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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 80a

The Canterbury Province

The Canterbury Province

Begins at the Waitaki River, and runs north to the Hurunui, a distance of about 180 miles, and the average width of the Province is about 80 miles.

We took the reader as far as Waiinate, from whence to Timaru, a distance of about 25 miles, is all good agricultural land, and is in the hands of private owners. Timaru is a substantial town of some 4,000 inhabitants. It has large grain stores, flour mills, and the usual freezing works, and a first-class harbour made by an artificial breakwater. From Timaru for a radius of 25 miles all around, the land comprises rolling downs of great fertility and beauty.

At St. Andrew's, six miles south of Timaru, is the Pareora Estate, the property of the N.Z. and A.L. Co., which the Company consider, acre for acre, the most valuable property they have. It consists of 14,000 acres of down land, grows turnips and green crops admirably, while sheep and all other live stock are as healthy as possible. Good metalled roads give access to every portion of the estate, and provide downhill carriage to the St. Andrew's Railway Station, where there is a thriving township and large public school. The price of land is £8 to £10 per acre. The Levels Estate, at the back of Timaru, is perhaps the most valuable estate in New Zealand. It contains 60,000 acres, of which 40,000 acres are in English grass or in process of cultivation. The whole estate is rendered accessible by means of the Fairlie Creek Railway, which runs right through it for about 20 miles and affords means of transit for produce at seven different railway stations.

Well-formed roads, the excellence of which is the subject of constant remark by new-comers to the district, tap the remoter portion of the laud, and either provide downhill carriage to Timaru direct or lead directly to the stations on the Fairlie Creek Railway. Wheat averages 28 to 30 bushels per acre. Oats and all ordinary farm produce can be produced under most favourable circumstances as regards climate and soil. Twenty to twenty-five thousand sheep are fattened every year; so no more need be said in favour of the turnips and mangolds grown on the Levels.

There are man 7 miles of well-trimmed hedges on the property, with here and there handsome plantations which both add to the natural beauty of the country and afford warm shelter to stock in boisterous weather.

page 41
Wheat Harvesting in Canterbury.

Wheat Harvesting in Canterbury.

The price of land is from £5 to £9 per acre in this district, and a very large area is in large blocks, in private hands. The Bank of New Zealand Estates Company own the properties of Eskbank and Seadown in this district.

Hundreds of farmers send their produce to Timaru, as may well be imagined when it is known that the exports of Timaru considerably exceed half a million.

The Canterbury Plains

may be said to begin at Timaru, and extend in an unbroken line to twenty miles north of Christchurch, a distance of 120 miles, as level as a bowling green far as the eye can reach, with the sea on one side and the mountains rising sharp from the plain on the other, widening out as they stretch northward to a width in some places of forty miles.

The main trunk line of railway runs through the length and breadth of these plains, and numerous branch lines run up to the foot of the mountains by which they are bounded on the landward side.

Several rivers flow down from the snowclad mountains to the sea—the Rangitata, Ashburton, Selwyn, and Rakaia being the principal ones. All of these have been bridged by most expensive and substantial iron cylinder bridges, both for purposes of ordinary and railway traffic. The roads, both main and branch, throughout these extensive plains have been most thoroughly made, and are always kept in first-class repair.

There are 454 miles of railroad in Canterbury, and there are over 200 State schools attended by over 25,000 children. It may fairly be said that Canterbury is the cornfield of New Zealand. In no other part is there so large an area so suitable for and so easy of tillage. Ploughing is easy and cheap on these plains, and all agricultural machinery and every labour-saving implement easily and effectively worked, thus adding greatly to economy in farming. As much as 300 acres of wheat have been cut in one day on the Acton Estate by fifteen self-binding machines drawn by sixty horses, and in six working days 1,500 acres of grain have been reaped. Three-furrow ploughs can be used advantageously.

The grass on these plains, though sometimes not encouraging to look at in dry weather, has really good fattening qualities, and carries stock well. It springs rapidly after rain, and in this way compensates for its want of thickness and luxuriance.

The extent of the Canterbury plains is 3,000,000 acres; the area of open land in Canterbury under 2,000 feet above sea level is three and three-quarter million acres.

