MR. HALCOMBE ON NEW ZEALAND.

Manawatu Times, Volume IV, Issue 70, 11 September 1880, Page 4

MR. HALCOMBE ON NEW ZEALAND.

Our worthy fsllow colonist, lJi* Halcombs lias been addressing the. Rovnl Colonial .In" •titute. and paints the following roseate, picture of New Ztviland .•: — " In 1880 we may take the express i r.iin, an I are earriefl very easily to Dunedin, and m another day. to Ihvercargill, another 200 miles. You 'can go 600 mi les contin iio usly on th c : rail way and as Vwe go what do we find ?. Instead of a desolate plain, cornfields appear .as,,. far as the eye can roach, and at intervals bjetween the cpr'nflolda'lir^e English-grass poddocks, covered with Lincoln sheep and cattle taken from the finest herds m England. At every few miles risw townships are' rising ujp. •Everything' has a bright look ; everywhere •we see signs of prosperity and growth. <U •verylittle townshipyqusee.cliurchos, ehap^ ■ els, and public schools. Ton will also find, a« you go along, long trains carrying wheat and waolj.and other rich products of these plains', waiting 'to be ' shrnted oh ; and branch railways and: roads, bringing the ''-rich 'produce of the country from the sea on the one side and the hills on the .other; f- ' (Cheers ) I saw inyself,;when .liwas passing there last year, one paddock of 1000 acres. ? 'Ithad'bten m wheat. At the time I welht through they were taking the .wheat off, the land.- There^was a gang of some six reapers and : binders at wortjthere was aslo a steam threshing-machine m the corner of the field, which wds threshing what had been reaped a/ day or two before. There was also a large gansr of double and treble furrow--plougas following' as the corn "was takfen - off the; .field,, and turning! up; -the ground at the rate 'of -three acrei T a ; ,day. Folldwing'the ploughs were turnip*- powers, and followins i thfee/ the roUsrs completed the work. -All these, were wpr king the 1000---acre field at the same time. — (Cheers. ) jlf these railways had not been mads, it.would have : baeii impossible for tliese operations to; have been carried^ on. I also \tant [to point out the profits ■ with which the operalions have been carried on. I do not wish to be understood to say that anybody now could do the saniie,as the price of land h!as risen/ ih'cl t,hat' ha* to lie allb wed for ; but I know as a fact th^t an ordinary labourmg man, who happeneJ to have saved L4pO, took up L4OO. worth of land-rthat is, acres— in the wheat • and he assured me that, as the result of hi? own year's operations for paying for land 'and all expensas,, he had his land and improvements free jof cost, and 30s an acre m his r p6oket besides." Now- that has been repeated 1 over and over again on many"' thousands of acres, on the Plain; and 'the reason why New^Zealand! is so good a milch cow to those English investors who put their capital m these lqanj /companies, banks, and other money-lending societies is because yapple have made such profit as to beabietb'do 'well for themselVes, and pay as much as 10 per cent for the .capttiilJthey em nloy.:No money laid out j m England.could have done J hat." ;