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 1250pounds;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 40per 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 500ewes 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 2582sheep returned to me,500would be very old,200would be seven years old,200six 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 200six years old with the younger ones.Not to overestimate,count these 700old sheep as worth nothing at all,and consider that I have 1800sheep 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 900pounds.Suppose that of the wool money I have only spent 62pounds 10s.per annum,i.e.
ten per cent on the original outlay,and that I have laid by the remainder of the wool money.I shall have from the wool money a surplus of 630pounds (some of which should have been making ten per cent interest for some time);that is to say,my total receipts for the sheep should be at the least 1530pounds.Say that the capital had only doubled itself in the seven years,the investment could not be considered a bad one.The above is a bona-fide statement of one of the commonest methods of investing money in sheep.I cannot think from all I have heard that sheep will be lower than 10s.a head,still some place the minimum value as low as 6s.{3}
The question arises,What is to be done with one's money when the term is out?I cannot answer;yet surely the colony cannot be quite used up in seven years,and one can hardly suppose but that,even in that advanced state of the settlement,means will not be found of investing a few thousand pounds to advantage.
The general recommendation which I receive is to buy the goodwill of a run;this cannot be done under about 100pounds for every thousand acres.Thus,a run of 20,000acres will be worth 2000pounds.Still,if a man has sufficient capital to stock it well at once,it will pay him,even at this price.We will suppose the run to carry 10,000sheep.