The total area of the Canterbury province is about eight and a half million acres, and of this area about six and a half million acres, or about 10,000 square miles classed as agricultural and pastoral country, are an area about two-thirds of the size of Switzerland, with its3,000,000 people; and on this large and productive area (we have deducted the high mountains—we do not know what Switzerland would dwindle down to if you deducted the mountains) there reside 125,000 people; 41,000 of these reside in Christchurch, page 42 the chief city, and suburbs; 21,000 more in various boroughs and town districts; leaving 62,000 in the country, without reckoning numerous little clusters of population that gather themselves together in many places. The proportion of males to females in New Zealand is a little over one-half, so we will say 32,000 males in the country, one-half of whom are under twenty-one, so there are about 15,000 men to work this 10,000 square miles of country; and they do it to the extent that the exports for 1890 were, £2,876,221, and the return for their labour nearly £200 per head, besides keeping themselves and the other 110,000 people in the province in most of the necessaries of life.

Tally-Ho!

Tally-Ho!

Of course the bulk of the labour is done by the four and a half million sheep walking about in Canterbury, and turning grass into wool. All the men have to do is to shear the wool off their backs, for which they receive about 15s. per hundred; that is, they get 15s. for gathering about £20 worth of wool. That is how New Zealand pays her debts to England for building all these railways, and the interest on her mortgages; otherwise she could not do it, and that is why trade is bad. All the merchants and bankers have to trade on here is the 15s., the £ig 5s. goes to England, less a trifle for carriage of the wool on the railways. We want more people to earn the £20 and spend it here.

Still, besides wool, a very large area is cultivated in wheat, oats, barley, and potatoes, the production being in 1891:—
Wheat 212,097 acres 3,793.329 bushels
Oats 113,048 acres 2,345,220 bushels
Barley 15.725 acres 298,951
Potatoes 11,924 acres 69,281 tons
Peas 7.175 acres 138,699 bushels
Beans 3.731 acres 90,486 bushels
Hay 6,419 acres 9,026 tons
Total 370,119 acres

The [unclear: aductive] capacity of these lands is best illustrated by statistics issued by the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, showing that on the 31st May last there were 4,594,577 sheep in Canterbury, while the agricultural figures for this district are as follows:—

WHEAT. OATS. BARLEY. POTATOES.

So you will notice that out of this 10,000 square miles of agricultural and pastoral country there were about 400,000 acres, or one-sixteenth cultivated, the rest being grazed; so there is room here, at all events, for a little closer cultivation.

The plains are liable to parching winds from the north-west, which dry up the pastures on the shallower soils, and to meet this irrigation, for which the plains present exceptional facilities, has been largely made use of. They have an average fall of 30 feet to the mile towards the sea, and the great rivers that run through them may be tapped at almost any point, and their water conducted on to the land lying at a lower

page 43
Mr. P. Cunningham's Horse "Rasper," Prize Taker at Several Agricultural Shows in Canterbury.

Mr. P. Cunningham's Horse "Rasper," Prize Taker at Several Agricultural Shows in Canterbury.

page 44

level. These conditions have been taken advantage of to lead the water for the purpose of watering stock, and the many miles of water-races supply nearly every farm. There are now 1,857 miles of water-races supplying a million acres of land with water straight from snow-fed rivers, than which there are no purer or brighter in the world.

The Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association have a competition amongst the small farmers, and give three prizes—one for the best farm of 50 to 150 acres, one for the best of 150 to 350 acres, and one for dairy farms only, the Union Insurance Company giving a special prize of £20 and a cup value £5, which, with other subscriptions, brings the value of the prizes up to £150.

The judges have to consider, amongst other points, the best management of grass land, condition of gates, fences, etc., quality of stock, winter feed, buildings and plan of dairy utensils, rearing of calves and pigs, bacon curing, general management, and best system of book-keeping. Their report is very instructive, but we very much abridge.

