James Beattie

GEDCOM Note

General Road Board Highcliff
James Beattie, Honorary Inspector of Works
Robert Baird, Clerk

Peninsula Agricultural and Pastoral Society
Robet Braid (1878, 1879, 1880) , Committee
James Beattie(1880, 1881, 1882), Committee

In 1871, about a third of the Otago Peninsula had been divided into farms, many too steep and too small to profitably grow crops or farm sheep.
Instead, the mostly Scottish settlers had dairy cows, with a stocking rate of about one per hectare. Of mixed breeding, known as “colonial cows” but mostly Ayrshire the breed was believed tough enough to forage the hill country. 
Fresh milk was sold in Dunedin for four pence per quart in the summer and five pence per quart in winter but for many the roads between their farm and the town were too bad for a horse and cart. Butter kept for longer and was easier to transport.