AN EFFECTIVE REJOINDER.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2104, 20 November 1880, Page 3

AN EFFECTIVE REJOINDER.

The London correspondent of the_ “ Otago Daily Times” says that a very damaging letter 11 from a Dunedin correspondent” appeared in the “ North British Agriculturist” for September 22nd. This correspondent attacks Now Zealand emigration agents in general, and Judge Bathgate in particular, for having lied about New Zealand in the Old Country. According to him “ the warehouses in Dunedin are choked up with unsaleable bad-harveated grain. One agent, who was obliged to make room, sold some by auction, and oats were sold at from 8d per bushel of 401 b. ; wheat, at from Is per bushel of 601 b.; and barley, at from 9d per bushel of 501 b So that the farmers, though they had got the grain in a present in the sacks in these eases, would not have pocketed a_ profit. What good wheat is to be got is selling very readily, from the fact of such being scarce, up to 3s 9d per bushel. I have heard of very much higher returns from single fields in the Old Country than I have ever seen reported here And i believe that the

average prices realised this year will not be more than lOd oats, 2s for barley, and 2s 9d for wheat. I see Judge Bathgate says_ that New Zealand and its resources are not rightly apprehended in Britain. In this case I can quite endorse his remarks —thanks to New Zealand emigration agents, such as Judge Bathgate, and it is only on landing here that they apprehend how they have been duped. .... At tho present moment agriculture here is in almost as a depressed a state as with you, and with leas chance of reaction, seeing we are dependent on the Home market for an outlet for our surplus, tho expenses to which are very heavy.” To this letter a rejoinder appeared on the following week (September 29th), signed “ Samuel Grant,” one of the Lincolnshire delegates. Mr Grant say* :—“ I think lam as capable of judging the quality and quantity of a crop of corn as your Dunedin correspondent, and I unhesitatingly say that I saw some crops in Canterbury and Otago better than any I ever saw in England. When we were passing through Canterbury Plains the fields were beautifully white unto harvest, and they were being rapidly out and carted. On our return from Southland nearly every sheaf was gathered, and where your correspondent’s badly-harvested grain was to be found I cannot say. I believe many of the farmers did not give the corn sufficient time to harden in the stook, and the wheat was in some instances threshed too early, which would render it unfit for shipping to England ; but that was the fault, not of the colony, or of the climate, but of the farmers, who did not understand their work. I cannot but note the discrepancy of your correspondent’s reference in the former part of his letter to the high price of labor, and in the latter part to the starvation point to which the laborer is brought, as no work can be had at any price. His quotations of the price of grain are also incorrect. When I was in Canterbury, Mr Grigg, of Longbeach, had sold 50,000 bushels of wheat at 4j per bushel, and 20,000 of barley at 3s 7-id. A letter now lies before me from Mr J, Gould, in Christchurch, in which he states that they had averaged farty bushels of wheat and forty-five of barley per acre on their Ashburton estate, and bad sold the former at 4s and the latter at 3s fid per bushel. He further states that they have no reason to complain of this year’s crop, as it has left them a net profit £5 per acre—not so bad in these ruinous times on a farm of 10,000 acres. . . . We met with a great number of farmers whom we knew who had gone from this part, and also from Scotland. Almost all expressed themselves as thoroughly satisfied with their farms, and also with the colony. Many had grown rich in a few years, and had surrounded themselves with the comforts and luxuries of an English home. . . . There are abundant opportunities at the present time for any man of industry and perseverance to do well by obtaining a farm at very reasonable terms, and he can safely calculate upon a large percentage of profit on his outlay.”