H. E. Peryman took first prize for 150 acres, divided into six paddocks of 25 acres each. Soil was light to strong clay loam, and of good quality. Fences well kept. Crops were
24 acres wheat
24 acres Oats
14 acres Barley
2 acres Peas
2 acres Mangolds
78 acres Grass, 20 of which were cut for Hay
2 acres Potatoes
4 acres Homestead, etc.
150

Twenty-two head of cattle were kept, of which 15 were milch cows, and of which, on an average, ten were always in milk. The whole of the milk was sent to the Tai Tapu Dairy Factory, which showed that the returns were 70,468lbs. of milk, yielding 2,746lbs. butter. The cows were half and three-quarter bred Ayrshires and their crosses. Ninety-six ewes were kept, which gave 103 lambs which were sold at 11s. id. each. Mr. Peryman always sells his ewes, and buys a fresh stock every year, which leaves a small profit, and the lambs and wool to the good. Sixteen Berkshire pigs were kept, and six horses—four working, one colt, and one hack.

His balance-sheet read as follows:
Receipts.
£ s. d.
Wheat, 700 bushels at 3s. 4¼d. 117 3 4
Oats, 850 bushels at is. 6d. 63 15 0
Barley, 644 bushels at 2s. 6d. 80 10 0
Potatoes, 19 tons at 40s. 38 0 0
Butter, 2,7461bs. at 8d. and 9d. 98 6 10
Wool 32 1 7
Lambs, 103 at 11S. 1d. 57 1 7
Sheep 40 6 0
Pigs 58 10 9
Oatsheaf Chaff 12 10 0
Horse sold 10 0 0
Cows sold 13 5 0
£621 10 1
Expenditure.
£ s. d.
Rent 200 0 0
Labour 124 10 0
Rates and Insurance 40 2 2
Threshing 30 0 0
Timber and Drain Pipes 15 0 0
Machinery and sundries 20 8 6
Balance 191 9 5
£621 10 1

The stock on hand on June 30th, 1890, was worth £860 5s. 8d. against a value of £740 13s. the previous June—the total profit for the year being £311 2s. id., or about £2 per acre after paying 26s. 8d. per acre rent.

For the best dairy farm, Mr. Withell, of Brookside, took the prize for 100 acres. It is divided into seven paddocks, and was used as follows:
13 acres Peas
7 acres Oats
14 acres Orchard
65 acres Grass
1 acres Dwelling House
100

The stock was 47 head of dairy cattle, consisting of 27 milch cows (shorthorns), 10 18-month old heifers, 10 heifers six months old and one Jersey bull; five horses, 20 sheep, and 96 Berkshire pigs were kept.

The following is a summary of receipts from the sale of butter, pigs stock, fruit, etc.:

Month. Cows Calved. cows in milk Butter. Cash for Butter. Pigs in. Pigs sold. Fruit sold.Cattle sold.1889-Lbs.£ s. d. £s. d. £s. d. £ s. d. June ..101737

page break
H. E. Peryman's Exhibit at the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association Show, June, 1891.

H. E. Peryman's Exhibit at the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association Show, June, 1891.

These are as follows:—

Garden Seeds.—Mangel, linseed, carrot, parsnip, and turnip.

Farm Seeds.—Red Tuscan wheat, white Tuscan and Peam wheat, Birdling's white oats, Blue Prussian peas, Early Sunrise peas, two samples of horse beans, rye corn, Chevalier barley, cocksfoot, rye-grass, crushed barley, ground barley, wheatmeal, ground beans, kibbled beans, crushed oats (all prepared on the farm), oatsheaf chaff, wool, kidney potatoes, Breeyer's prolific potato, Derwent [unclear: otato,] and red clover seed.

Bundle of green oats, prairie grass, Lucerne, rye-grass, red clover, cocksfoot, tares, rhubarb, onions, radishes, asparagus, sage, parsley, thyme, mint, lettuce, and leeks.

Cabbage, peas, mangels, bundle of rye flax (native), table bouquet, cut blooms, apples, gooseberries dressed lamb, hams and bacon, sucking pig, salt butter, roll butter, dressed fowls, fancy basket, bread, eggs, lard, honey, tomato sauce, raspberry vinegar, jams, jellies, and Devonshire cream. Total 71 exhibits, all of which were grown and manufactured on the farm by Mr. Perryman and the members of his own family.

page 46

It will be seen that the milk of 26 cows yielded 4,792lbs. butter, which realised £175 9s. 2d., giving an average of 1841b. per cow for twelve months, thus showing each animal made £6 15s., to which if you add £1 for the value of skim milk, makes £7 15s. for each cow.

