The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3689, 11 May 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, MAY 11, 1883.

The May number of the New Zealand Industrial Gazette is more than usually interesting-. Under the heading of local industries" the travelling correspondent of the Gazette gives some particulars ot the hop season 1882-3, which should open our eves to tho fact that, "Sloopy Hollow as itniay be, Nelson is not so sleepy as JJawke's Say. f uT?lio a#ws9U few been

directed to Nelson during the past few months by the extraordinary success of the 1882-3 hop season. No previous season (says the cm respondent) has been anything , like so remunerative to the growers, the A yield having , b?en the most abundant on record, and the price, principally owing te the failure of the English crop last season, alike exceptional. It is true that the full advantage from the rise in price has not been secured by the producers, for many of these sold to speculators long before their crops were in bloom; still the prices realised were even in those cases remunera-

tive, Kinging , from Is Gd to 2s perlb. Those who held on to their hops until the picking season obtained from 2s 6d to 2s 10d, tho latter price being still offered by the merchants for extra good samples. The excellence of those quotations will bo realised when it is borne in mind that the average estimated cost of growing the hops is from 8d to 10d per pound, according to whether the garden.t occupy suburban land, for which a high rent has to be paid, or freeholds iv the countiy. Tho average selling price iv the 1881-2 season was 1h 7d, which wa3 considered very good; and as almost before the crop was harvested several merchants were offering to guarantee to take as many as they cou'.d get of the next crop at a similar price, it was only natural that the old hop growers should try to enlarge their gardens, and that many settlers who had not hitherto " touched hops " should prepare to embark in so promising an industry. The consequence is that the area of hop gardens in the Nelson provincial district this year is set down at 528 acres, as against little move than 300 acres last season. The total yield for the ISB2-3 season was 1350 bales; the total for 1882-3, as far as can be ascertained at present, w.'U be from 2100 to 2200 bales. Mr Good, who possesses the only hydraulic hop pvess in Nelson, had passed through 1426 bales up to the 20th April, and he expected about another 600 bales.

The crops of Messrs Hooper and Dodson, and a few other growers who do not pre. S their hops, ■n i?l make up the total estimate.

The number of bales consumed by the local brewers is under GO, so that almost the whole of the crop is available for export, and is thus the means of bringing an enormous sum of foreign capital into the This year it is estimated that the value of' the hop crop to tho growers is somewhere about £75,000, of which fully £40,000 has gone into the Motueka and Riwaka districts.

The influx of this money, as might be expected, has exercised an important influence upon the condition of the country settlers, who are at present in more affluent circumstances than they have ever been before. To ass'st them in taking charge of their newly acquired wealth the Colonial Bank of New Zealand has just opened a branch establishment at Motueka. Already the lawyers are complaining of the general movement in the direction of paying ■ off mortgages, while the number of new deposit accounts opened at the vaiious banks in town is said to be something astonishing. One of tho most noteworthy features of the past season is the ext v aordinavy results-* obtained from newly planted gardens. In England it is considered very fair if a hop garden begins to show a clear profit at the end of the third rieasdn. In Nelson on the other hand, wo have niunbevless instances of growers who have obtained handsome profits in the first season. One settler at Ta!caka, near Collingwood, bought five acres of ground year for £100, and at once put dowii three acres :i hops. He sold his crop at 2s 9d, which brought him in £600. This has enabled lr'm to pay all expenses, and he has Irs place and £150 to the good. Another settler —Mr John Page • — in the same d'shict got nine bales off three acres of new land, his receipts amounting !;o nearly £350. Another settler put down three acrca Inst year. He came into the town a few days ago and received from tho purchaser of his crop £500. A still more remarkable experience has been that of Charles Barnard, a young settler in the Upper Takaka drstrici, who last seusoii wiili jusfc enough money to buy a couple of acres of ground. Of this he put down I} acres iv hops. No sooner had done this than he found himself stranded for want of money. Going to a neighbouring , storekeeper, Mr H. Abbott, he obtained a few pounds as a loan, and peivnisaion to run a score for his stores on the condition that he allowed Mr Abbott to dispose of a couple of bales of his hops when they were ready for market. With the assistance of a relative who was as badly off as himself, Barnard gave the necessary attention to his croj) which eventually rewarded him with a spendid yield of nine bales. With the3O on a dray he one morning presented himself at Mr Abbott's, and as]:.ed that gentleman to take them into his hands for sale, at the same time telling him tliere was a tidy balance owing to tho pickers which he hoped he (Mr Abbott) would advance. On referring to his books the stora» keeper found that Barnard's account had run to £70. Ascertaining that he wished to settle wlLh his relative to whom he' had promised a tihave of his recoipts, Mr Abbott at once gave Ba'.-mrd a cheque for £150, and told him he world send h'.m the balance, which would probably be another £80 or £90 as soon as he had said the hops. The grower was thunderstruck at h'ea-ing , the amount his hops wove worth, and could only look in a dazed sort of way at the storekeeper and mutter—"To vllink that I should got all this money for that little . patch of hops." A very gpod price was *■ obtained, and the total svm realised, fqi> the 1 : [ acres of new hops was £320, wlu'cty loaves Barnard out of debt, and with a hapdsome balance with which to start tho next season. ...