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CHAPTER XXI. 



STOCKING AND SCOUR. 



THE difference between Tutira of '82 and Tutira of 1920 is the 

 difference between youth and age : the face of the one smooth, that 

 of the other wrinkled and lined. In the early days of the station 

 its surface was unmarked by paths ; now it is seamed with tracks. 

 Before the arrival of the European with his domesticated breeds of 

 animals, save for a few Maori footpaths the station was an untrodden 

 wild : it was without path or track in the language of Scripture, 

 void ; its surface is now a network of lines ; it is reticulated, like 

 the rind of a Cantaloupe melon. 



In a previous chapter surface alterations of a minor kind, con- 

 sequent on the stocking of land, have been considered ; in this we 

 can explain briefly certain larger effects. A single sentence one is 

 sufficient will make clear to the reader what has occurred : the 

 countryside has been transformed from a sponge to a slate. In this 

 vast change the sheep, modilying the run with subconscious care to 

 his peculiar requirements, has been the prime artificer. Nor, more- 

 over, are these operations local; everywhere the flocks of the colony 

 are transforming it with teeth and toes, crumbling it towards the 

 sea. To visualise the magnitude of the general effect, the reader has 

 but to compare the size of Tutira with that of New Zealand, the 

 numbers of the Tutira flock with the number of sheep in the 

 Dominion. He can then in part picture the alterations consequent 

 on the importation of stock. This, however, is the story, not 

 of New Zealand, but of Tutira; except to follow to the sea one of 

 the rivers that rises in its hinterland otherwise I could not illustrate 

 ultimate results of scour I shall confine myself as always to facts 



