AGRICULTURE.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 51, 24 January 1843, Page 2

AGRICULTURE.

To the Editor of the Auckland Chronicle. Sir, —Permit me, through the medium of your columns, to offer a few plain general remarks, penned from no sinister motive, and from personal experience —calculated to be useful for the information of intending emigrants—should they be copied into the journals of the mother country.—ln doing so, I beg to premise, I was accustomed to agriculture from my youth, and succeeded my father in an arable farm of nine hundred acres in Berwickshire, a county in the south of Scotland, where agricultural occupations are skilfully understood, and successfully pursued. Attracted by the dazzling accounts industriously circulated throughout Great Britain by shipowners and other interested individuals, respecting the vast resources and unexampled prosperity of the Australasian Colonies —I relinquished my farm, and arrived at Hobart Town in December 1839.—A gentleman, a member of the Legislative Council of Van Diemen’s Land, to whom I had a letter of introduction, induced me to proceed almost immediately to Port Phillip, and there acting according to his advice, I purchased a quantity of sheep —these, after holding about eighteen months, I found a ruinous speculation, and sold off. I went to Sydney, where, after remaining a few weeks, and making several incursions into the interior, I was thoroughly disappointed. New Holland throughout, so far as yet known, is only adapted for grazing purposes, and wool is the only considerable article it is capable of exporting; the fleeces do not average more than from 2$ to 2£lb weight, worth about Is. 2d. per lb in the shipping ports, whilst the management of sheep is so expensive, that it is impossible to undertake it with free labour—besides, no one can form any idea of the great annoyances who has not experienced them ; both life and property are at the mercy of runaway convicts and other desperadoes unfortunately too numerous. It is no unfrequent occurrence also for the Aborigines to spear the shepherds, and drive away whole flocks—and should a portion of them be recovered, they are so much injured as to be of no value. In August 1841 I came to New Zealand. From March to November a great quantity of rain falls, the remaining months are pleasant and agreeable—the face of the country generally is hilly and rugged, much cut lip with gullies, and there will ultimately be a considerable portion arable; it is principally covered with fern intermixed with shrubs and a species of lily, here called flax, all which a summer’s fallowing would eradicate ; or timber, much of it valuable, but difficult to be got out. There are considerable facilities of internal communications by water, —the north island is in several places nearly intersected by inlets of the sea, and rivers navigable for small craft, along which there are extensive flats of rich alluvial soil, formed from the decomposition of vegetable matter; these tracts in particular, and the country generally, i 3 capable of supporting a dense population. Cattle and horses, after being accustomed to browse upon the fern, shoots and foliage of the different shrubs, thrive amazingly—but there is considerable danger of their being at first poisoned by one. with dark green luxuriant leaves called tupake, which is very abundant. Owing to the very high rate of labour, until the recent arrival of two immigrant vessels from Greenock, there was no prospect of attempting cultivation with profit; but, in those small patches broken up around Auckland, European plants and seeds grow with a luxuriance and vigour I never saw surpassed—there is one small enclosure of clover and ryegrass, the soil of which is inferior to many other places, that has kept as much stock as three times the same quantity of average grass land on the banks of the Tweed is capable of doing. I am well aware it is no light matter to go out into the wilderness, where there are neither houses, fences', nor roads, but to the intending emigrant New Zealand is far superior to any portion of New Holland. In the former, the Aborigines, owing to the unwearied efforts of the Missionaries, are comparatively a civilized race, a large number of them can read and write, and though they do not at present persevere in labour like Europeans, they will become useful auxiliaries, and although an outrage is occasionally committed, it is nothing compared to the ravages of the native tribes of New Holland. I would advise no one in comfortable circumstances to'emigrate, unless possessed of very considerable capital, or with a Government appointment in his pocket—• but to the labouring poor, New Zealand holds out prospects of comfort they can neverattain at home, provided a due proportion of capitalists also arrive in the colony, who will afford them employment. New Zealand is quite in a state of infancy—Auckland is the seat of the local government, for which it is well] selected ; the Europeans there amount to about 2,000; 1 they consist of individuals in the pay of Government, immigrants lately arrived, on the look-out for eligible W locations, shopkeepers, and tradesmen ; the town consists, with three or four exceptions, of wooden houses, —there is no commerce except supplying food and clothing to the inhabitants. , .• t Tk*3 Government establishment consists l of b large numfier of individuals, hut the salaries are on a low scale, ah& the most valuable are enjoyed by gentlemen who obtained their appointment in England. Ido not think there will be any field for the merchant, until immigration sets ip with a more rapid current, and agriculture, unless for. those who have labour within their own families, will be a very expensive undertaking. I am now about to take my departure for tropical climes, and should I there escape those endemical' diseases which often prove fatal to Europeans—next to my < native country—l would with pleasure return to New | Zealand. ’ I remain, Sir, * Your obedient servant, j AGRICOLA. Auckland, Nov. 19, 1842.