CHAPTER XXX. 

 SHELTER. 



The need for housing of stock in Australasia is 

 absent, and for this reason Australasia steals a long 

 march on almost any other great pastoral country in 

 the world. Belts of timber or hedges will provide all 

 the shelter that is required at any latitude or any alti- 

 tude. But even such a form of shelter is, in New Zea- 

 land, rather conspicuous for its absence. And too strong 

 a complaint cannot be laid at the pastoralist's door for 

 this, for New Zealand is not an old country, and the 

 pastoralist is pre-occupied with other matters in the 

 shaping of his property from a crude wilderness or forest 

 to a comfortable family belonging, with often not too 

 much money to do it. 



Blessed as New Zealand is in genial climate, it 

 should nevertheless be understood that sensitiveness to 

 weather and season changes is a relative consideration. 

 The Canadian or Russian could sleep out comfortably in 

 our winter, but not after he had resided in the country 

 for some years, much less so his descendants. Similarly 

 with an animal. Under any conditions of climate shelter 

 is a necessity. No race of human beings exists without 

 a sheltering habitation, and all animals by natural 

 choice avail themselves of the use of shelter against un- 

 favourable conditions, severe or slight. There is a 

 finesse a.bout comfort and thrift at any time. In the 

 lower scale of nature, too, down to the tree or grass, 

 shelter is arranged for one way or another; the large 

 tree has the shelter of the smaller ones, and the small 

 that of the large ones, and grasses shelter one another. 

 But the domesticated animal has often no choice in the 



