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Produce of Sheep.
The annual consumption of sheep for food, judging from the data already referred to in the case of cattle, will be from two to three sheep for each person. The average price, according to the returns, ranged from 4s 6d for fat lambs and 5s for fat sheep up to 12s. The average value of sheep frozen was 12s, from which we must deduct the cost of freezing, and to which we must add the value of the fleece. The one will fully counterbalance the other; but the average seems to me so high that I will not adopt it, but will put frozen sheep by themselves and allow only 6s, or one-half of that, for the general run of sheep killed. The value
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of a fat sheep being taken at this figure, and the average life of sheep excluding ewes being not over four years, the annual increase in value, exclusive of wool, will be put sufficiently low at 1s. It will be much more than that for lambs, but in the case of old sheep it will be nothing at all, or in extreme cases a minus quantity. About one-sixth of the ewes will be killed, and their value for boiling down may be put at 2s.
The produce of sheep will then stand thus—
| 1,300,000 sheep for local consumption, at 6s |
390,000 |
| Sheep frozen, from export returns |
288,000 |
| One sixth of ewes at 2s |
100,000 |
| Annual increase in value of remainder (excluding ewes and sheep killed) 8,500,000 at 1s |
425,000 |
|
£1,203,000 |
As in the case of cattle, this result is certainly lower than it ought to be. It only accounts altogether for 2,800,000 sheep, which is but a sixth of the number in existence.
Pastoral Produce, 1886—New Zealand.
| Nature of Produce. |
Estimates Value. |
| Milk, butter, and cheese (equal to £5 a cow) |
£1,440,000 |
| Cattle killed and increase in value of remainder |
1,156,009 |
| Sheep killed and increase in value of remainder |
1,203,000 |
| Pigs, half of total number, at £1 each |
135,000 |
| Increase of horses, 30 per cent, of total |
75,000 |
| Wool exported (Customs value) |
3,072,971 |
| Wool used in Colony, from returns of manufacturers for 1885 |
67,679 |
| Total |
£7,149,000 |
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Victoria, 1886 (Mr Hayter's Estimate).
| Nature of Produce. |
Estimated Value. |
| Milk, butter, and cheese from 335,727 milch cows at £8 10s each |
£2,853,679 |
| Estimated value of stock produced in 1885- |
|
| Cattle, 223,818 at £8; calves, 111,909 at £1 10s each |
1,958.107 |
| Sheep, 2,675,100 at 7s 6d each |
1,003,162 |
| Pigs, 72,290 at £2 10s each |
180,725 |
| Horses, 15,430 at £8 each |
123,140 |
| Wool exported in excess of imports |
2,668,063 |
| Wool used in the Colony |
123,860 |
| Total |
£8,911,336 |
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of a fat sheep being taken at this figure, and the average life of sheep excluding ewes being not over four years, the annual increase in value, exclusive of wool, will be put sufficiently low at 1s. It will be much more than that for lambs, but in the case of old sheep it will be nothing at all, or in extreme cases a minus quantity. About one-sixth of the ewes will be killed, and their value for boiling down may be put at 2s.