THE AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume II, Issue 11, 27 November 1856, Page 1

THE AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.

Of late years, New Zealand has derived no small amount of wealth from the exportation of her agricultural produce to the neighbouring markets of Australia. During the present year, that export has received a most disastrous check, and ihe consequence has been that money has become scarce, the coasting and the colonial trades have greatly diminished, and a very general depression has prevailed; It is our wish to investigate this question upon which the prosperity of both the natives and the colonists so immediately depends; and to see whether, by an improved and extended system of culture, New Zealand cannot become an abundant, producer of the principal necessaries of life, to her own great and immediate gain, and to the benefit of those neighbours who would be so ready to relieve her of her reduudant supplies. A great deal has been said of the prolific harvests that have been gathered in all parts of Australia during the past season; and from this, it has been left to be inferred that New Zealand could only part with what produce she had to spare at a ruinous sacrifice

to her farmers. As far as the mere article of potatoes is concerned this has unquestionably been the fact. At the best of times the commodity is a perishable one; and, in too many instances, cargoes were landed at the wharves at Melbourne in such a state of decay, that the very name of New Zealand potatoes was sufficient to scare intending purchasers. Noi was this the only objection to be urged against the commodity. Even those potatoes which bad been carried across in the best condition- speedily began to exhibit indications of inherent disease and decay, being sadly affected by tlw» warnt, awJ llierefore by no means a merchantable commodity. Under such circumstances, and with the prodigious quantities of Australian potatoes with which the markets were overstocked, it is Kltle to be w-ondered that New Zealand potatoes should during this, one of the most abundant of Austsalian seasons, have proved a serious loss to the shippers. If potatoes are, at any future time, to become a source of beneficia4 export, the culture must be greatly improved and the seed carefully examined," since none but of sound and healthy quality will meet with purchasers. But, if potatoes have been next to unsaleable, wheat and other grains h-ave not been so. True that the famine prices of former years were not to be obtained, or are likely again to be obtained ; still a steady market at a fair and moderate price has never been closed; and it is important to New Zealand grain growers to be assured that it is only by a fair and moderate market, -which they may be prepared to supply, that the productive capabilities or New Zealand can ever be fully or beneficially developed. Our farmers may feel perfectly satisfied that it is neither one two or three prolific harvests in Australia that witl shut out supplies of New Zealand grain. Such exclusion will depend efther upon the inability of New Zealand to furnish a sufficient supply, or upon the exaction of such prices by the New Zealand growers as will lead the Australian merchants to give a preference to the less costly cargoes of Chilian and California!! wheat. Already, this has become a demonstrable fact. With all the abundance of the Australian crops, wheat has not found iis way to the Sydney and Melbourne markets in anything like sufficient quantities; and the Mipply fro.m Chili being limited at the moment, a temporary advance in price has naturally ensued. Why 'should not New situated

within a few hundred miles of Australia, be preferred to Chili and California removed several thousands of miles? Simply because the Chilians and Califoruians can grow cheaply, and are content to sell cheaply, \vhilst the New Zeabnders, who can grow ■quite as cheaply, prefer to h»se the great and growing trade, and the oilier collateral ariNaniages which the influx of so many ships into their ports would yield them because they will not part with their produce except ai a rate which the Merchant can rarely afford to pay. This is a grave and a great niistnke of theirs; and they cannot 100 soon ■or too seriously consider a question of surii •vital importance to their best interests. If it be asked why Australia should be unable to supply her own wants; we may reply that she is subject to such severe and frequent droughts, that even in the richest •of her grain growing districts her crops are liable to be cut off in a single night; whilst, even in an abundant season such as the present, the want of iliat water communication so general throughout New Zealand, the distance from whence produce has to be conveyed, the length and badness of the roads, the expense of bringing it to market are all so many sources of expenditure as even at a fair price to leave the grower withput any remuneration. Ii is very true that in the tine and fertile lands of the Hunter, the Huwkesbury, and lliawara, the facilities of water carriage to a considerable extent are to be found ; but the drought and the siroco are there also to be found; and the husbandman (as we ourselves have been witness) who may go to bed rejoicing over a crop of wheat in full bloom and of the most luxuriant promise, may arise the next morn ing to behold it blighted and shrivelled beyond all possibility of recovery. In New South Wales, there is abundance or rich and fertile soil; but the best is in the distant interior, and the crop, when secured, is a costly article to convey to mrrket. The same remarks, in a modified degree may be applied to the colony of Victoria or Port Philip. With respect to South Australia, she has proved to be the best and most successful of all the Australian colonics not merely in the growth but in the quality ol her wheat. And she possesses the great advantage of having extensive, fertile, and readily cultivable plains around her prinip.tl Ciiy, Adelaide, many of the choicest farms being within seven miles of a port of shipment, and few

