HOME PRODUCTIONS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 731, 1 November 1869, Page 3

HOME PRODUCTIONS.

(Evening Post.) For many years past the stockowners of New Zealand have known that the time was rapidly approaching when it would be difficult to determine what was to be done with the superfluous meat. Sheep and cattle increased in a ratio utterly disproportionate to the demands of the local markets, and, although while wool maintained its price, and the country was not halfstocked, the evil day was staved off by retaining the wethers year after year to grow fleeces, till they attained the limits of old age; yet this could not last for ever. The various gold discoveries, and consequent influx uf population, gave the producers of beef and inutton a further extension, of.

lime; but even this.is now drawn to

the utmost limit, the supply exceeds ,the demand, and it i 8 imperative to find some niode of disposing of the. surplus. The old remedy of boiling down for tallow, invented in the stagnant days of Australia, is the first that presents itself, but it has always been found to be merely a makeshift, and is abandoned when anything better offers A much better mode of disposing of surplus stock is afforded by the new process of preserving meat, which has been adopted in Australia with such marked success. The article produced meets with a ready sale in England; in fact the supply is not equal to the fourth of the demand ; the price at which it is sold renders it a great boon to the poorer classes of the mother country, while at the same time leaving a fair profit to the companies which supply it. The Melbourne Meat Preserving Company is already a great success, though almost in its infancy. It turns out 15,000 tins weekly, and this number is shortly expected to increase to to 25,000, and the profits during the last half-year are over 10 per cent, on the capital employed. And what reason is there why we should not follow the example of our neighbors, and exert our energies towards developing such a profitable industry? None, except the sluggish inertness which is causing us to lag behind in the onward march of the Australasian Colonies. We have, as usual, talked about meat preserving, as we do about most tilings; one individual in Wanganui has gone the length of preparing some, though his operations can merely be regarded as experimental, but nothing has in reality been done towards giving the matter a practical inauguration. There are large sums of money lying in our Banks, the owners of which complain of wanting profitable investments —here is one fur them, which will benefit both themselves and the Colony -—and assist in restoring depreciated station property to something like its. former value. We are all in the habit of lamenting hard times, —the dulness of trade —the poverty of the Province—and so on, but we make more than half our troubles' ourselves, by the deplorable want of energy and public spirit which we display. There is far too much of the "old identity" feeling extant; those who have accumulated wealth in a quiet easy way cannot bear a change consonant with the changed circumstances of the Colony, and sit looking at their unproductive herds while money is gradually oozing out of the Province, and chauces of restor* ing its prosperity slipping through our fingers. Property has its duties as well as its privileges, and one of the greatest duties of its possessors is to use it in a manner conducive to the common weal. How can we expect to be otherwise than poor while we export nothing but money, and wool of fluctuating value ? We have to send elsewhere for every thing we want, and can give nothing in return. The very bread we eat at Wellington, is brought from Canterbury, while we have millions of acres of fertile laud lying waste; if a steamer wants her bottom cleaned, she must go to Duuedin or Sydney; the coal fleet that we employ is owned elsewhere, and freight and wages that might be spent in Wai« lington is sent to Australia; and so on with scores of other things. Truly " tho thorns we have reaped are of the tree we that plauted." It is absurd sitting dovm to wait for a slice of good fortune, such as a gold-field, falling into our mouths; if we really want to prosper we must, be up and doing, and shape our own destiny. We must inaugural and support with all our might productive industries —the sources of wealth import into our Commercial ariatrs me self-reliance we have so long dreamed and vapored about in politics.