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I will now pass on to the condition of the flocks, and make some remarks thereon, preserving experiments which have called forth such earnest attention and spirited efforts in the other colonies, prove successful and remunerative; we must still bear in mind that it will only be fit sheep that will be eligible for this outlet. I feel convinced that, unless this system of overstocking is checked, it will prove most disastrous in its results, and will tend not a little to engender some virulent and fatal disease that will thin the teeming flocks, and believe that it is mainly owing to our dry and genial climate that some such disease has not ere this made its appearance in some of the flocks.

I trust to see shearing operations commenced a little earlier this year, and an advantage taken of the ensuing season to cull out and boil down all unprofitable sheep (if no better market is offered for them). In furtherance of this object, I would suggest that, preliminary to the sheep going into the shearing shed, they should be passed through the drafting alley, and all old wethers and ewes, weakly-constitutioned, light-woolled sheep, and mongrels, of whatever age or sex, should be carefully and unsparingly chosen, and a distinguishing mark put on them—say a touch of paint or ruddle down the face—and immediately after being shorn or before leaving the yards, a more permanent and legible cull brand or mark, and all disposed of, fat and lean, so soon after shearing as possible. As sheep are more disposed to fatten immediately after shearing, those who shear early would, I apprehend, find a tolerably good market for them in the low districts, where feed is so abundant in the spring and early summer that it is to a great extent wasted for want of sufficient stock to keep it down.

It must not be forgotten that we have now arrived at that stage when a large number of store sheep must be sold for whatever they will bring, in order to be able to fatten the residue of the flocks, and give the really profitable sheep a better chance of proving remunerative to the owners, and is preferable to letting many of them die off in the winter from starvation, as was evinced by the many complaints of light clips and short musters of last shearing. It would also give the grasses on the runs an opportunity of seeding, which many of them show their need of.

This summary disposal of sheep may be objected to, but I cannot divest myself of the conviction that, unless some such course as I have indicated is pursued, Hawke’s Bay will not long retain the character for general excellence of its sheep which it has hitherto enjoyed, and, I may add, which its climate and natural advantages are eminently calculated to promote.

While it is a matter of congratulation to be able to report the flocks free from scab, I notice a marked falling off in the condition and quality of the flocks in general, and could not fail to be impressed with the belief that there are more sheep in the southern district of the province than it is capable of maintaining, even in store condition, in its present state of partial improvement. In nearly every part of the province I visited, the effects of overstocking were plainly visible, both in the aspect of the country and the condition of the sheep—painfully evident, I may say, in the appearance of the latest of the spring lambs, which, owing to the extreme scarcity of spring grass, in consequence of the dry weather setting in so early, were prematurely weaned, very many of the ewes having gone dry for a month or two after lambing. I observe also that the young sheep of many of the flocks are losing that roundness and compactness of form which denote a strong constitution and fattening propensities, and are gradually assuming narrower and more lank proportions, and do not retain that bull or satin hue of countenance which characterise the well-kept merino. It was expected that a large number of sheep would have been boiled down last autumn, but such has not been the case, the best part of the fattening season having passed over before the boiling-down establishment was ready for operations.

Our exports have diminished materially within the last twelve months, and, although there is now a prospect of fat sheep being in demand in the Auckland market, for the Thames diggings, I fear we have not many sheep in the province in sufficiently good condition to take advantage of it.

Although about 30,000 sheep, principally ewes, have been lately absorbed by the Wairarapa, Poverty Bay, and Taupo districts, we cannot reckon on those outlets for the future, and a grave and important question here presents itself—what is to be done with our surplus stock? How is room to be made for the annual crop of lambs? This is a question that vitally affects the interest of the sheep farmers, and indeed the prosperity of the province in general, and should receive that serious consideration and earnest attention which it merits. Hitherto there has been no great necessity for checking breeding, as there was year by year some new country, and other varied and continuous outlets for the surplus stock. This state of things is now at an end, and if any of the meat

I have the honor to be,

Sir,
Your most obedient servant,

G. PEACOCK,
Inspector of Sheep, &c.