Next Morning, I Rode Some Miles Into The Country, And Visited A Farm.
Found The Inmates (Two Brothers) At Dinner.
Cold boiled mutton and
bread, and cold tea without milk, poured straight from a huge kettle in
which it is made every morning, seem the staple commodities.
No
potatoes - nothing hot. They had no servant, and no cow. The bread,
which was very white, was made by the younger. They showed me, with
some little pleasure, some of the improvements they were making, and
told me what they meant to do; and I looked at them with great respect.
These men were as good gentlemen, in the conventional sense of the word,
as any with whom we associate in England - I daresay, de facto, much
better than many of them. They showed me some moa bones which they had
ploughed up (the moa, as you doubtless know, was an enormous bird, which
must have stood some fifteen feet high), also some stone Maori battle-
axes. They bought this land two years ago, and assured me that, even
though they had not touched it, they could get for it cent per cent upon
the price which they then gave.
CHAPTER IV
Sheep on Terms, Schedule and Explanation - Investment in Sheep-run - Risk
of Disease, and Laws upon the Subject - Investment in laying down Land in
English Grass - In Farming - Journey to Oxford - Journey to the Glaciers -
Remote Settlers - Literature in the Bush - Blankets and Flies - Ascent of
the Rakaia - Camping out - Glaciers - Minerals - Parrots - Unexplored Col -
Burning the Flats - Return.
February 10, 1860. - I must confess to being fairly puzzled to know what
to do with the money you have sent me. Everyone suggests different
investments. One says buy sheep and put them out on terms. I will
explain to you what this means. I can buy a thousand ewes for 1250
pounds; these I should place in the charge of a squatter whose run is
not fully stocked (and indeed there is hardly a run in the province
fully stocked). This person would take my sheep for either three, four,
five, or more years, as we might arrange, and would allow me yearly 2s.
6d. per head in lieu of wool. This would give me 2s. 6d. as the yearly
interest on 25s. Besides this he would allow me 40 per cent per annum
of increase, half male, and half female, and of these the females would
bear increase also as soon as they had attained the age of two years;
moreover, the increase would return me 2s. 6d. per head wool money as
soon as they became sheep. At the end of the term, my sheep would be
returned to me as per agreement, with no deduction for deaths, but the
original sheep would be, of course, so much the older, and some of them
being doubtless dead, sheep of the same age as they would have been will
be returned in their place.
I will subjoin a schedule showing what 500 ewes will amount to in seven
years; we will date from January, 1860, and will suppose the yearly
increase to be one-half male and one-half female.
We will suppose that the ewes have all two teeth to start with - two
teeth indicate one year old, four teeth two years, six teeth three
years, eight teeth (or full mouthed) four years. For the edification of
some of my readers as ignorant as I am myself upon ovine matters, I may
mention that the above teeth are to be looked for in the lower jaw and
not the upper, the front portion of which is toothless. The ewes, then,
being one year old to start with, they will be eight years old at the
end of seven years. I have only, however, given you so long a term that
you may see what would be the result of putting out sheep on terms
either for three, four, five, six, or seven years, according as you
like. Sheep at eight years old will be in their old age: they will
live nine or ten years - sometimes more, but an eight-year-old sheep
would be what is called a broken-mouthed creature; that is to say, it
would have lost some of its teeth from old age, and would generally be
found to crawl along at the tail end of the mob; so that of the 2582
sheep returned to me, 500 would be very old, 200 would be seven years
old, 200 six years old. All these would pass as old sheep, and not
fetch very much; one might get about 15s. a head for the lot all round.
Perhaps, however, you might sell the 200 six years old with the younger
ones. Not to overestimate, count these 700 old sheep as worth nothing
at all, and consider that I have 1800 sheep in prime order, reckoning
the lambs as sheep (a weaned lamb being worth nearly as much as a full-
grown sheep). Suppose these sheep to have gone down in value from 25s.
a head to 10s., and at the end of my term I realise 900 pounds. Suppose
that of the wool money I have only spent 62 pounds 10s. per annum, i.e.
ten per cent on the original outlay, and that I have laid by the
remainder of the wool money.
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