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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 32

III. Land, Climate, Products

III. Land, Climate, Products.

Otago is estimated to contain over 9,000,000 acres of land fit for agricultural purposes, and in addition, about 1,500,000 acres under forest, which, when cleared, will, to a large extent, be of especial value. The general character of the soil is of a fair average, while in several districts—north, middle, and south—it is very rich, strong, and deep, tempting the farmer to grow a succession of wheat crops without alternating, or supplying the waste by manuring. This practice is not now followed to such an extent as formerly. There is, of course, a large amount of steep and broken country, but the great improvements that are being made in agricultural implements render the tillage of such land comparatively easy. Land which a few years ago was considered unfit to work, or unprofitable if wrought, is now readily taken up and proved to be light to plough, and to yield a good return.

Loams, clays, gravel, and peat, all resting on favorable subsoils, are similarly diversified as in Britain, but their virgin character and the influence of the temperature render them much superior in productiveness and less costly to work. Extensive plains, downs, straths, glens, and gently-sloping hill-sides, none of them requiring much outlay for drainage, and all of splendid soil, fitted to produce any crops suited for a temperate climate, are spread over the province, and only await the energy of the husbandman, to whom they will yield a generous return.

The best proof of the fertility of the soil is afforded by practical page 24 tests. The produce, as ascertained by careful returns, for crop 1872—73, from the 3,705 holdings or farms in the Province, gives as the average yield per acre—Wheat, 29½; oats, 30½; barley, 27 bushels; potatoes, 5 1/6 tons.

For Crop 1874—75, the return is as follows:—
No. of Holdings. Acres broken up not under crop. In Wheat. In Oats. In Barley. In Potatoes. Acres. Bushels Acres. Bushels Acres. Bushels Acres. Tons. 3,809 42,985 28,115 980,128 80,787 3018148 5,054 168,436 3,341 18,419 Average per acre, 34 ¾ 37¼ 33 1/3 5½ Average 1873-74. 29 ¾ 33¼ 29 ¾ 4 2/3

Land.

Showing a large increase in the returns of all crops.

Authoritative returns for other crops are not obtainable, but are known to be equally satisfactory.

The regulations under which public, or, as they are called, "waste" lands are sold are various. The original and still the leading method is the hundred system—which means a large piece of agricultural country selected within natural and easily-defined boundaries, and surveyed into sections of from 50 up to 200 acres. On the survey being completed, the land is declared open for application on a day fixed by advertisement, and at the uniform price of £1 an acre. In making the application, a deposit of 10 per cent., or 2s: an acre is paid; and if one applicant only puts in a claim for any number of sections, he is forth-with declared the purchaser, pays the balance of purchase money within ten days, and gets a certificate of purchase, on which the Crown Grant is issued. If more than one person applies for the same land on the same day, the sections so applied for are advertised for sale by auction, and the highest bidder becomes the purchaser. Only those who purchase land within a hundred have the privilege of running stock on the unsold portions; and a license to depasture is issued according to a fixed scale, the cost being yearly 3s. 6d. a head for great cattle, and 7d. a head for page 25 sheep. This assessment, after paying cost of collection, is applied to form and make roads within the hundred. The holder of land has the privilege of free grazing for a certain number of stock. After the expiry of seven years from the date of the proclamation of the hundred, any land remaining within it unsold may be put up to auction at 10s. an acre, and knocked down to the best bidder. There are no conditions attached to this system of sale, either as to the extent of land one man can purchase, or as to residence or cultivation.

Another method of selling Crown lands, and one highly favorable to a man of small means who wishes to settle on and work the ground, is the deferred payment system. Blocks of land, not exceeding 5,000 acres in one block, or more than 30,000 acres in any one year, are selected, surveyed, and declared open for application. A lease or license to occupy not more than. 200 acres, at a yearly rent of 2s. 6d. an acre, payable half-yearly in advance, is issued, and the holder of the lease is bound not to sub-let during its currency. He must within three years enclose the land with a substantial fence, and cultivate one-tenth part of it. Half the cost of fencing can be recovered from the adjoining occupier. On payment of the tenth year's rent, the land becomes the freehold property of the occupier. This mode of selling on deferred payment is taken much advantage of, and will tend speedily to settle the country with a large population. No sooner is a block of land declared open for application than the land offices are rushed with applicants greatly exceeding the number of sections, and the decision is made by ballot.

An additional mode is, free grants to immigrants, whereby every man paying his own passage to New Zealand is entitled to £20 worth of land for himself, and, if he has a family, to a like portion, for each adult member. Those who may be counted members of the family, and for whom the full amount of land can be claimed, are wife, child, grandchild, nephew, or neice, over fourteen years of age, and if under fourteen years, land to the value of £10 can be claimed.

