WANTS OF THE COLONY.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 41, 24 September 1857, Page 3

WANTS OF THE COLONY.

Under tins head Captain Cooper, in the 20th ‘Chapter of lais recently published book on New Zea) and, enumerates 'the founding good schools; the acquirement of a sufficiency of land from the Natives; the rendering of the land available for purchase, by having it at once surveyed and opened up by roads and bridges ; and the furtherance of improved postal arrangements by increased steam communication with the neighbouring colonies, and interprovkicial communication with the inland -■districts.” To this list of wants-many additions might be made. Indeed the wants of the Colony are .-so numerous that Mr. Routine sesmsbewildered, •at the bare contemplation of them. Their name' is Legion. One of them might be so easily ■•and profitably supplied, 'that we are surprised ttliat Captain'Cooper did omit all mention of it. We mean the wan't'of organized fisheries. Whales abound near our coasts. Not long ®inee, speaking with an old settler,, he said, tfihat to take measures for catching those monsters of the deep was of mere importance to us sthan -even ite take measures for the discovery <df gold. We decline, at present, to discuss the comparative "value of gold and oil as articles of ■export ; but it is'certain that thousands of tons of oil might every year be shipped from Auckland alone, if our rulers, or our capitalists, co®ld be induced to fit out whale ships. For something like £lo,'ooo. three good whalers might be made available. All the cxjpences attendant upon long voyages would be avoided. We should mot have to seek for whales fourteen or fifteen .thousand miles from ■our own shores; and our rships would not be exposed to anything like the hazard incurred by whalers from Europe or America. There is no deficiency-of material for immediate and successful operation. Ships can be bought or built. We have rope makers, sail makers, and ship carpenters of our own. Maories are excellent whalers. Old captains of whalers say that they would prefer a crew of Maories to any other. When it is proposed to prepare cotton or .flax for the European market objections are raised on the ground that dearness of New Zealand labor renders impossible any competition with the cotton of India or the hemp of Russia. But the oil and

bone of whales are all our own. No people in any part of the known world can compete with us in their production. We are g’ad to see our contemporary, the New Zealander, exerting its influence in a sense favorable to the production of such valuable exports as flax and cotton. Without doubt they are eminently worthy of attention ; but we trust the duy is not far distant when attention will be directed to the importance of that oil and whalebone export to which reference has here been made.

Exports are our great want. Ere long we hope to see a large exportation of flax. We have abundance of ravt material ; and the machine, for which we are indebted to Mr. Cox, will make that material commercially valuable. Nor is it idle to expect that the cotton of New Zealand should ere long compete in European markets with the cotton of India; but the oil and bone of whales are commodities we are peculiarly interested iu. While able to monopolize them without injustice we can dispose of them with profit.