The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3019, 28 February 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1881.

Resuming car notice of Dγ Newman's lecture to tt.i working men at WellingtOD, we come to those of our colonial resources—products of our existing industries—that are now neglected Dγ Newman U quite right when he says that hitherto "colonists have had such an abundance of wealth that they have never been obliged seriously to think of ufcjng all their resources, and hence we find then? wasting aii kinds of valuable stuff." Immense waste goes on at every boiling-down establishment, at every sheep station, and in every town, and this waete is directly traceable to the fact that we are too well off to care for what we erroneously term trifles. In his lecture, Dr Newman mentions several articles of commerce that could be manufactured from the products of the boiling down establishments that would be far more profitable than the mere production of common tallow. For instance, two fats, oleine and margarine, might be extracted from tallow, whicb, when purified, are called oleo-margarine, and butterine. This hst is a perfectly nourishing, wholesome compound, free from all unpleasantness of taste or smell. It is largely sold to pastry cooks, confectioners, biscuit makers, and others, and is a cheap and valuable substitute for butter: in fact, in the smaller shops in poor districts it forms a most valuable article of diet to thousands of poor people who cannot afford to pay for butter It is every bit as wholesome and nutritious as suet or dripping, and far more attractive to the palate. At our boiling-down establishments it could easily be made out of the purest fats, and would, as in tbe United States, form a product more remunerative tban mere tallow. If sent home it would meet with a ready sale. Then, again, it is really lamentable, says the doctor, to see in the lists of imports such articles as lard, bacon, cheese, butter, and hams, all of which should be produced in such abundance and so cheaply as not only to supply all our wants, but to be to the colony a large source of wealth, as a leading export. In densely populated countries the struggle for existence necessitates everything being turned to use; and in the height of the commercial depression from which we have been recently suffering it was curious to observe how ; the same laws operated here that are always in operation in old countries. The withdrawal of money from the prosecution of public works threw thousands of persons out of employment, and as a natural consequence men's minds were turned to the development of natural resources. In the large towns the collection of bottles, of old horse-shoes, and other so-called rubbish, was vastly stimulated; in the country the rabbit nuisance found employment for hundreds of men, and the preservation of skins became an established industry. Necessity is well termed the mother of invention. But in spite of the hard times through which we have passed wasteful neglect of the means of wealth is still the chief characteristic of this colony. This fact was prominently brought out by Dγ Newman. It is quite a saddening sight he said to visit our wharf and see one vessel discharging hundreds of cases of salmon, oysters, ling, cod, sarciines, herrings, potted meat, condensed milk, for which thousands of pounds are yearly sent out of the colony whilst the very next ship on the berth is taking away scores and scores of ablebodied men to Newcastle driven out of the colouy by want of work. Our rivers, out lakes, our seas all teem with edible fieh, yet how few are caught! We have these fish at our very doors, our only labour is that of catching and cleaning, yet we send to America and England, we pay other people for doing this easy work, and other people make a profit; many of our workers have left us their wives and children almost starving, while foreign artizaas, and foreign capitalists are living on money that should be spent in the colony. As a most marked instance of our waste, the doctor cited our use of Indian corn. We use the grains chiefly for chickens' tood, but what we should do is to convert part of the grains into hominy, popcorn, and mush, others into polenta, polentina, cornflour, raaizena, oswego, &c. The leaves might te made into paper, and sugar extracted from the stalk in which it largely exists. We, as is our wont, utterly disregard two-thirds of the plant, and use very little of the remaining third. Notwithstanding our vast and valuable forests, we imported £142,000 worth of timber the year before last; and though fruit lies rotting in our prolific orchards, in 1879 the colony imported £67,000 worth of green fruit; jams from England and Tasmania, apples from Hobart Town, dried fruit from the Uuited States, and actually tinned peaches from the same country. We import nearly all our catsup, all our vinegar, and when potatoes were so abundant that no market could be found for them we never dreamt of manufacturing dextrine, glucose, and starch. By fitnpid laws the Government have killed what promised to be two great and valuable industries, distillation of spirits, and the

growth ana manufacture of tobacco. Sir Julius Vogel was the only statesman who paid any attention to the development of the resources of this colony. When he began his great public works shemte, be foresaw the results of his large borrowings, and in speech after Fpeecb, in state paper after state paper, he never wearied of telling us that we must develop our resources. Be said we must preserve our forests, and wanted to foster them by sugar bounties and the establishment of sugar refineries. He wished to establish a cigar factory. He tried to open up business relations with other countries, and was ever on the watch to develop new sources of wealth. His successors adopted and continued his borrowing plans but never dreamt of cultivating new means of acquiring wealth. They allowed no distilleries, prohibited sugar refineries, stopped that promising source of wealth—the production of tobacco, and in Wellington have recently refused to allow any concession to any one wanting to start a cigar factory,-—and all these and other very foolish things they do for the purpose of increasing the consolidated revenue.