THE AGRICULTURAL AND OTHER PRODUCE OF THE COLONIES.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1589, 24 March 1879, Page 4

THE AGRICULTURAL AND OTHER PRODUCE OF THE COLONIES.

The first meeting of the winter session of the Royal Colonial Institute was held recently, when Mr Frederick Young road a paper on “ England and her Colonies at the Paris Exhibition.” In tho course of his remarks, he said that Canada was above all an agricultural country, end ahe showed at Paris a most interesting collection of cereals and other alimentary materials. Some of the fish exhibited were of remarkable size. When we consider that, in addition to her magnificent lakes and rivers, Canada possesses a coast line of some 3000 miles, it was not surprising that fish should be plentiful, and that the fishery trade should form such an important branch of tho industry of the dominion. Many people in England might be surprised to learn that those fisheries gave employment to 200,' 00 men. 1600 ships, and 17,000 smacks, maimed by 7000 sailors and 26,000 fishermen. The imoortanco of the fisheries was growing every year. In 1879 they were valued at £1,320,( 00, and in 1874 at €2,240,000. The show of agricultural implements in the Canadian court was most striking. Many handsome samples of the valuable timber grown in the favoured colony of Now South Wales were exhibited, together with an admirable collection of grain, fruits, and other agricultural produce. But her greatest glory had been in her wool. The hundred specimens in the Now South Wales court attracted immense attention ; and it was no wonder, for wo wore told that within ten years the number of sheep had increased tenfold. Last year they exceeded 24,500,000. Tho export of wool, live slock, bides, &c., together amounted at tho present time to more than £7,000,000 sterling per annum. The specimens of native woods, shrubs, plants, timber, and other trees, and vegetables, shown by Mr W. R. Guilfoyle, director of flic Botanical Gardens of Victoria, sirikingly exhibit her native vegetable productions. Wool was also well represented by an admirable collection ox tbe choicest specimens produced in the colony. There was a large collection of cereals, flour, and other agricultural produce. In Paris South Australia made a splendid show. With only about 237,000 inhabitants, she had 1,500,000 acres under cultivation and 6,000,000 sheep, and she exported nearly £5,000,000 sterling worth of produce annually. Her great staples were wheat and wine, and in the former she was ready to challenge the world. Her 641 b wheat exhibited was a splendid sample of that grain. At present she had more than 1,000,000 acres under wheat. The export of wheat and flour this year was 200,000 tons. Her wheat fetched the highest price in the world, and most of it came to the old home of Great Britain. Tho show of wool was very choice, principally merino, and there were some pure Angora goat skins fit for rugs of great beauty. Those were worth from £2 to £4 each, and were from animals bred in South Australia from Asia Minor stock. There was also an interesting collec tson of leather, rugs, mats, muffs, &c., made from the kangaroo, wallaby, and other native skins, as well as a great variety of silvermounted emeus’ eggs. Another of her most noticeable exhibits were specimens of the production of the silkworm. Western Australia exhibited cocoons ’and thrown silk, and her show of timber and ornamental woods was very extensive. The Straits Settlements exhibited sixty-seven specimens of the wood of Penang, and some birds skins of rare brilliancy. The native woods of Ceylon, in the shape of furniture, wore well represented, as well as her famous productions—rice, cinnamon, coffee, tobacco, &o. The Cape of Good Hope had a collection of silk, in cocoon and thrown, a series of specimens of timber and other woods from the Crown Forests, and samples of ostrich feathers, wool, and mohair from the Angora goat. A brief reference having been also made to the productions of the Transvaal, the West Indies, and India, Mr Young concluded by giving a tabular statement to show the great progress made in the trade of the colonies as compared with the foreign trade. After the president (the Duke of Manchester), Mr E, W. Blyden (Minister Plenipotentiary of Liberia), Sir Henry Barkley (late Governor of the Cape), Mr Arthur Hodgson (Queensland), and others, had discussed the subject, a vote of thanks to the reader of the paper was passed.