NEW INDUSTRIES FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3102, 7 June 1881, Page 4

NEW INDUSTRIES FOR NEW ZEALAND.

A contemporary in a well-considered paper discusses the prospects of tea and eilk culture if introduced into New Zealand, and with so much cogency that it seems likely these industries will soon be undertaken there on a large scale. The climate nnd all the conditions are apparently very favourable to both. The mulberry tree thrives well, especially about Auckland, and would probably, if largely grown in the colony, prosper even better than in China. In that country the silk harvest lasts about six weeks, during which seven broods of worms, or " educations," as they are technically termed, come to maturity. Owing to the superiority of the New Zenland climate the silk harvests would be more copious and probably longer. But in no case could it be extended beyond three months. It is on this account that thos" interested in the question suggest that tea culture should be carried on concurrently with that of the silkworm and his favorite tree. Here, again, the conditions are most favorable. It is alleged that parts of Auckland greatly resemble the districts of China in which these industries prosper most. Although the point is not proved, tea ought to grow well in the former, because the mulberry does, and Oriental scientists have laid it down as a rule that " where the mulberry grows freely, there tea will also thrive." The short silk harvest at an end the same employes could devote themselves to the tea plant, the cultivation of which with its harvest would follow the silk season and occupy the remaining six or eight months of the year. Both trades would probably prove very remunerative : that of silk at once for export, that of tea more slowly, as the plants would require at least four years to come to maturity, but when ftdly developed the supply would no doubt be easily and quickly absorbed by colonial demands.