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Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 6, 1 July 1855, Page 1

To increase the wealth and encourage the industry of the native people of New Zealand has been one of the guiding principles of this paper from the day of the publication of its first num ber up to the present hour. When this paper was first commenced, there was little of the trade in existence which has since been so successfully established. Instead of tho people of New Zealand being able to ship cargo after cargo of wheat, oats, barley, butter, flour, potatoes, cheese, maize, hams, bacon, salt fish, salt pork, and other valuable articles, oi agricultural and dairy produce, every one of these commodities were then being imported, and in such considerable quantities as to drain New Zealand of her money in payment, instead of, as now; enriching New Zealand by the gold which she derives in return for the fruits of the soil. When people were flocking away from New Zealand, first to the gold fields of California, and afterwards to those of Australia, we took occasion to assure the native farmers that a diligent use of the spade and the plough would be sure to bring the riches of these gold countries into their hands. We urged them then, as we urge them now, to prosecute the labours of the field with industry aud vigour, and they know best whether we gave them golden counsel or not. The increased production from the native canoe trade alone is sufficient to show how steadily the gains have increased ; the progressive receipts of three;years being about £4OOO the first year; £6OOO the second year; and £I2OOO the third year. But, much as the native people have accomplished in the pursuit of agricultural knowledge, and in the growth of agricultural produce, they are still but upon the threshold of that prosperity which, with common exertion, must await New Zealand. The soil and the climate of New Zealand are especially favourable to the success-

ful prosecution of rural industry. But rural industry, to be long and greatly successful, must be carr.ed out bv an oooiim-.-ii.-a! and iut'dligibh l system, and not be left dependent upon the un-> yeoman like production of inferior crops from lands badly ploughed, carelessly worked, planted without being manured; and prepared for the market without either Barn to thrash the grain, yards to stack the straw, or any of those necessaries of the farm yard, by which land is made rich instead of becoming impoverished bv continuous cultivation, and by which the real farmer is distinguishable from tho slovenly scratcher of the soil. It has long been asserted that New Zealand must, be the granary of the surrounding colonies. Of tno trutii of that assertion we feel firmly persuaded ; but, in tho meantime, it must greatly depend upon the exertions of the native people, whether they will be able to supply the large demands for produce that cannot fail, year bv \ear, to bo made upon them, and so to augment their own riches in a manner of which they can scarcely form an adequate conception. We must remind them, however, that it is notby immoderate prices, but by a rational and reasonable remuneration of their industry that they must hope to become rich. There is much fiiiG and fertile land in Australia ; and there are j seasons when the harvests there are immensely [ px-oductive. But the climate is not to be relied' on like that of New Zealand. In Winter and in Spring Australia is liable to be flooded ; and in Summer snd Autumn,when the crops require moisture, they are frequently lost from the and parching droughts. The prevailing absence of these two evils, floods in Winter and droughts m Summer, are great matters in favour of NTgw Zealand husbandry. But these are not all. The means, of water carriage, which have been so lavishly granted to New Zealand, are sadly defective in Australia, where long and expensive l;.nd carriage has to be incurred. Van Diemen's Land is less subject to drought than Australia; but by far the greater part of that island is mountainous, stony, and unproductive ; and although there are several portions of it exceed fertile, still there is a want of watpr carnage, whilst the roads are mountainous, bad. and rugged, and the conveyance of produce to market difficult and expensive. It is,—with Husbandry reduced to svstom by means of thenar greater certainty and larger return of crops in New Zealand, by the less expensive channels of water carriage, and bv the lesser cost of production that our farmers"mu-t hope to prosper. It must be by underselling Australian farmers in Australian markets, and by the oiganization of a complete and general sj stem of agricultural and dairy farm in- that the Isew Zealand people can become rich and prosperous—that wealthy men can be induced to

