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has retarded its complete eradication. Fears need not, I think, be entertained of this disease being brought across our northern frontier by sheep, as many natural impediments exist which almost preclude the possibility of sheep straying from Turanga into this province. Too much vigilance, however, cannot be exercised by settlers, to guard against the unconscious introduction of scab by shearers or new station hands from infected districts, whose clothes or wrappings round their shear-handles might convey the live acari or the dormant ova of such. The driving or disposal of sheep from a clean to an infected district within certain limits, is also to be deprecated, as some of the sheep will in all probability endeavour to stray back, and may carry infection in their track. This is especially the case with rams, which, if practicable, invariably try to get back to the run they have been bred or reared on. I have no doubt most, if not all, flockmasters are well aware of this; but these objectionable contingencies are apt to be lost sight of in the hurry of shearing or chance disposal of sheep.

There have been 350 sheep imported into the province during the last twelve months, as against 50 for the corresponding period of 1867-68; and I am advised of 250 more to arrive within the next week. These sheep are all merinos, imported for stud purposes, and comprise many valuable animals selected or descended from the stud flocks of Learmonth, Currie, and other eminent breeders in the Australian colonies. This is a step in the right direction, that will tend not a little to improve the breed of our sheep; and it is to be hoped that care will be taken to select ewes for them worthy of their services.

The exports for the last twelve months have been about 30,000, chiefly wethers, which have been absorbed by the Auckland market. By the returns of last May, there were 425,000 ewes, and 288,639 wethers and rams, making a total of 713,639 sheep in the Province at that date, which, with the addition of the last spring lambing, would swell the number to about 900,000 sheep in the province at the present time. This number is probably under the mark, as I daresay in filling in the returns the sheep are not over-estimated.

While it is gratifying to observe the improved condition of the sheep this summer, compared with last year, I cannot congratulate the sheep owners generally on any marked improvement in the quality of their flocks. The superior condition of the sheep this summer is entirely owing to the unusually favourable season we have had, and not to there being fewer sheep to feed, and it should not be overlooked that a continuance of such weather cannot always be relied upon.

A few of the stations have adopted the hot water and spouting system of sheep-washing this year, and in most cases considerable success has been achieved. I have seen some of the samples washed in this manner which would bear favourable comparison with the brightest wool from a scouring establishment, and I believe this system of sheep washing would have been more generally adopted this year but for the paucity of shearers, and the want of confidence felt in being able to complete their shearing without interruption. This is engaging much attention, and I believe the pecuniary results, to those who have attained to any great degree of success, will prove most satisfactory. Yet I imagine unless we shear much earlier in the season, before the dust rises and the grass and other seeds ripen, and devote more care and attention to the classing of the wool before it is put in the bales—not until this is done, do I believe will the benefits to be derived from this improved system of wool washing be either fully realized or appreciated. Let us hope to see this system pursued and extended year by year until river washing and greasy clips will be the exception, and not the rule as it now is.

I have endeavoured to ascertain what has been the annual average increase of lambs and rate of mortality in the flocks of the province during the last two years, and the result of my observations and inquiries would induce me to place the former at about 50 per cent., and the latter not less than 8 per cent. Many of the short musters—which, by the way, are on the increase every year—are put down as missing, and hopes expressed that they will turn up from some part of the run, or out of the adjoining flocks next muster; but very few of those missing sheep ever do turn up. The poor lambings and high rate of mortality are attributable to the same causes, overstocking and old age. As very few of the flocks have been subjected to periodical culling, or indeed ever have been culled at all, there are necessarily a large proportion of old and weakly sheep among them; many ewes reckoned as breeding are too old to breed or rear lambs, and die off each succeeding winter.

My impression is that we have already reached, if not gone beyond, the carrying capacity of the province as a whole, in its yet very partially improved state. That such is the case I venture to think few practical men who have travelled about the province during the last two years will deny. The very small number of fat sheep is, I think, sufficient proof that such is the case. If so, there is a stern necessity either to check or stop breeding, or to reduce the number of sheep. I brought this subject prominently forward in my last report, and had hoped to have seen the suggestions then offered more generally adopted. I do not know that I could urge more cogent reasons for reducing our worthless stock now, than I did last year, except that there will be so many more to get rid of. Hitherto we have bred for numbers—at least that has been the rule. This rule is not however of universal application; we have generally bred from every ewe that would breed—not very particular either as to what kind of rams we bred from; and in many cases have so overstocked as to depreciate wool, carcase, and constitution. This procedure must be entirely changed. We have not now an outlet for our surplus stock, and to make stations pay we must reduce the stock considerably, and breed for quality; and, with a due consideration to the carrying capacity of runs, all the profitless sheep from every station ought to be boiled down or otherwise disposed of, at whatever they will bring. If not, there will be poorer lambings this coming spring, and a higher rate of