New Zealand Colonist. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1842.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 44, 30 December 1842, Page 2

New Zealand Colonist. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1842.

After a spring of an unprecedentedly, stormy character, we may at length apparently congratulate ourselves and the Colony upon the commencement of settled weather. The past season has been, according to the report of the Natives, more unfavorable than any they remember to have experienced. But, after all, its effects upon the farming operations of the Settlers has been in no respect injurious. Nothing can exceed the luxuriance of the grain crops on the Hutt; and garden produce of every sort is equally abundant. The exhibition of the Horticultural Society, on Tuesday last, fully proved that the weather had done no injury to vegetation. As regards the health of the Settlement, also, we believe that there has been no sickness, except of the kind which is always to be expected in a community like ours; and that none has resulted from the inclemency of the weather. In the two main points, therefore, of production and health, we have found that the most unfavorable season brings with it no disadvantages. In one particular, the past season has not been without its use. It has shewn that, in the galley of the Hutt, at least near the mouth of river, certain crops, such, for instance, as potatoes, cannot be grown with certainty. The settlers who are established on this land, con- . sequently, will occupy themselves in raising grain, or in the growth of grass, for which latter pursuit this land is admirably adapted. In the present circumstances of the Colony, nothing could be grown with a greater prospect of profit, and we expect next year to see a considerable quantity of land laid down in grass. It is not easy at the present time to estimate the amount of corn that will be raised during the present season. We have heard its probable produce in flour estimated at from 30 to 100 tons. We should ourselves suppose that •it is likely to be about 60 tons. This is a considerable production for the second year of cultivation, and we anticipate that in the following season the amount will be trebled. Not merely will those who are at present settled upon their land increase their cultivations, but many persons are about going into the bush, and their numbers will be greatly augmented during the

course of the Summer. And this points to the main advantages of New Zealand as compared with all the other Southern Colonies of Great Britain—that it is a country where a poor man may obtain the means of immediate subsistence and ultimate independence, by the results'of his own labors employed in the cultivation of the soil. The wt)rk of clearing can be carried on by small degrees, proportioned to the means of the settler—and every acre which is cleared affords at once a return for the labor expended in preparing it for cultivation. The whole therefore of our laboring population, for whom there is not at present constant employment at high wages, may find the means of support in the bush; and by adopting this mode of life, they will advance the general prosperity at the same time that they secure their own independence.

At the present time many persons are .establishing themselves in the Karori district, •jqpon patches of land of from 5 to 20 acres, and the task of clearing is being vigorously prosecuted. Upon the Porirua line also new Settlers are being located; and nothing is wanted but a road up the Hutt to treble, probably, the number who are settled there as farmers. In the course of two years from this period we may reasonably expect to grow enough for our own support, and though this is less than our friends in England appear to have been led to expect, it is, we Relieve, more than has been the case in almost any other Colony. It is true, that we upon the spot see how much more advanced our condition might have been in this particular, if the Settlers had previously possessed the means of going upon .their land; but, if instead of comparing what has been done with what might have been done, we compare our actual progress in essentials with that of any other English Colony, we shall find great reason to congratulate ourselves upon our present position. And if our progress has been in some respects slow, it has, perhaps, on that account, been the more secure. Fewer mistakes have been made, and less capital has been wasted, than is frequently the case in circumstances where every thing is experimental, and where, too often, the right mode of action is only discovered by means of having at first fallen into the wrong. While we may anticipate from the increase of agriculture an early independence of. other countries for the chief necessaries of life, we see every reason to hope that the Native flax will speedily form our important article of export. We have heard that some of the merchants doubt the possibility of paying so large a price as 18/. per ton. Upon this point we confess that we have no very precise information. We know, however, that recently a quantity of New Zealand flax was sold in Sydney, for exportation to England, at £lB per ton, and that twelve months before this sale, £26 had been offered for the same article. Tlie difference between the price actually realized at auction, and that which had been previously offered, was, we are informed, attributable solely to the depressed state of affairs in New South Wales. We believe, also, that New Zealand flax, for exportation, has often realized in Sydney as large a price as £35, nearly double that which it is now proposed to offer. With such factsjjbefore us, we certainly see no reason to doubt that .large profits, may be onade to the merchants, by shipping flax at the proposed price.