Overview
European settlers began farming animals in New Zealand around the 1840s. Sheep farming soon took off in the Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay and Marlborough where the countryside was open and rolling. Māori helped Pākehā farmers by supplying them with food, labour, and building materials, as well as leasing them land.
Sheep farming extended south in the 1850s, and by 1858 there were 1.5 million sheep in this country. By 1867 the figure had risen to 8.5 million!
Wool briefly became our leading export in the late 1850s. At first sheep farmers were almost guaranteed wealth. However, within ten years most of the cheap, accessible land and native pasture were gone and farmers had to invest heavily to maintain their returns. They had to fence, mechanise their operations, introduce new grasses, improve sheep breeds and buy freehold land. Some farmers went under, but others – those with good land, low debt, and access to capital or credit – continued to do well.
Small towns sprang up across the country to service the farming industry, and people were employed building fences, shepherding and shearing.
Pastoralism's products – wool and frozen meat – became staples of the New Zealand economy in the late nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, dairying and mixed farming increased. And although specialist wool growing declined, it remained an important part of our economy, as it is to this day.
Among the families who grew prosperous by sheep farming is the Pharazyn/Elgar clan of Wairarapa. Ella Elgar built up a valuable collection of antiques which she gifted to The Dominion Museum in 1945. Many of these fine pieces are currently on display.
Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database (1998).