The prevailing system of land sales as described, regulates the area of land in the market at one time for sale. Sometimes the demand is great, and sections are eagerly and rapidly bought up, page 26 thus causing for a short period a scarcity; but the delay is not such as to cause much inconvenience. Several new hundreds are about to be proclaimed, and so soon as the classification of the land in the Southland district is completed, which will be very soon, a large extent of first-class agricultural country will be open for sale. The blocks set aside on the deferred payment principle comprise land of very superior quality, and it is expected that the area and number of such blocks will be greatly increased.

Immigrants claiming under the free grant system have the whole unsold country open to them for selection: and when it is stated that country as good for settlement as any already taken up can be obtained, the inducement is very great, especially when it is considered that the facilities which the improved means of transit afford, give a value to the land which it did not formerly possess.

For pastoral purposes, very little new country is available; the expectation is, however, that when the leases at present held of very large runs expire, those runs will be subdivided, so that a greater number can engage in this pursuit, and make the Province show a larger return than it has yet done from this source. By the outlay of a little capital and labor, the carrying capacity for stock may be increased tenfold.

The original design of the settlement was to provide freeholds for all who were ready and willing to occupy and cultivate them. To a very large extent this plan has been carried out; still, it was impossible entirely to prevent speculation by those colonially called "Land Jobbers." Whether the land is in the hands of the Crown or of private parties, no legislation can prevent this trade. But holders of large estates, when they find a good opportunity, throw their properties into the market for sale, and if the prices offered show a good profit, a bargain is generally struck. To perpetuate the old system of large landed proprietors is impossible here; family or hereditary inducements do not exist. There are no laws of entail, primogeniture, or hypothic, to compel the land to stick to certain favored individuals, or to clog our progress, and the desire is to make land as easy transferable as any other property. The habits and customs of the people are against page 27 an aristocracy, and the extent of land for sale or lease by the Crown militates against its creation. Undoubtedly, there are a few large holders of ground in freehold, and many anxious to acquire broad acres, not for bona fide settlement, but as speculation. But the administration of the Land Act in its spirit and intent, as it is now being administered, tends to put a stop to any wholesale alienation. The runholders or squatters, as they are called, under the influence of the high prices which have been ruling for wool and stock for the past few years, are very desirous of buying up the country which they hold, and several of them at the present time are trying hard to prevent the sale of their sheep country for agricultural settlement by calling in the aid of the Supreme Court, a course of conduct strongly deprecated, and which it is hoped will be unsuccessful. Several large properties, divided by their owners into farms from 200 to 300 acres, are at present in the market for sale. One of these specially deserves notice, viz., 8,000 acres in the Winton district. Higher class land could not be obtained anywhere. For strength, depth, and richness, it cannot be surpassed. The Carse of Gowrie, the Lothians, or the finest agricultural districts of England or Ireland do not excel it, and the climatic influences are as favorable as in the South of England. An inducement is held out to buyers by spreading the purchase money over three years, at a reasonable rate of interest. Good practical farmers in Britain, &c., who even now, with the high prices ruling for grain, are struggling hard to make both ends meet, would, on such soil, with such advantages and so little cost for manures, soon become independent. In fact, the whole cost of purchase will not amount to much more than one or two years' rent at home.

The holders of small freehold properties, say from 100 to 300 acres, are not, except in a few cases, disposed to let their farms. Fanning is, and has been for some time, a profitable occupation—good prices and a ready market; and this accounts, to some extent, for the small number of farms in the market to let. Occasionally such instances occur; these, however, must be held as the exception rather than the rule; and when they do occur, the amount of yearly rent demanded per acre is equal to the price at which the land was originally bought. It is a question for the page 28 new arrival to consider, whether he would not do better to secure a freehold at the upset price, although he would be longer in bringing produce to the market, than to pay a large rent for land in a condition ready to produce or already producing. In the first case, he has rougher work to undertake and more hardships to endure; but he has the satisfaction of being his own "laird," and of having no rent to pay. He has fresh, unused soil on which to commence work, and can arrange his farm and steading to his own mind. The objection that the locality in which he can select land is at a greater distance from the market, is overcome by the fact that the railways now being constructed will make land situated at one hundred miles distance more convenient of access than it was at ten miles distance a few years ago, and the cost of carriage will also be less.

Besides the occasional "small farm to let," it is proposed by one or two companies—holders of large tracts of country which have been fenced, ploughed, and cropped, or laid clown in grass—to cut them into ordinarily-sized farms, and to offer them on reasonable terms to approved tenants. To a considerable extent this will provide a supply to meet the demand which may arise. The rent for agricultural land rules from 10s. to £3 an acre; in the neighbourhood of town as much as £10 an acre is obtained, but this is for market-gardening purposes.

