I Cannot Doubt,
Therefore, That It Is Both A Good And Safe Investment Of Money.
My
crude notion concerning it is, that it is more permanent and less
remunerative.
In this I may be mistaken, but I am certain it is a thing
which might very easily be made a mess of by an inexperienced person;
whilst many men, who have known no more about sheep than I do, have made
ordinary sheep farming pay exceedingly well. I may perhaps as well say,
that land laid down in English grass is supposed to carry about five or
six sheep to the acre; some say more and some less. Doubtless, somewhat
will depend upon the nature of the soil, and as yet the experiment can
hardly be said to have been fully tried. As for farming as we do in
England, it is universally maintained that it does not pay; there seems
to be no discrepancy of opinion about this. Many try it, but most men
give it up. It appears as if it were only bona-fide labouring men who
can make it answer. The number of farms in the neighbourhood of Christ
Church seems at first to contradict this statement; but I believe the
fact to be, that these farms are chiefly in the hands of labouring men,
who had made a little money, bought land, and cultivated it themselves.
These men can do well, but those who have to buy labour cannot make it
answer. The difficulty lies in the high rate of wages.
February 13. - Since my last I have been paying a visit of a few days at
Kaiapoi, and made a short trip up to the Harewood Forest, near to which
the township of Oxford is situated. Why it should be called Oxford I do
not know.
After leaving Rangiora, which is about 8 miles from Kaiapoi, I followed
the Harewood road till it became a mere track, then a footpath, and then
dwindled away to nothing at all. I soon found myself in the middle of
the plains, with nothing but brown tussocks of grass before me and
behind me, and on either side. The day was rather dark, and the
mountains were obliterated by a haze. "Oh the pleasure of the plains,"
I thought to myself; but, upon my word, I think old Handel would find
but little pleasure in these. They are, in clear weather, monotonous
and dazzling; in cloudy weather monotonous and sad; and they have little
to recommend them but the facility they afford for travelling, and the
grass which grows upon them. This, at least, was the impression I
derived from my first acquaintance with them, as I found myself steering
for the extremity of some low downs about six miles distant. I thought
these downs would never get nearer. At length I saw a tent-like object,
dotting itself upon the plain, with eight black mice as it were in front
of it. This turned out to be a dray, loaded with wool, coming down from
the country. It was the first symptom of sheep that I had come upon,
for, to my surprise, I saw no sheep upon the plains, neither did I see
any in the whole of my little excursion. I am told that this
disappoints most new-comers. They are told that sheep farming is the
great business of Canterbury, but they see no sheep; the reason of this
is, partly because the runs are not yet a quarter stocked, and partly
because the sheep are in mobs, and, unless one comes across the whole
mob, one sees none of them. The plains, too, are so vast, that at a
very short distance from the track, sheep will not be seen. When I came
up to the dray, I found myself on a track, reached the foot of the
downs, and crossed the little River Cust. A little river, brook or
stream, is always called a creek; nothing but the great rivers are
called rivers. Now clumps of flax, and stunted groves of Ti palms and
other trees, began to break the monotony of the scene. Then the track
ascended the downs on the other side of the stream, and afforded me a
fine view of the valley of the Cust, cleared and burnt by a recent fire,
which extended for miles and miles, purpling the face of the country, up
to the horizon. Rich flax and grass made the valley look promising, but
on the hill the ground was stony and barren, and shabbily clothed with
patches of dry and brown grass, surrounded by a square foot or so of
hard ground; between the tussocks, however, there was a frequent though
scanty undergrowth which might furnish support for sheep, though it
looked burnt up.
I may as well here correct an error, which I had been under, and which
you may, perhaps, have shared with me - native grass cannot be mown.
After proceeding some few miles further, I came to a station, where,
though a perfect stranger, and at first (at some little distance)
mistaken for a Maori, I was most kindly treated, and spent a very
agreeable evening. The people here are very hospitable; and I have
received kindness already upon several occasions, from persons upon whom
I had no sort of claim.
Next day I went to Oxford, which lies at the foot of the first ranges,
and is supposed to be a promising place. Here, for the first time, I
saw the bush; it was very beautiful; numerous creepers, and a luxuriant
undergrowth among the trees, gave the forest a wholly un-European
aspect, and realised, in some degree, one's idea of tropical vegetation.
It was full of birds that sang loudly and sweetly. The trees here are
all evergreens, and are not considered very good for timber. I am told
that they have mostly a twist in them, and are in other respects not
first rate.
* * *
March 24. - At last I have been really in the extreme back country, and
positively, right up to a glacier.
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