Five Years in New Zealand / 1859 to 1864

Run--Scab-C--'s Dep

something like half a farthing an acre. This would only be the goodwill of the land, which was liable to be purchased outright by anybody else direct from Government, at the upset price fixed, which in Nelson was one pound per acre for hilly la

erty. A run so divided and cut up would not be so tempting to a rich man, and would effectually debar the man of small means, as the present occupier would not sell his private property unless at a price which would reimburse him for the loss of his interest in

atch and burn all clean to the roots, and after a few showers of rain the grass will begin to sprout from the burnt stumps. Then the sheep are turned on to it, and the cropping, tramping, and manuring it receives

rdinarily fair sheep-run calculated to carry one sheep to every five acres-that is, of course, for the native or in

er 1,000 acres, failing which he forfeits his claim to possession. A man holding a fairly good run of 30,000 acres may

s being kept separate from the ewes and lambs, and occupying different portions of the run, the object be

e it is his duty to walk or ride round his boundary at least once a day, and see that no sheep have cross

ess he wishes to discover their actual whereabouts; he has only to assure himself that they have not left the run, a

to our winter in England. The usual increase of lambs, if the ewes be healthy

ed earmark of the station, and a certain number of the most approved male lambs are reserved. A good hand can cut and mark two thousand lambs per day, and not over one per cent

considerable time. These animals will run up the most inaccessible places, skirt the edges of precipices at a height at which they can be discovered only by the aid of a telescope, and have been known to maintain their freedom in spite of man or dog for years. When at le

price being ￡1 to ￡1 5s. per hundred sheep. Each man has his pen, which is cleared out and refilled as often as necessary, and at each clearance the number therein are coun

undred sheep in a day, the ave

ed over to the sorter, who spreads it upon a table and removes dirty and jagged parts, and somet

ne hundred fleeces, and each fleece runs from three to four pounds in weight. The lamb

give exit to the bale when pressed. The pressing is done by the feet, assisted by a blunt spade, and the bales are generally very creditably turned out, the sheep-farmer pr

ing stream and roughly washed, to remove sand and grease. Wool certified

came so general that it was considered almost impossible to eradicate. The disease was most infectious. A mob of clean,

ellow scaly substance, the wool falls off or is rubbed off in patches, the disease causing i

nst its spreading. Every station was provided with a scab yard and a tank in which the flocks were periodically bathed in hot tobacco water, and such animals as were un

ome of his neighbour's, and the strictest precauti

es the most interesting part of the working of the run. The cutting seaso

d all found. But C--, on the plea that the pay was too small, refused it. This was his great mistake, to refuse what ninety-nine men in a hundred would have jumped at in his circumstances! It would have been the first step on the ladder, and with h

ork together, and had he had some other chum perhaps he might have agreed with the new life better, and turned out a successful colo

d come all the way from the Old Country to work and stick together. I thought it then hard of C--, although I had no right to expect him to stay in New Zealand in opposition to his own wishes and

om the nearest station (Rutherford's), but of the exact direction of which I was not certain. However, I had been long enough in the country to have passed more than one night in the open air, and at the worst this could only happen again, and I was provided with a blanket strapped to my saddle. I was not, how

oolish action in throwing over, after two months' trial, an opportunity

e, resumed his small farm, married, ha

feeling myself a better man and more indepen