add their capital to ours, —and that commerce may be made to flow in upon us from every quarter of the globe. The exports of agricultural produce from Auckland, during the present season, have been very considerable ; but great as they have been, and still continue to be, they would have been, much more so had the supply been at all equal to the demand. Exports have been obliged to be regulated cautiously ; for, as the population! of the country is constantly on the increase, and as the ships in harbour have growr. from an oc-l casional ship or two to a small fleet of rarelv less than from ten to fifteen vessels, the demand of food for homo consumption necessarily prevents that large export which would otherwise tak< place. We earnestly hope that the New Zealand far-j mors are making increased exertions to meet; this increasing demand: and that they are direct-' ing their thoughts not merely to the sowingar-d reaping of crops, but to the following out of Farming as an art which has many branches, all of which brandies are not only intimately connected but of the utmost importance to each other, and are, moreover, so many source.of wealth to enrich the cultivator. In New Zealand, both amongst the natives and Europeans, the cultivators of the soil ar< many, but the class entitled to be considered farmers are very few. The meaning of the word farm, is a portion of land which is set apart foi cultivation, —not a field or paddock to be uncropped. On a farm, there requires to be a dwelling house for the farmer, ami habitations for his men. together with a variety j of buildings for carrying out the business of the- j farm. To the farm-house, a garden should be attached. There should also he a convenient, substantially enclosed, fariu yard in which to stack the crops of wheat, oats, hay, and (ther produce. And on one side of the yard a barn in which to thrash and thoroughly cleanse the grain either by means of a thrashing machine or Inheating it out on a well laid barn floor with flails, j In dry, convenient, well ventilated barns, th< j corn can remain with perfect security until ii !>*-j ready for shipment; and from the offal com j which should be carefully preserved, the work-' ing oxen or horses mnv derive much of their' food, in addition to that which be grown [or tiuir support, if ilie animals are to bo kq-t in a condition equal to the work required c-i them, and if the farm is to be cono.n-t* d in a manner so as to enable it to ivtuvn the amount of money to the proprietor Under a system of farming, the straw is as carefully pro.served as the corn ; and for this reason, that ii uut up and mixed with oats, barley, or maize, it makes excellent food for the working cattle, for y.homit also furnishes bedding, and subsequent! v is converted into manuro which is employed in

fertilising and strengthening the soil. With a good stock yard, plenty of strw and convenient feeding cribs, the farmer will not want for manure. With a sufficiency of manure the land may be turned to any account; but without manure no husbandry, even upon the richest soil, can long continue to be profitable. As an instance bow quickly fertile land is exhausted by successive cropping without the application of manure, we may mention a reputed fact, that this year a piece of land, which had been three years planted with potatoes, yielded but from 140 to 150 tons of poor diminutive roots, whilst the same land, three years since, returned about 800 tons of large and excellent potatoes. Around a barn there is always a large quantity of food, which would otherwise go to waste, with which to fatten pigs 'and poultry—aud as these an greatly in demand and high in price, it will well repay the native land owners to breed them and feed them in large numbers. Much has been written in the pages of the ' Maori Messenger' to induce the native people to set about thp establishing of dairy liusbaudry, without which no farm can be complete. The prices realised by the sale of butter, cheese, eggs, bacon, and salt pork ought surely to prove a sufficient inducement for them to prosecute a branch of industry from which such liberal returns are derived. New Zealand is as yet but beginning to enter upon that race of productive industry and commercial enterprize in which Australia and Tasmania have been for many years engaged. As New Zealand possesses an immense superiority in climate and soil; as she enjoys facilities of water communication not to be surpassed ; as her native people are shrewd, intel ligent, and enterprising; it behoves them to study and to profit by the events which the discovery of gold, and the constant and immense influx of population which gold is attracting to the surrounding colonics, are occasioning. It is with this view that we tell them they must cease to merely cultivate, —they must commence to farm their lands. To do this efficiently they must proceed by system ; and once they have entered upon that course, and discovered the great and manifold advantages to be derived from it, we can have no fear for the rapid in crease of individual prosperity, and the unshaken career of New Zealand's progress.

The New Zealand tribes are rich in the abundance of fine and fertile, but waste lands. Bur cf what benefit is that land until the hand of industry and tlie money of the capitalist are employed to reclaim it ? The tribes have yot to learn that one acre well farmed is worth a score of acres but half reclaimed. The very principle of farming is to make bad land good ; to restrain the operations within reasonable boundaries, rather than to distract and enfeeble them by ex-

tending them over a large and ill managed space. The one method is fanning—the other is but crop raising. The natives have expended a very large amount of money in building Flour Mills ; aud it is undoubtedly greatly to their credit that they have done so. But, it would also be "well if some of the wealthy among them were to direct their thoughts to tho establishing of farms upon the best system of European Husbandry. The money which it would cost to erect a mill, might be quite as beneficially expended in engaging the assistance of a practical farmer competent to instruct them in the best system of culture : of one or more capable of \ oi:;ti ig out the necessity and the method of manuring hind :—of the rotation of crops;—of layiug land in meadow ; or in fallow ; of draining and irrigating ; —of rearing and breeding cattle; —of managing sheep and fattening cattle ; —of the me uis of creating and conducting a farming establishment anil of rendering themselves not only opulent, l;uh ol surrounding themselves with all those comforts Gnjovmonts which havo long rendered the English Farmers amongst the most remarkable and enviable men in Europe. Let our native readers ponder these things. Their interests are ours. We desire to see them iu a position to load a dozen ships with their produce of next year, for one that they have been able to fill this year. The season to speed tinplough lias arrived. It is a most favourable season ; and tlio industrious will do well to profit by it : remembering that " by tho sweat of his brow man shall eat bread"; and that "The hand of the diligent maketh rich."