The climate may well be called a healthful and bracing one—neither subject to extreme heat nor intense cold. That it is a changeable one there can be no doubt, as oftentimes during the course of a single day alterations of a trying nature take place, rendering it not an attractive country for delicate lungs. Over the whole area, it may be called equable, little variation being observed either in the thermometer or rainfall. Some allowance must, of course, be made for the higher districts. The temperature, in the shade, averages from 72deg. as the highest, to 33deg as the lowest Along the coast line hard frosts rarely occur, giving little opportunity to the skater or curler. The lovers of the latter have established a club in Dunedin, formed a pond, and anticipate some day or other to have a roaring game. Up-country, opportunities for skating are more frequently obtained. The prevailing winds are south-west and north-east, and from both of page 29 these airts it does sometimes blow. Fitful gusts are also common. The wettest months in the year are July and August; during the other months a fair outpouring takes place, pretty well distributed, so that no severe parching occurs. The rainfall during the year is about thirty-two inches, and it has been remarked that the largest portion falls between sunset and sunrise. Earthquakes have occasionally been felt, but so slight as not to cause any apprehension of danger.

As possessed by the original inhabitants, this country was singularly destitute of food-producing vegetable or animal. The condition of the early Aborigines may be imagined when it is stated that they occupied a pathless, wild, broken country, having a genial climate and a generous soil, but they cultivated neither grain, root crops, or fruit, their only vegetable diet being fern roots and berries; they had no animal of any sort, save perhaps a rat, to slaughter for food or clothing; few birds of any size, except the moa, kiwi, weka, and kakapo; the sea the only source from whence nourishment could be obtained: it is hardly to be wondered if necessity made them anthropophagous in their habits. The advent of Captain Cook, with his pigs and seeds, and the whalers and squatters with other animals, must have been indeed a blessing.

The Moa was a bird of immense size, as will be seen from the drawing, but it is now totally extinct. The bones have been found in all directions, from the shores of Dunedin harbor to the fastnesses of the interior. Its flesh was reported by a Government interpreter to have been seen by him at Molyneux harbor in 1823, and that he had seen the feathers of the bird decorating the hair of the chiefs.

The vegetable products which are native to the Province, and are of any commercial value, are timber, flax, and esparto grass. Many of the trees produce most valuable timber, which is used in house and ship building, cabinet, wagon, and coach making, and various other purposes, where strength, endurance, polish, and ease in working are required. The timbers most in demand are totara, black and white pine (Podocarpus totara, ferruginea and dacrydioides), red pine (Dacridium cupressinum), goi (Sophora, tetraptera), bokaka (Eleocarpus dentatus), birch of the settlers (Fagus), rata, or ironwood (Metrosidoros lucida), and a number page 30 of others. The foliage of the native forests contributes immensely to the beauty of the landscape. The leaves are of every variety of form and in every tint of color, beautifully interspersed, and both trees and shrubs being almost all evergreen in their habit, add a freshness and warmth of appearance at all times attractive and pleasing. Flowering shrubs or plants are not numerous, but the few that do exist are really beautiful. Particularly noticeable are the rata, with its rich scarlet trusses, the hohere or ribbon-wood in its full bloom of single white delicate flowers, the convolvulus, climbing to the tops of the tallest trees, coyly enhancing its loneliness amongst the graceful drapery of the rimu or the toé toé (Arundo conspicuo), waving its tall graceful feathery plumes high above the less pretentious grasses of the meads.

The Phormium Tenax (native flax) is a most valuable plant, growing abundantly, and easy of cultivation. The strength of its fibre is very great, having a beautiful, soft, silky appearance, and which could be made up into any description of fabric. A more lengthened experience with, and more careful manipulation of this plant in the earlier stages of handling will yet prove it to be a source of great revenue, and make it one of the staple interests of the Province. The more careful experiments that are now being made as to its culture and preparation in older countries, where labor is much cheaper and more plentiful, will soon bring out its merits.

The esparto grows plentiful in the Mataura district, and its value in the manufacture of paper has already been tested.

Having cursorily described the country when it was in the sole possession of its dusky inhabitants, as well as the products which it yielded them, and from which description it would appear to have been almost exempted from the operation of the fiat that went forth along with the inmates of the old Ark—"all flesh, of fowl and of cattle, and of every creeping thing, to breed in the earth"—for even creeping things hardly existed; a rapid glance at the improvements which have been effected by its present possessors will come in suitably. From being a trackless wild, it is now being subdued by the arts and industries of civilization. As an essential and primary step, roads have been page 31 made and metalled, and the rivers spanned by substantial bridges over the length and breadth of the Province. Railways are rapidly being constructed, and in a year or two will bring the extremes into rapid and easy communication; steamers are plying along the coast, on the rivers, to the neighboring Provinces, Colonies, and even to Britain and America; sites for towns and villages have been spotted in all directions, and are being built on and occupied by a rapidly increasing population; agricultural districts are vying with each other in their efforts to break up the virgin soils and till them so as to produce abundance for man and beast; and works of reclamation and improvement, both material and sanitory, are constantly to be met with.