At the end of the season he held pigs in stock of the value of £31; fruit, £11 8s. 11d. In addition to the produce of his dairy and orchard he made a profit on his sheep, viz., 52 at 8s., £20 16s. He sold grass seed to the value of £50, mangold and carrot seed, £13; flax seed, £16; potatoes, £7; and he values the grazing of his growing heifers as follows, 24 at 6d. per week, £26 4s.; two two-year-olds, at 9d. per week, bringing up the total income from his 100-acre farm to £574 14s. 5d.

Allowing 30s. per acre for rent, £175 for labour, and £25 for contingencies, there is a profit of £164 14s, 5d. on 100 acres of land. Although £175 is allowed for labour in the accounts, this is paid to Mr. Withell's own family, for the report says: "The whole of the work of the farm is performed by Mr. Withell and his sons and daughters, of whom he has a goodly number." In New Zealand at all events it is true that "Children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward. As arrows are in the hands of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with the enemies in the gate."

Mr. Fussell took the prize in Class III., and tells with pardonable pride that twenty years ago he got his wife across the creek on a ladder to his section, where he had erected a sod where amongst negro-heads—large grass clumps that grow in swamps—and flax bushes, on land abounding with dangerous springs, full of dead timber, the remains of an ancient forest, and of the many years of struggle experienced by himself and wife before they succeeded in subduing the wilderness, converting it into one of the neatest cottage homes in the district. Besides the prize which Mr. Fussell received, the Earl of Onslow presented Mrs. Fussell with a silver medal engraved:

"To Mrs. W. Fussell,

From the Earl of Onslow,

For Her Model Small Holding."

Honor to whom honor is due! Honor to the noble woman.

The heart of her husband trusted in her,
And he shall have no lack of gain—
She doeth him good and not evil
All the days of her life;
Let her own works praise her in the gates.

And honor to the noble Earl, by Nature's letters patent a noble man.

The rank is but the guinea stamp,
The man's the man for a' that.

Reader, these are no fancy sketches. This is no theoretical newspaper or book farming, but actual fact severely criticised by competent men chosen for their integrity, and responsible to their neighbours for the truth of their judgment, desiring only to award a prize where most merited.

They speak for themselves. It will be at once observed that it does not so much matter what the kind of soil is (negro-heads and flax bushes will do), as what kind of man is on the soil, and that a mere absentee investor, or owner of very large acreage, has no chance to get the return out of the land these men do. He is not in it and men like that cannot be hired, at least not for long. They serve God not man, their manly faith that of the old monk—

Laborare est orare.

There is plenty of room on this earth for men like that, Malthus and his stupid theory notwithstanding, and New Zealand is the best place for them to come to.

There are all sorts of theories going about now-a-days as to how men can be made prosperous without work and self-denial, for that is what most of them amount to. There is nothing in them. The ruggedest soil, short of paving stones, will yield to work and patience, and the richest will only grow weeds, moral and physical, without them.

The value of agricultural land on the Canterbury Plains is £3 10s. to £30 per acre, according to improvements and locality. The average value of such land, within easy distance of a railway, is £8 per acre. Easy terms can always be arranged. Land can be rented at all sorts of prices.

Christchurch is a most substantial city of English origin. It was founded in 1841 as a special settlement under the auspices of the Canterbury Association. It has a fine cathedral, with a pretty peal of bells, standing in the midst of a square surrounded by handsome stone buildings. The Canterbury College and Museum would do credit to any city, whilst the public gardens are worth going a long way to see. The river Avon winds through the town, and its drooping willows shade the merry boating parties that take their pleasure on its gently flowing waters.

From Ashley, where the Canterbury Plains end, to the Waipara River is a distance of about

page 47
Canterbury College.

Canterbury College.

fifteen miles, which is fine rolling downs, mostly suitable for all-round agriculture, and extending from the sea to a depth of ten or twelve miles to the hills.

