The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1881.

Kumara Times, Issue 1426, 28 April 1881, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1881.

The Royal Commission appointed to consider and report upon Local Industries, made certain important recommendations as to the granting of bonuses to enterprising individuals, under specified conditions. The Government appear to have been somewhat tardy in considering the proposals submitted to them, but have at last arrived at a definite conclusion as to the course they intend to pursue. We now find that it is proposed to offer bonuses for the colonial manufacture of a variety of products which have hitherto been exclusively imported into the colony. We find that £IOOO will be given for the production of 125 tons of sugar, manufactured in New Zealand, from beet grown in the colony. A similar bonus was offered by the Government many years ago, but without any good result. Next we find that £SOO will be given for the production, by steam machinery permanently established in New Zealand, of the first £IO,OOO gallons of oil from linseed grown in the colony. In addition to this, a bonus of £IOO will be given for the production of the first 50 tons of linseed oil-cake of good marketable quality. A bonus of £3OO will be given on the first 50 tons of starch, manufactured in the colony and shipped to an English market, provided that a satisfactory certificate be given by dealers or brokers in England that the starch is of good quality. In connection with this item it may be mentioned that a manufactory for potato starch, farinaceous food,

arrowroot, etc., is now started in Chi'istchuTch. Tbe bonus on silk, of 50 per cent, on the first £IOOO worth of cocoons of the silkworms' eggs, may offer inducements for the encouragement of sericulture, but it it is hardly probable that the natural fibre from which silk is woven will, for some time to come, be an important item of export from New Zealand. It is easy to understand why the trifliug bouus of £250 is offered for earthenware manufactured within the colony, on proof that it is of good marketable quality; but it is somewhat difficult to comprehend why a Government should offer indefinite encouragement to persons to establish a factory for the manufactory of blasting and sporting gunpowder. We take it that the proposals made apply equally to all persons, and, if so, au opportunity presents itself to the Maories which they will not be slow to take advantage of. In more than one place in the North Island, the Natives have attempted, under European guidance, to manufacture gunpowder, secretly, but now they can make it merely a business transaction, and not only make the powder for such purposes as they may think fit, but they may positively claim from the Government a substantial reward for doing what successive Governments have, in the interests of the colony, done their best to prevent. It is to be hoped that, the proposal for this industry, if carried out to a successful issue, will not endanger the peace of the colony.