be linked with immigration and public works required the co-operation of the provinces, in whom the control over waste lands had been vested since 1856, but such co-operation was conspicuously lacking. The resumption of land for settlement along the routes of the proposed railways would have fulfilled two aims; it would have settled a larger proportion of immigrants on the land and secured for the State the increased value of

the land, contributing in a large part to the cost of the railways. Opposition to any surrender of provincial rights arose from a mixture of self-interest and a desire to retain local autonomy, and was sufficiently strong to prevent any proposals for the large-scale resumption of land being passed. Vogel himself did not feel impelled to press the issue.

Land Values Soar

Whether there was a full realisation in Canterbury of the heights that the land boom would reach or why the boom should have been so largely confined to Canterbury is impossible to say. The provincial authorities were still continuing to sell land at the high price of £2 per acre, and up to 1871 it was sold in fairly modest quantities. In 1866, when runholders were taking advantage of their preemptive rights, over 86,000 acres were freeholded, but in the next few years the figure fell off, being just over 15,000 in 1869. With the speeding up of railway construction in 1872, the area freeholded rose to 105,000 acres and reached a maximum of 585,000 acres in 1878.

The way Was clear for a wild boom in land values, and as the boom gathered momentum values soared in places miles away from any railway or proposed railway. The large squatters, partly from the need for selfprotection, but largely from a desire to profit, freeholded as much .of their land as they could, often mortgaging their properties to do so. Very few squatters had their land purchased over their heads, even if they were afraid of the possibility. The boom reached its height in the areas around Christchurch, the newspapers during 1877 and 1878 containing accounts of farms selling at over £2O per acre around Templeton and Rolleston, land which a few years earlier had been purchased at £2 per acre. Similar prices. were given for land close to Timaru.

A favourite device for selling land at an inflated price during the years 1877-78 was the selling of sections in new townships. A typical advertisement from the “Lyttelton Times” in July, 1878, drew, attention to the sale of “The whole >of the remaining sections in the township of Freetown situated in the centre of Horsley Downs.” One wonders if there were many buyers for the 67 sections advertised. The report of the Secretary

for Crown Lands in 1879 forms an interesting conclusion, as he said, “In the Canterbury Land District, for instance, there is very little Crown land remaining that anyone would care to purchase at £2 an acre.” Prosperous 1870's A boom in land values, a rise in prices of wool and wheat, and large-scale Government spending all contributed to the prosperity or the 1870’s. Wool prices began to rise again in 1871 and reached 15d. a pound in 1872, but fell gradually to lOd. in 1877. Wheat prices followed a different course, ranging from 4s. 6d. to ss. a bushel between 1870 and 1876, but rising to 6s. 3d. in 1877 and dropping the following year. How the land boom survived the drop in the price of wool is. hard to understand, but another notable feature of the 1870’s was the great increase in productivity. Wool exported amounted to 8,000,0001 b., valued at £458,000, in 1865; 12,486,0001 b., valued at £490,000, in 1870; 15,000,0001 b., valued at £1,000,000, in 1875, and 16,127,0001 b., valued at £700,000, in 1880. A large part of the improvement during the 1870’s came from the increase in sheep numbers on the plains, where the carrying capacity was raised by the sowing of English grasses. There was little increase in the number of hill-country sheep. In the late 1860’s and 1870’s production of wool was increasing jnuch faster in Otago and Southland than in Canterbury, but from ' 1875 the rabbits brought this advance in the south to a halt.

With the decline in wool prices from 1875, farmers on the better-class land turned increasingly to wheat, the area in wheat rising from 52,000 acres in 1870 to 194,000 acres in 1880.

The sharp fall in world agricultural prices in 1879 brought the boom in land to a sudden end, and the effect of this, combined with a drop in Government spending, a fall in imports, and a general lack of confidence in the future, brought about a general depression as sudden as it was complete. According to one estimate, land values in Canterbury increased sevenfold during the period, and as the production of the land increased, at a much more modest rate, the difficulties of many farmers and runholders who had bought late can be easily imagined.

FLUCTUATING PRICES FOR EXPORTS

GROWTH AND EXPANSION IN 1870’s

Journal of. the British Grassland Society

The Journal has been instituted as a medium for the publication of the results of research and practical experience in the realm of Grassland Husbandry. CONTENTS OF VOL. 5, NO. 2, 1950. 1. Day-Length and Head Formation in the Ryegrasses.—J. P. Cooper. 2. Experiments on the Yield of . Lucerne Strains as Pure Plots and on the Behaviour of Lucerne when Sown in Mixture with Various Species of Grasses. —Watkin Williams. 3. Serradella (Ornithopus sativus): A Legume for Light Acid Soils. — L. Schofield. •4. Investigations on Local Strains of Herbage Plants. 1. Kent Indigenous Perennial Ryegrass.—R. ■P. Hawkins. 5. An Examination of Some Observations of Soil Temperatures.—R. W. Gloyne. 6. On the Influence of the Composition of Pasture Herbage on the Production of Dairy Cows and on the Benefit of. Supplementing the Grass with Protein Poor Poods. — Sjollema. This Journal is published quarterly. Subscription Vol. I, 10s. Annual subscription thereafter 20s. Orders to Secretary, British Grassland Society, Walsingham, Norfolk.

Despite the demand for labour on public works, the influx of immigrants must have tended to keep wages from rising, because in 1873 station labourers were paid 17s. 6d. to £1 a week, with keep; this rose to 255. in 1876 and dropped again to 15s. to £1 in 1880. Shepherds as skilled men were not affected so much by the sudden onset of depression, for they were receiving £5O to £6O a year in 1873 and £65 to £7O in 1880. Lack of Amenities With the collapse of the Vogal boom, there was a general desire .to make him and his policy the scapegoat. Yet it is difficult to imagine today just how lacking New Zealand was in the ordinary amenities of life before 1870. There were only 700 miles of telegraph line and 46 miles of railway in three separate gauges. Main roads were little more than bullock tracks, rivers were unbridged, and the towns lacked sanitation, lighting, and paved streets. By 1880 the Canterbury Plains were beginning to assume their present appearance, most of the land being sown down in English grasses or in crop and the homesteads being surrounded by young plantations and shelter belts. But the homesteads were much fewer. Roads had been formed over most of the plains, and the railway system was much as it is today. Canterbury’s population had just passed the 100,000 mark, and exports stood at £1,329,000. Nearly 1,300,000 acres of land had been broken in; 193,000 were in wheat, 153,000 in oats, and other crops covered 140,000 acres. Wheat production had reached 5,000,000 bushels annually and had taken third place among the country’s exports. With the improvement in the pastures of the plains and downland, sheep flocks were still increasing rapidly, reaching 3,608,000 in 1880. Canterbury in the next decade was preparing to assume Otago’s place as the greatest producer of wealth in New Zealand.

Vaccination Against Contagious Abortion

Applications by farmers for vaccination of their calves against contagious abortion in 1951 are now due. The charge is Is. 6d. per calf for the first 14 calves in any herd and Is. 3d. per calf thereafter. The closing date for applications is January 13 and a late fee of 10s. is payable on all applications received after this date. As in previous years members of veterinary clubs should apply to the secretary of their club and other farmers should apply to their nearest Inspector of Stock, from whom they can obtain, the necessary application forms. Applications to Inspectors of Stock must be accompanied by a cash payment calculated on the basis of the charges mentioned above. It is desirable that applications be sent in as early as possible so that vaccinating officers can arrange the work efficiently. Farmers are therefore requested to forward their applications by January 3.