Title: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Author: Cyclopedia Company Limited

Publication details: The Cyclopedia Company, Limited, 1905, Christchurch

Part of: The Cyclopedia of New Zealand

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

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The Totara Estate , the property of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, Ltd., consists of 9600 acres of freehold land, which is available for sale in small farms. Formerly it was of considerably larger extent, but about 6400 acres have been sold to farmers. The cultivation of cereals, turnips, potatoes, mangolds and grasses is extensively carried on. In the of 1898–9, 2000 acres were under wheat, 700 under oats, and forty under barley; 429 acres for wheat and oat crops were let to croppers, and fifty-eight acres for potatoes; 484 acres of ryegrass seed was harvested, and fifty-three acres of cowgrass seed saved. A stud flock of Border Leicester sheep is kept, and is one of the oldest flocks of that breed in the Colony. The Totara herd of pure Polled Angus cattle is well known; it includes 100 breeding cows, the original stock having been imported. Considerable numbers of pedigree stock are sent to the North Island and to the Australian Colonies every year, apart from those moved to other stations belonging to the company. “Totara” is a splendidly improved estate. At the homestead there is a fine two-storey mansion built of white limestone, and charmingly situated on an elevation, surrounded by a fine plantation of shelter and ornamental trees. The first cargo of frozen mutton shipped from the Colony was sent from Totara estate, in 1882, in the sailing ship “Dunedin.” The sheep were slaughtered on the estate, and lots of 250 carcases railed to Port Chalmers daily, and frozen on board ship. The first cargo of eight thousand odd created quite a sensation on the London market; the whole cargo averaged 82 pounds per carcase, and sold at 7d per pound, netting 24s each on the estate. For a number of years afterwardt the ships “Dunedin,” “Marlborough,” and “Oamaru” were kept regularly employed running to London with frozen mutton, slaughtered at “Totara”; the loading of the vessel being latterly effected at Oamaru harbour.