THE WAY TO GET RICH.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3252, 3 December 1881, Page 4

THE WAY TO GET RICH.

The gentleman who proposes to start ostrich farming in New Zealand should be " in for a good thing," if the following extract from the London Globe is to be believed :—" Buy a cock bird and two hens, and there you are, established in lite with a property sure to yield ever-increasing profits. Some one—never mind the identity of the lucky person —tried the experiment a few years back, with the most wonderful results. He had, however, an ' artificial incubator,' as well as the three birds, and that, of course, made a difference. In his first year, 188 eggs were produced, and 133 chicks hatched out. Eighteen of these died, but 14 fetched £16 each when only three months old, and the remaining 41 are believed to have been sold at £12 a piece. The total monetary return was, therefore, over £1,600, which is not bad for a beginning. But if, instead of selling the chicks, they had been retained for breeding purposes, and if each three had done as well as the parent birds, and if the process had been repeated every hatching-out, the owner would by this time have become a millionaire. True, the value of ostrich chicks has fallen considerably during the last two or three years, but mature birds seem still to command a remunerative price, for wo read in another Cape paper that a couple lately killed by accident were considered worth £300. If, therefore, the maintenance of ostriches is not exceptionally costly, it ought to pay well to keep chicks until full grown. But there must be a weak point in the industry somewhere, or why should South African capital embark in such risky ventures as diamond and gold mines when there is this magnificent opening presenting itself ?"