From the Waipara River to the Hurunui, a distance of twenty-five miles or so, the hills come close down to the sea, and for a narrow strip are good grazing country, but behind them at a distance of about twelve to fourteen miles there is a rich agricultural country suitable for wheat and other cereal culture. This country is well watered and supplied with roads and bridges. Up to the present time the Canterbury farmers have mostly devoted themselves to the growing of cereals and potatoes (the latter for export to the Australian colonies), and turnips for fattening sheep for the English market. Dairying has not received much attention.

The dairy industry in Canterbury is capable of indefinite extension. At the present time there are only six factories in this large area, viz., the Flaxton, Flemington, Geraldine, Sefton, Tai Tapu and Temuka ones, but arrangements have been made for starting a central factory at Addington, with numerous branch creameries, at which they expect to be able to handle the milk of 2,000 to 3,000 cows.

Bacon and ham curing is carried on extensively at several establishments, and the Belfast and the Islington refrigerating works are amongst the most complete in the colony. The harbour of Lyttelton has been most extensively improved by the construction of a breakwater and wharves, and furnishes ample accommodation for berthing the largest ships, supplying every convenience for exporting the produce of the district to the English and continental markets.

There are several branch lines of railroad running out of Christchurch. The main trunk line ends at Culverden, 69 miles north from Christchurch. Branches run out to Oxford, 41 miles; Springfield, 44; Southbridge, 31; Little River, 36; White Cliffs, 42; Methven, 58 miles. All of these tap the agricultural country, the page 48 produce of which finds its way by the line which goes through a tunnel to the sea at Lyttelton.

The foot-hills of the mountains bordering on the Canterbury Plains are places of singular beauty, with every variety of valley and glen, and down everyone of them sparkles a stream straight from the white shoulders of the hills that bear up the sky. Well do we remember a day spent in pleasant company—a bright day at a pretty homestead at the foot of a mountain, its clay walls some three feet thick all overgrown with creepers, and idly drinking in the sunshine and listening to the murmur of the purest stream. The climate is perfection. In winter, cloudless skys and sunny days, sharp frosty nights, when the log crackles on the fire; in summer, warm days of sunny haze, a climate bright and exhilarating, when every nerve tingles for action and fatigue is a pleasure. Why, oh! why are not these valleys full of happy people? Of a surety some day they will be When More People Know of Them, and there learn to bless the Giver of all good gifts which are there in such rich abundance.

We do not write for those globe-trotters who make an annual tour to the Alps of Switzerland, and look upon them as Ruskin says they do, "as soaped pdes in a bear garden" for fools to climb up; but let any sober-minded man with some spark of everence in the soul of him, take the train some winter's morning from Christchurch to Ashburton, and see our Southern Alps, and if he does not see a sight there that will make him feel inclined to lay his hand on his mouth, and his mouth in the dust, and cry Unclean! Unclean! he has rot a soul the size of a sixpence. He shall see the mighty sun arise like a strong man fresh from his bath in the Eastern wave, and while all the valley below is wrapt in slumber he shall [unclear: wo] our virgin hills—icy maidens in their bridal veils of snow, and at his first kiss for a hundred miles they shall blush rosy red.

High mountains are to me a feeling,
But the [unclear: um] of human cities torture.
I see nothing to loathe in nature,
Save to be a link reluctant in a fleshly chain,
When the soul can flee, and with the sky, the peak.
The hearing plain of ocean and the stars mingle;
And notin vain.

From Lyttelton we slid across Cook's Straits in a few hours in the Union Company's good steamer Takapura, landing at Wellington on December 1st, 1892. The gigantic Kaikoura mountains run along the coast the most of the way, towering aloft, above, and amidst the clouds. At the foot of these mountains are sheep runs along the coast, and at the back of them are valleys, some of which are now, and some of which will in time doubtless be very valuable. We do not profess in this hasty sketch to describe a country nearly as large as Great Britain minutely, but just bits of it here and there, samples, as we said at the outset.

From Wellington we took the train to Wanganui, and on the 6th of December, equivalent to the 6th of June in England, started to run across the island to Napier, in the