so remote as forty miles and those over level and easy passable rounds. Van Diemen's Land, which has been frequently styled the granary of Australia, is less subject lo drought than her neighbours. In places, the soil is exceedingly fertile; but there is a sad want of water carriage; the country is a very mountainous one and the roads, in consequence, are rugged and difficult. The finest lands are heavily timbered, and the soil is only rendered filfor the plough at a very large outlay of money. The island is but a small one, 7 its whole extent not being equal to that of the province of Auckland. And whilst almost all the lands of Auckland are convertible to the service of man, there is at least four fifths of Van Diemen's Land which never can be turned to account. There is but a belt that traverses the island which may be considered habitable. Towards the West Coast, mountain lowers above mountain; the intervening valleys being filled with marshes only fit for the summer pasturing of cattle, and abounding in beautiful but desolate lakes. Man cannot locate himself in such a country. Even in the choicest spots, where the soil is rich and good, the situation is so far above the level of the sea, that no crop can be brought to maturity. Hence the greatest part of Van Diemen's Land, which is really agricultural, has already been turned to the farmers account; but it is much 100 small, and the climate is much 100 uncertain ever to entitle the island to be regarded as the granary of Australasia. Very different is the case as respects New Zealand, and especially the northern portion ofNewZealand. Oneofthechiennducements for the people of England to come and cast their lot amongst the native inhabitants was the description given of the country and climate, especially by such colonists of New South Wates and Van Diemen's Land as had been attractsd to at, and were enabled to contrast its striking agricultural capabilities and its great and abounding natural facilities for the conveyance of produce lo a port or ports of shipment. These are the grand characteristics of New Zealand; and with judicious concert and cooperation between the native inhabitants and the European colonists New Zealand must speedily become a great and flourishing country. Her soil is equal, in her choice localities, to the best of any that Australia and Van Diemen's Land can produce; whilst, taken as a wholo, it far surpasses that of any, or all, of them. But it is climate upon which New Zealand

has to repose her trust. It is to the moisture of her skies,—never, as in Australia, charged with deluges which, from lime to lime, not »only sweep the land of its produce, but destroy human and animal life,—that New Zealand has to trust. She, almost invariably enjoys the former and the latter rain, equally diffused throughout the year. No siroco destroys the prospects of the husbandman in a single night. He that sows rarely fails to reap, and that abundantly. The great evil under which she struggles is from a want of labouring hands to convert the fern and the lee tree wastes into the wheat paddock, und the meadow field. In the Middle island, this want is not so much felt as in the Northern island, beeause in the one grass grows naturally, and there the settlers are coining money with their sheep and wool; whilst in the North, the settlers possess comparatively but little land, and that they have to clear of the tee tree and the fern at a great expense before either sheep, cattle, or horses can be made to increase and multiply in the numbers and with the benefit, that they speedily must. We have far exceeded the limits which we had proposed when we commenced this article, and we have still much to say which must be reserved for a future opportunity. Enough, however, we hope has been written to show that New Zealand, in Agricultural capabilities, far surpasses any of the colonies around her; and that if her native land owners and farmers will only act wisely and energetically tiny ran not fail to become individually wealthy, or to raise their country lo a point of the utmost prosperity.