LAND AND FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 326, 2 September 1879, Page 3

LAND AND FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND.

WeJiaye received a copy of a substantial pamphlet bearing this title, and edited by Sir Julius Vogel. The work is published in London, and is intended to give people at home, and especially farmers and farm laborers " information respecting the mode of acquir'ng land in New Zealand ; with particulars as to farming, wages, prices of provisions, &c. in that colony ; also, the Land Acts of 1877." A mass of most valuable information is to be found in its pages, and the volume ought to have the effect of clearing away a good deal of the mist of prejudice which envelopes this colony in the old country, and inducing a valuable class of immigrants to our shores. Original papers and statistical documents occupy a large portion of the space, but perhaps the most interesting to a colonist are the letters from immigrants and visitors recording their first impressions. Here is an extract from a letter to the Daily News, written from Nelson :— " Wishing to see the English agriculturist at home in the country of his adoption, I accepted an invitation to spend a few days in a " bush " farm some twenty miles distant from Nelson city. A railway of a very elementary character took me about

seventeen iriiles of the distance, and the good farmer ccnveyed me. the temaining three miles in his primitive vehicle. I wish I could'give a fair description of this roniiuiliv.' region. I found my friend's honin to ct)ij>i t of a four room, shanty, situated in a valley surrounded with lofty hills. If he; had ever bc-n guilty of the sentiinentiil longing for" a lodge;in .some wilderness*" ho rim.-t at last have his quest.. Nothing -could be more in-tensely.-lovely. His farm consisted of about a thousand a<rcs. and he had only just entered upon it. The immense hills all around formed a part of his and there, nibbling away at the short grass, and more than half hidden among the thick underwood, furze, fern, &c.," were his sheep and cows.- After .a short rest* we mounted a couple of small horses, and proceeded to look over the es?tate. Along narrow tracks we wended our ways oyer hills and valleys, through romantic rifts and besjjide trickling streams. Occasionally the thick bush altogether shut, out the ■sun's rays for a quarter of an hour or more, i and none but well-trained horses could possibly have threaded their ways through such strange intricacies. I need haiflly dwell on the exquisite enjoyment of the ramble. I found . myself, repeatedly asking the question, " Why do not some of those martyrs to dyspepsia and nervous affections in England just take their carpet-bags in hand, and step on board the Cuzco, and in a couple of months' time find themselves in some such splendid .sanitarium as this ?" After an hour's ride we came upon a neighboring farmhouse of a much better character than my friend's. Here we pulled up, and paid a visit to the orchard. Happily the wild cherries were just ripe, although the cultivated ones were pretty well over. Nothing could exceed the lavish luxuriance of the crop. Scores of trees were laden with delicious fruit. ' Every farm appeals to have a number of these wild cherry trees —a fruit closely resembling the English " May Dukej" only with a slightly bitter smack. For cooking purposes they are superior to the English cherries. They are so plentiful as to be a drug in the market. Indeed, they do not pay to gather, and in this orchard there will probably he several hundred pounds weight left on the trees to spoil. I saw a fine tree of cultured cherries—the English " black heart" only half picked, the boughs being ftill laden with dried-up fruit. It is simply marvellous how lavish nature seems in the bestowment of her gifts in this-bright and sunny region. But the English laborer amid it all, how fared he? Well, there" was one not a hundred yards of£ mowing hay. I soon interviewed him, and found his position very independent. He had his own home and small farm, a cow or two, a few sheep, and three or four acres, of lar.d. There was plenty of feed all around for his live stock. When he wanted money he could always get a few days' work at one or other of the farms, and altogether the man seemed about as free from care and anxiety as the sheep and cows around him. lam afraid the level of his existence was not far removed from that of his daily associates. Your colonial settler's life is sadly material. His whole energies are spent in subjugating nature—clearing bush, and conquering brutes. English fanners, with their compact holdings, their snug cow-sheds, their roomy stables, their fenced-in meadows, and their numerous hands, know nothing of the terrible exigencies of these lonely bush farms. Every now and then a wandering fit seizes upon the live stock, and away they go for miles over the interminable hills. Only yesterday I was asked to join the farmer's son in a pursuit after a couple of runaway horses. We mounted our steeds and away we went, through the wildest, most rugged, and most picturesque scenery that I over read of. About four miles off we found the quadrupeds munching away at a splendid field of clover, evidently enjoying it all the more because it was stolen. Another day it would be the sheep into whom the demons had entered, and over the mountains would they go and be well-nigh lost in the thick scrub. A stout lad, about such a one as an English farmer would give eight shillings a week to and grumble at the imposition, was kept well employed at eighteen shillings per week with a clever dog in guarding these wandering sheep."