Feilding Star. SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1886. Local Industry

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 30, 21 August 1886, Page 2

Feilding Star. SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1886. Local Industry

In order to show what the settleru on the Manchester BloGk contribute to the general products of the colony, we have made the following compilation of its exports tor the year ended March 31, 18S6. The items do not include what has been expended in local consumption, but only what has been sent away by rail : — Timber . 4,000,000 ft, value £16,000 Wool .. 213,84011)9.7(1,, 6,237 Gram .. 4,520 bush. „ 673 Snoop . 600 head „ 300 Pigs . . 323 head „ 175 Chaff . . 75 tone „ 150 Butter, Choose, Bacon, Fungus, Fruit, Honor, Hides; Tallow, &c, 316 tons, £20 6,320 £29,855 The total population of the Manchester Road Board district — inclnding the Borough ©f Feilding — is only 8308, so that the total exports represents an average of £9 per head. Our object in laying these figures before our readers is to enable them to judge where expansion of the several industries may be successfully attempted. The staple industry being the timber trade, it necesßarilly follows that is the first to be considered. We feel convinced that with certain concessions in freight, the amount exported could be increased 25 per cent, without any apparent effort. But Jeven at the present exorbitant rates, direct communication with Wellington will probably make that advance without- such assistance. The increase in the number of sheep on established farms, combined with the flocks now being raised in the Kiwitea, will put 25 per cent, on the item of wool, urain will be more than doubled, because a larger area of land has been put down in cereals this year owing to advances in prices. It is difficult to even coajeeture the value of the sheep and oattle. but for tho latter we know 2500 per annum are now sold at an average of about £3 10s a head. Pigs have a great future before them, and their export can be easily doubled. All the produce, such aa honey, butter, bacon, oheese, fruit, fungus, with hides and tallow, may be safely estimated to increase 25 per cent. The figures would then stand as follows : — Timber £20,000 Wool 7,800 Grain 1,400 Cattle . . . . 8,750 Fat Bheep 3,000 Pigs 320 General 8,000 £49,270 From the above it will ke Been that as soon ac the Wellington markets are i open, and easier moans ef communication with the outiido world are afforded by means of the WellingtonMana»atu railway, the settlers in our immediate neighborhood oan increase their collective productions by £20,---000 in the first year after that event. We have omitted to include several smaller industries which are capable of development into important factors in the general increase. For instance, the manufacture of bricks. The brick fields here have always turned out material of superior quality, notably from the excellence of the clay, of which there is an abundant supply for generations to come. The establishment of a manufactory for the production of potash by utilising the millions of tons of wood which will otherwise bo wasted, would return a golden harvest to the enterprise of those who grasped the opportunity now offered to them. Tho foregoing figures have a cheering effect during this tine of depression in other parts of the coleny, and augur well for the future of Feilding.