In addition to the cereals formerly alluded to, every other leguminous herbage, forage, and root plant suitable for the climate has been introduced and successfully cultivated, producing splendid crops. All ex-tropical fruits are in abundance—apples, peal's, plums, grapes, peaches, apricots, filberts, chestnuts, walnuts, together with small fruit of every variety. Artificial grasses are superseding the natural pastures, and the whole appearance of the country is being changed.

Forest trees are receiving a considerable share of attention, and the strangers will soon supplant the natives, which are slow of growth and shy of treatment. Hitherto, the blue gum of Tasmania (Eucalyptus globosa) has been most largely planted, and right worthy is it of a foremost position: a free-grower, extraordinarily rapid, to an immense size, quite at home in any soil or exposure, handsome in shape and of beautiful foliage, valuable as timber, and suited for a great variety of uses, and having the further recommendation of possessing highly-prized medicinal properties both in its bark and leaf, and acting as an air-purifying and health dispensing plant, it is well worthy of extensive cultivation, and will quickly and amply repay the expense and labor of the planter. Other members of the Eucalyptus family, together with several species of acacias or wattles, have been successfully introduced, and are deserving of cultivation for their valuable properties, especially their bark. Although popularly known as pines, none of the native trees are cone-bearers, and do not strictly belong to that order. True pines have, however, been page 32 introduced, and take kindly with the soil and climate. The larch spruces and fire of Norway, Austria, Scotland, Canada, and California, together with cedars, cupressus, auracarias, and other less hardy but highly ornamental, thrive wonderfully, while the hard woods are represented equally plentifully by oaks, elms, ash, planes, beech, and others of a similar value. Arrangements are being made by private parties to form plantations, and State forests are provided for by Act of Parliament. Loudon says: "Trees are not only in appearance the most striking and grand objects of the vegetable creation, but in reality they contribute most to human comfort and improvement; without them, there could be neither the houses and furniture of civilized life, nor the machines of commerce and refinement. Man may live and be clothed in a savage, and even in a pastoral state, by herbaceous productions alone, but he cannot advance further; he cannot till the ground or build houses or ships, he cannot become an agriculturist or a merchant without the use of trees." Recognising its vast importance, the noble science of forestry is to be encouraged by free grants of suitable land, and other inducements besides, being promoted on a large scale as a national undertaking.

Looking for a little at the animals which have been introduced and with which the Province is stocked, sheep rank first in importance. A comparative table of their number, increase, and value of wool, will be found in the Appendix. In no branch of industry has the effort to excel been shown to greater advantage than the flock owners. At large expenditure of money:—which has been handsomely repaid—they have introduced from all the famed quarter's of the world, the breed of sheep most approved for heaviest fleeces of long-stapled silky wool. Lincoln, Leicester, Merino, Romney Marsh, Cheviot, Southdown, Cotswold, and other noted districts, have all been laid under contribution to bring this enterprise into fame and make it profitable; in both respects the results have been highly satisfactory. In the importation of cattle, an equally honorable exhibition has been displayed. At great cost, prize animals of Short-horn, Ayrshire and other valuable breeds have been brought into the country, so that at every farm-house and station whole "mobs" may be seen—beasts of which any man might be proud. In horses, Otago far sur- page 33 passes any other part of the Colony. Finer animals can no where he met with. Stud sires and dams have been brought from Britain, Victoria, and Tasmania, and their progeny would be a credit to any country. Whilst the Clydesdale is the favorite with the agriculturists and teamsters, other sorts have not been neglected, so that thoroughbreds, roadsters, and hacks, are well up to the mark. The current prices of stock will be found elsewhere.

Domestic animals having been fairly established, the love of sport has induced the introduction of those of a wild nature. Rabbits have become as great a nuisance as rats. Hares are located in a few districts, and will ere long be common enough. Deer may be seen in a few localities, and are steadily increasing, so that "stalking" may be a sport not far removed as regards time. Licences are now issued to shoot cock pheasants, and coveys of partridges and other game are frequently to be seen. Trout fishing may be enjoyed in a large number of streams, where in former times, no other fish than eels had possession. Large sums have been expended in efforts to introduce salmon, but up to this time, from various causes, success has not attended them. Other experiments are again to be made: it is to be hoped with more favorable results. The coaststeem with a large variety of fish of first-rate quality; the herring and salmon are wanted to complete the collection.